I wrote a guest piece for Public Address about the funding cuts to Mental Health services in Christchurch… https://t.co/zH7mdoeZp3
— Kyle MacDonald (@kylemacd) February 16, 2016
All of this makes the ministry’s claim that there is no evidence of an increase in demand frankly absurd. What’s also deeply frustrating to those who work in this field is that we knew how this was going to play out in 2011.
International experience in natural disaster trauma predicts that we should expect that the initial community support and coming together is protective, and that anxiety, depression, substance abuse and PTSD impacts tend to be delayed, in many cases for years afterwards.
Of course, research aside, the situation is abundantly clear to the people of Canterbury who continue to be deeply affected by the events of the last five years, as are the children growing up under the effects of chronic stress and uncertainty, with exhausted parents and communities.