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James Foulds: Psychological Medicine professor says 10% of funded positions in mental health sector are vacant

Published: May 25, 2023, 7:57 p.m.

Employing only clinicians with a tertiary level degree,\xa0 is a luxury our mental health system can no longer afford.

That's the argument being made by three industry experts in an editorial in the latest New Zealand Medical Journal.

Otago University Department of Psychological Medicine's Associate Professor James Foulds says 10 percent of funded positions in the sector are vacant.

He says they're proposing an apprenticeship model - bringing people with the right attributes into the workforce and giving them on the paid job training.

Foulds says they'd initially slot into roles such as healthcare assistants.

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