Six-hundred psychologists employed by district health boards have begun a four-week partial strike today over a decline in their numbers and what they say is low pay.
From this morning, psychologists employed by 16 DHBs and members of APEX, the union for health professionals, stopped accepting allocations of new patients onto their caseload and stopped participating in group work with patients.
The action affects services from Northland to Southern DHBs, including child and adolescent mental health services, adult mental health services, forensic mental health services and physical health services.
APEX national secretary Dr Deborah Powell says the psychologist workforce is in a state of crisis with turnover up and the numbers of psychologists employed by DHBs continuing to decline.
Information released to APEX under the Official Information Act shows the number of psychologists employed by Counties Manukau DHB dropped from 52.94 full time equivalents to 43.64 in the year to August.
In the last two years, 45 psychologists resigned from Counties Manukau DHB, equating to 67 per cent of the psychologist workforce at the DHB leaving in two years.
“At the same time as the Prime Minister talks about addressing the mental health crisis, our psychologist workforce is being eroded by a failure by DHBs to address long-standing workforce issues," Dr Powell said.
"Patients are inevitably suffering from the refusal of the Government to act decisively to fix low pay and poor conditions for psychologists,” she said.
The strike will continue until October 1.
SHARE ME