Woman's Refuge chief executive Ang Jury. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
The head of Women's Refuge says a much-needed funding boost by the government will help strengthen front-line staff dealing with people in need.
The government is allocating $540,000 towards Women's Refuge over two years from the mental health and addiction innovation fund. It will be matched by the Women's Refuge to make a total of $1,080,000 over a two-year period.
The money will got towards training their front-line staff to make sure they have all the skills they need around mental health issues and drug and alcohol addiction.
Chief executive Ang Jury said the funding to upskill the workforce is major.
"This is a project that we wouldn't have been able to look at without this funding, you know it's been something that's been sitting on the back burner thinking about what we could do. So yeah it would have been impossible without it," Jury said.
Jury said feedback from women using the services including wanting longer stay times and more support.
"We already have good relationships with clinical services around the country but what we find is that they're stretched of course and there are somethings that come through our service that I believe we could deal with perhaps equally as well ourselves, particularly at the minor end in supporting women and children," Jury said.
The mental health minister Matt Doocey said a funding boost for Women's Refuge will help give better support for those who need it.
"Sadly, there is 15,000 people using this service and through today, what we want to do today is ensure that those who are engaging with Women's Refuge are accessing timely mental health and addiction support and through this funding and the support through the 375 advocates they'll be able to do that," Doocey said.
In round one of the innovation fund the government have so far supported MATES in Construction, The Mental Health Foundation, YouthLine, Wellington City Mission, Rotorua Youth One Stop Shop and the Sir John Kirwan Foundation.
Doocey said he wants to see improvements to the mental health system.
"I think what people find in their time of need is a mental health system that's quite fragmented and it just takes too long to be seen. So part of my role as New Zealand's first mental health minister is ensuring that we have a more joined up system and we actually look to improve timely access to mental health and addiction support," Doocey said.
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