The Implementation Plan follows on from the National Mental Health Information Strategy. It outlines progress made towards the goals of the Mental Health Information Strategy and identifies priorities for future action.
The focus of the Strategy and the Implementation Plan is on creating an environment where clinicians and service users can readily access information to support recovery, and where planners and funders can use reliable information to support their decision making, improve services and demonstrate the value and effectiveness of their investments in mental health and addiction services.
There are nine priority areas.
- Shift the focus from information collection to information use.
- Minimise the cost of collecting information.Increase opportunities for consumer input.
- Extend the coverage of mental health data to primary health care.
- Support Māori goals for whānau ora.
- Support information sharing among providers.
- Use information as a quality improvement tool.
- Use information for research and development.
- Fill data gaps and improve data quality.
The Implementation Plan is aligned to the broader range of initiatives outlined in the Health Information Strategy for New Zealand and with the strategic goals of Te Tāhuhu - Improving Mental Health 2005–2015.
Purpose
The aim of the National Mental Health Information Strategy is to improve the collection and use of the two types of mental health information.
- Information collected to support the delivery of care to individual consumers (commonly collected by patient management information systems).
- Information collected to support the management of mentalhealth service systems (eg, for funding, planning, monitoring and policy development).