Mental health charity’s clinical lead job title an ‘oversight’, Mike King says

Monday, 17 June 2024

The “clinical lead” for a mental health charity was not qualified for such a role, nor was it a suitable job title for the counselling work.

Founder of the charity, Mike King, says the “clinical lead” job title was an “oversight”.

The charity is in focus after Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey announced $24m funding for it.

The mental health charity founded by Mike King has changed the job title of its “clinical lead” because it was not suitable for the work, nor the person in the senior role.

The celebrity comedian whose mental health charity has been given millions in taxpayer funding said it was an “oversight”.

Carla King was the lead clinician for the I Am Hope charity, an organisation through which Gumboot Friday is run. She is not related to Mike King.

When questions about Carla King’s qualifications for a “clinical lead” role were raised with Gumboot Friday - considering it is a counselling service, and not clinical, Mike King said it was an “oversight and should be corrected to senior counselling supervisor”.

Carla King holds a postgraduate diploma in collaborative and narrative counselling and had been in the “clinical lead” role for a year and a half, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Mike King also pointed out she is also a certified mental health and addictions supervisor, and has a bachelor of arts in sociology and psychology.

“She has extensive experience and is more than capable of her role,” he said.

Carla King, in an emailed response, said she had almost 12 years of counselling experience including caring for and supporting high-risk and suicidal young people in vulnerable communities, and working with agencies including Oranga Tamariki.

“Counsellor” was not a protected title, which meant a person did not need to have a particular qualification or be registered to a particular body to call themselves one.

However, the New Zealand Association of Counsellors and Te Whatu Ora have an accreditation scheme, set up in 2022, so those with a bachelors or masters degree in counselling can work in the public health system.

King’s postgraduate diploma in counselling would not qualify for the accreditation. She said the accreditation was not compulsory for her to do her job.

“Our mental health system is in dire need of more qualified practitioners, working in public health and outside of it, as I have chosen to do, to cut down wait times, and make mental healthcare more accessible to every young person and their whānau when they need it,” she said.

It comes as the Ministry of Health works through the details of a $24 million contract with the charity, which provides free counselling sessions for children and young adults. It was the only new funding for mental health initiatives in the May Budget, and funding the charity was in the NZ First-National coalition agreement.

The Ministry of Health did not address questions about King’s qualifications, or whether it had concerns about the standard of care offered by the service.

The Ministry in 2021 raised concerns about Gumboot Friday’s processes, emails released to Business Desk under the official information act in 2022 reveal, ahead of awarding it a $600,000 one-off grant.

The grant funding did not go towards counselling, because - as Mike King said publicly at the time - counsellors delivering Gumboot Friday aren’t regulated under a specific act.

Labour attacks transparency of funding decision

Questions about why Gumboot Friday was chosen for funding have also surfaced again, in light of the funding boost. Labour’s mental health spokesperson Ingrid Leary has been prosecuting the issue and in the House asked minister Matt Doocey whether a “transparent process” was followed.

Mike King, in a press briefing where the funding was announced last month, said his charity would be the “most transparent organisation out there”.

Andrew Little, who was the health minister in 2021, said King had approached him for government funding.

Little said he discussed giving the charity funding with officials, and came up with the mental health innovation grant, which they invited King to apply for. They thought the money could help it improve its model, and bring it up to a clinical standard.

But once King got the $600,000 funding, Little said he refused to engage with officials or review his model. “I Am Hope refused to engage with the Ministry and used their funding to continue doing what they did,” he said.

“The reality from my point of view is that Mike King wanted government funding but didn’t think he should be accountable for it … I’m not sure what happened after that and I don’t know whether the Ministry is satisfied with the model I Am Hope operates now.

“It is clear his funding has been secured through a purely political process rather than one which ensures clinical safety for young people and accountability for public funding,” Little said.

King did not want to respond to Little's comments, but sent Stuff a 'fulfilment report' which the charity produced as part of its obligations in order to get the $600,000 funding through the mental health innovation fund in 2021. The report gave an overview of how the money was spent, and King pointed out every dollar had been accounted for.