Jobless rise ‘will bring more ill health’

Press, 19 February 1986, Page 24

Jobless rise ‘will bring more ill health’

PA Wellington The forecast increases in unemployment this year will bring a rise in physical and mental health problems, says the director of the Mental Health Foundation, Dr Max Abbott. "Research in New Zealand and overseas strongly implicates unemployment in rises in physical and mental health problems, domestic violence, child abuse, other crimes against people and property including homicide and suicide,” he said. “As unemployment levels rise in 1986, we can expect, trailing behind, rises in all of these indices of stress and ill health.”

Dr Abbott said the Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, appeared to have assumed a fatalistic view of unemployment and was trying to blame the expected rise in unemployment on workers, implying they needed a “painful lesson” to bring them into line.

Those who received the highest wage and salary increases would not find themselves unemployed, he said. Public servants, police, doctors, Members of Parliament, senior executives and union officials would not be affected.

The unemployed would continue to be mainly school leavers, ethnic minorities, the disabled, people with little formal education or previous work experience, and those now on low to average incomes.

The Government’s decision to phase out work schemes was also of concern, Dr Abbott said. It had been agreed at the employment summit that phasing out schemes such as the project employment programme (P.E.P.) should be gradual and evaluated.

It was recommended that money should go to stimulate work trusts and innovative, job-intensive projects among the disadvantaged. It was also assumed a phase-out would accompany an expanded job market •

.; A . .1 • « "In the absence of these " factors, we would prob- •» ably be better off retain- “ ing Labour Department . support schemes/’ Dr Ab- * bott said. ’ * “However, if the pre- » dieted downturn in the , economy continues, Jens « of thousands of people ’ will be out of work, ir- ® respective of their skill " levels.” a