Newell House (opened in 1995) is a small five bed unit that cares for mentally ill women and children. However due to shortage of funds, the Trustees from Oxford Terrace Baptist Church have announced that the unit may close down permanently by the end of May this year.
At present the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) provides nearly two thirds of the NZ$220,000 budget of the institution. According to the trustees the top up funding is becoming more and more difficult to meet and an internal audit has found that that unit is not able to provide the care it had initially intended. House manager Romana Forrester revealed that Christchuch City Council had also cut down the trust’s funding making it more difficult to make ends meet.
The initial intention of the unit was to be a halfway house. According to Newell House Trust chairman Mike Crudge, it has become a professional mental health service provider and thus the church can no longer remain connected with it. He said, “People having anything to do with the house need to be professionals in the mental health field and most people in our church are not trained in that area.”
However DHB planning and funding manager Carolyn Gullery expressed her surprise and disappointment saying that the service has been used to a large extent and problems with funding have not been raised earlier. She revealed that the CDHB had a three year contract with Newell House and funding problems had not been revealed earlier. She is confident that the unit will be suitably replaced at least before the closure on 28th of May.
– –
By Dr Ananya Mandal
New Zealand