Mental health breaches targeted 

A new website is being set up to name and shame mental health providers who breach the Health and Disability Code of Practice.

The site will list specific cases and identify mental health providers and staff who fall short of the code.

Psychwatch New Zealand founder Steve Taylor says he is become increasingly incensed at seeing mental health staff not being held accountable for what he considers negligent and incompetent practice.

He says this sometimes results in unnecessary and prevantable deaths of vulnerable people.

Taylor says the health and disability commissioner will only name an individual after three breaches of the code. He says this leaves too much room for damage to be done by a healthcare provider who can slip back into the anonymity of a "healthcare team".

Taylor says Psychwatch New Zealand is aimed at consumers and families fighting to either secure reasonable access to mental health services or for justice against what can seem "a system almost impregnable to meaningful accountability".

People are invited to submit their experiences to the website.

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