facing homelessness
The Salvation Army Invercargill says it doesn’t have enough space to help all the high-risk mental health patients who need homes.
A Southern mental health boss says there has been a gradual increase in mental health referrals throughout New Zealand; compounded by staffing shortages.
The Salvation Army Invercargill is seeing a massive spike in high risk mental health clients trying to access its services.
Community ministries manager Cathy Strong said the charity was having to turn away five people a week with high-risk mental health problems that needed help accessing housing, which the service was not equipped to deal with.
“We are seeing a significant spike in addiction and high-risk mental health issues ... They have quite high mental health issues, and we don’t have emergency housing any more to send them to ... It’s putting our staffing under a lot of pressure.”
Link to the article: Salvation Army says mental health clients facing homelessness | Stuff.co.nz
