CPO Mental Health - Quarterly Funding Allocations The next quarterly funding allocation for individual counselling will be sent out on 1st October. As you will be aware we are continuing to experience significant increased demand for primary mental health services, particularly for individual counselling packages of care which has unfortunately meant that we have had to cap individual counselling referrals in line with practices’ quarterly allocations as the service is presently at full capacity . Once practices have used their quarterly funding allocation, we are unable to receive further referrals other than for discretionary funding for patients that meet the following criteria: •
Youth 12 – 19 years
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High needs clients (Māori and Pacific Island)
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Women in pregnancy or postnatal
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Clients declined from DHB MHS as not meeting criteria.
Practices are advised to maintain a wait list as they would usually do until funding allows further referrals. PHO group programmes continue to be available as is the PHO Social Worker, and extended GP/nurse consultations remain uncapped. Please continue to make full use of these resources to support patients during this time. We are working hard to explore all avenues to provide options for practices moving forward. A full list of community counselling resources is attached for your information. For more information contact Primary Mental Health Coordinator: sylviad@wboppho.org.nz