He echoed concerns expressed by Otago District Health Board member Louise Rosson earlier this month about the lack of clarity in the board's planning and supported her calls to address needs already identified.
The board's community and public health advisory committee was told more data was needed on mental health services so the board could identify gaps and be sure its spending was in the right areas.
Mr Crowe said it seemed the matter had been "going around in circles for years" and it was time some "good practical common sense" came into play.
He was surprised some of the information which was being sought, such as the length of time patients stayed in residential community-based mental health services, the caseload each staff member carried and who referred clients to services, was not being gathered as a matter of course.
The committee was told that in the cash-strapped environment creating any new service would mean allocating funding from a fixed pool and the board needed to be making decisions on a sound footing, as any decisions would be contentious. (The board spends about 4% more than the national average on mental health services and has reached 88% of targets for mental health services.)
There has been ongoing concern among community providers over the board's failure to establish promised new services because of the board's concerns it could not guarantee future operational funding.
The Otago and Southland boards' planning and funding processes for mental health are the subject of a Ministry of Health review conducted by Deloitte which is due to be released soon.
Mr Crowe said it concerned him that more pressure might come on community services which would be asked to "do more and more for less and less".
Community agencies could not plan properly if they were not sure if they were going to be here next year.
If it was decided there would be restrictions on funding community services, would the services provided by the board itself also be scrutinised? he asked.
If community services were not adequately supported, the good work done by hospital services could be undone, he said.
• Mental Health Commission chairman Dr Peter McGeorge this week referred to the expected increase in mental health problems as a result of the recession. Central government and district health boards needed to recognise if existing resources for mental health were diverted to other areas of the health sector there would be "major strife".
