133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
+64 4 496 2000
27 March 2019
Nigel Gray
By email:
[FYI request #9654 email]
Ref:
H201900990
Dear Nigel
Response to your request for official information
Thank you for your request for information under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) on
1 March 2019 for:
“Could you please inform me of the actual overall cost per patient and the
number of New Zealanders currently under treatment by the Mental Health
Compulsory Treatment and Assessment Act 1992, including both those in
institutions (hospitals and Mental Health facilities) and those under the Act
being held or supervised in community housing situations? Also could you
provide me with the overall (total) cost of this, including the salaries of
placement officials, healthcare professionals, social welfare workers associated
with caring for these individuals, psychologists, psychiatrists, court judges (for
each 6 monthly hearing required under the law and per the requirements of the
Act?”
The information you have requested is not held by or recorded by the Ministry of Health (the
Ministry), however, the Office of the Director of Mental Health annual reports may provide
some information in relation to your request. The report presents information on compulsory
assessments and/or treatments under the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and
Treatment) Act 1992, as well as statistics that serve as indicators of quality for mental health
services. You can find the reports publicly available from the Ministry’s website:
https://www.health.govt.nz/about-ministry/corporate-publications/mental-health-annual-
reports.
As the Ministry does not hold the information you have requested and has no grounds for
believing that the information is held by another department, I have decided to refuse your
request under section 18(g) of the Act.
Under section 28(3) of the Act you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review any
decisions made under this request.
Yours sincerely
Robyn Shearer
Deputy Director-General
Mental Health and Addiction
