WellSouth - the South's GP organisation - says it is working to reduce the wait time to two weeks.
A spokeswoman said it would do this by making the service more ''patient focused''.
''The average wait time currently is six to eight weeks,'' she said, earlier this month.
Southern mental health and addiction network chairman John MacDonald said the service was ''overrun''.
''If somebody is in distress and they're told they have to wait six to eight weeks it is not acceptable.''
He believed the service should be redesigned to make it more flexible.
''The service that you get [now] is four to six counselling sessions, and not everybody needs that.
''That service has basically been regarded as a catch-all for everything minor in the system and it hasn't been funded to enable it to be that,'' Mr MacDonald said.
The network is a joint entity set up by the DHB and WellSouth to help drive change in mental health.
Meanwhile, the Southern District Health Board has responded to concern about wait times for children with mental health issues.
Figures released to the Green Party suggest 53% of under-12-year-olds waited more than three weeks for ''non-urgent'' mental health care at Southern DHB in 2016.
In 2015, 31% of children waited more than three weeks, and in 2014, the figure was 32%.
However, SDHB placed a caveat on the figures it released to the Green Party, saying they were ''incomplete'', because of problems with data entry.
SDHB mental health medical director Dr Brad Strong said in a statement to the Otago Daily Times the mental health service was ''under pressure'' because resources were not increasing to match demand.
''At this challenging time, we continue to listen and join with clients, families and other providers in our community to ensure we make the very best use of the resources we do have to meet the mental health needs of our district.''
He said wait times for youth had been improving this year, and the board was also working to fix the data entry problem.
''Overall, we are pleased that our youth services have had better success recruiting into available positions and we continue to monitor and try to provide the best care possible to this group of patients.
''However, it is true that most mental health services across the country are challenged by the increased need for services,'' Dr Strong said.
Dr Strong said he shared the concerns that emerged with the recent release of the People's Mental Health Review about access to services.
''Mental health resources remain relatively static in the face of substantially increased demand.
''We also feel that our system is under pressure,'' Dr Strong said.
