The accident compensation system should be overhauled so it covers illness, an international report in to New Zealand's mental health system says.
The OECD report in to Mental Health And Work in New Zealand was released today.
Commissioned at New Zealand's request in 2016, the 170 page report examined how mental illness affects the country's wellbeing.
As well as reforming ACC, other major recommendations included instituting a national mental health strategy, and asking Work and Income to identify clients with mental health issues early and be proactive in ensuring they receive treatment.
The report authors said reforms in the past 10 years had improved the situation, but the mental system remained "complex and fragmented''.
That conclusion echoed the findings of the Government Inquiry Into Mental Health and Addiction, which was released last week - the two review teams met in July and they shared embargoed copies of their work.
The OECD report started from the premise that working was good for people's mental health, and that workplace and employment policies should be developed from that position.
"Poor mental health costs the New Zealand economy some 4-5% of GDP every year through lost labour productivity, increased health care expenditure and social spending on people temporarily or permanently out of work,'' the report said.
"It is also costly in terms of individual wellbeing as, at any given moment, one in five New Zealanders have a mental health condition.''
New Zealand had a high awareness of those issues and hence was in a good place to address them, the report said.
However, it criticised a "strict and adverse distinction'' in the ACC system between injuries - which were covered - and illnesses, which were not, "with mental health problems virtually always falling into the latter group.''
"The inequitable divide between injury and illness has created a two-tier health system where integrated health services and vocational rehabilitation support is prioritised for injury through ACC, and not for illness,'' the OECD said.
"This is particularly significant for people with mental health conditions.''
The distinction also lead to lower rates of people accessing mental health services, the report said.
Employment guidance and access to employment support should be a routine part of health services, with getting and/or staying in work being one of the tools used to management of mental illness, the report said.
The OECD report also echoed the call by the Mental Health Inquiry to expand treatment of less serious but more common mental health conditions.
