More patients are accessing timely primary or specialist mental health and addiction services, the latest quarterly data for the government’s mental health targets shows.
Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
The latest quarterly data for the government’s mental health targets shows improvements in patients accessing timely primary or specialist mental health and addiction services, but the minister acknowledges there are discrepancies across regions and more work needs to be done.
The Labour party says the targets don’t paint a full picture, while CEO of the Mental Health Foundation Shaun Robinson credits the minister, but people shouldn’t think everything’s “solved” now, “because it sure as hell isn’t”.
While progress is being made, a Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission from June this year points to a system that’s under “immense pressure”, and unmet need for mental health and addicion services has increased – especially for Māori, Pasifika, disabled people and young people.
The targets
Faster access to specialist mental health and addiction services – 80 percent of people accessing specialist Mental Health and Addiction (MH&A) services seen within three weeks of referral by 2023
Faster access to primary mental health and addiction services – 80 percent of people accessing primary MH&A services through the Access and Choice programme within one week by 2023
Shorter mental health and addiction-related stays in emergency departments – 95 percent of mental health related ED attendances admitted, discharged or transferred from an ED within six hours as a proportion of all mental health related attendances by 2030
Increased mental health and addiction workforce development – 500 more trained yearly by 2030
Strengthened focus on prevention and early intervention – 25 percent of mental health and addiction ringfenced investment allocated to prevention and early intervention by 2030
Quarter 4 data for the 2024-25 year showed improvement in faster access and shorter stays compared to last quarter.
Faster access to specialist mental health and addiction services was at 80.3 percent and faster access to primary mental health and addiction services was at 83.8 percent – both meeting the 2030 target. Shorter ED stays was up from last quarter at 69.4 percent, but still well short of its 2030 target.
Drilling into these numbers though showed a stark contrast in terms of faster access when it came to different health districts.
Northland and the West Coast were both below 60 percent in terms of people being seen within three weeks of referral – well short of the 80 percent target. For shorter stays in ED, South Canterbury was at 96.3 percent while Capital and Coast was only at 37.2 percent.
In terms of training 500 more people a year to boost up the mental health and addiction workforce – for the first semester, there were only 349. Ringfenced funding was at 24.4 percent, just shy of the 2030 target.
First ever Minister for Mental Health
Minister Matt Doocey told RNZ having a new job title didn’t make a difference “on the ground”.
“It’s the difference we make by having this role where a minister is able to focus and drive real performance increase.”
Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey.
Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham
Doocey wasn’t satisfied looking only at the national average, and work needed to be done to lift the performance of the health districts that weren’t meeting the national average.
“We do have an issue in New Zealand where people feel like they can’t get the support they need in a timely fashion.
“So having access targets allows us to set what the expectation is across the country around how timely their support is needed, but also helps more people to be seen.”
When you drilled into the data, he said, “there’s real variability across the country”.
That was also the case for rural vs urban experiences of accessing services, and variability within population groups, whether it was Māori, Pasifika, Asian or young people.
His expectation was for funding to flow into areas of low performance to help turn it around.
“Then we have a position where, no matter where you live, everyone will have faster access to mental health and addiction support.”
Labour’s spokesperson for mental health, Ingrid Leary, wasn’t impressed, saying the sector was telling her things had actually gotten worse for people trying to access timely and affordable mental health services under this government.
Leary said the minister seemed to be “out of touch” with the reality.
“He talks a big game about targets. Those numbers belie the fact that referrals to specialist services simply aren’t being made in many cases because the services are no longer there.”
Leary said the workforce was burned out.
“They’ve had pay equity cuts. There’s been frontline mental health funding cuts to grassroots organisations. People have been locked out of funding due to the Gumboot Friday funding debacle, or they can’t afford a co-fund with the Mental Health Innovation Fund.”
She said all those factors made it incredibly difficult for small community services to “thrive and survive”, and therefore for “young people to be able to access services in the community”.
Labour’s spokesperson for mental health, Ingrid Leary.
Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Leary said the targets “don’t paint the full picture”.
“That’s why the government’s so wedded to them.
“They know that it skews the picture and makes things look prettier when everyone working at the front line or those wanting to access mental health services, have found that actually things have got worse under this government.”
Doocey said it was important to note people did not need a referral to get the help they needed.
CEO of the Mental Health Foundation, Shaun Robinson acknowledged Doocey’s efforts, saying he was “passionate about making a difference”.
“What I would say is that he hasn’t been given a lot of resource or ability to to really push things forward.”
Robinson also pointed to a “push me pull you” effect when Doocey’s efforts were compared to what “the wider coalition government is doing and the negative impacts that many of its actions are having on mental health”.
He pointed to Doocey’s efforts to update the strategy on mental health and having an action plan, which many in the sector had been calling for since 2019.
“Unfortunately, another part of the coalition government has introduced a different piece of legislation called the Pae Oranga Amendment Act.”
Robinson said this undid some of the Treaty Principles within different health strategies, and also “specifically removes the obligation to take mental health at the same level of priority as physical health”.
“You’ve got one hand trying to do really good things, and the other hand seemingly pulling things in the absolute opposite direction.”
He also pointed to the government trying to “undermine” Treaty Principles.
“We have to accept that this has a direct impact on the mental health and well being of Māori.
“It’s very, very clear that identification, pride and in being really grounded in being Māori is a hugely important factor for Māori mental health. And so attacks on this, fundamentally, is driving things backwards.”
CEO of the Mental Health Foundation, Shaun Robinson.
Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly
Similarly, he said, attempts to “wind back rights and approaches celebrating the rainbow community”.
Rainbow young people had some of the highest issues with poor mental health, Robinson said, and Doocey was doing his best “but he can’t control all of that”.
In response, Doocey said as Minister for Mental Health he was supportive of improving mental health and addiction outcomes for every single New Zealander, including Māori and the rainbow community.
Robinson acknowledged the progress Doocey but said “we can’t expect that he can solve it in a year”.
“We can’t expect that any government or any minister can solve the situation that has developed over decades and which has been accelerating as the world faces and New Zealand faces increasingly complex problems. We can’t expect that that can be solved quickly.”
But he also said the country could not accept that nearly 25 percent of young people experience “significant mental distress”.
“That is a recipe for disaster for them right now and for the country going forward.”
He referenced the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission’s monitoring report from June this year that said the system was under “immense pressure”.
“Collectively, the system performance data we have examined paints a picture of a mental health and addiction system under immense pressure.”
Unmet need for mental health and addiction services has increased with Māori, Pacific peoples, young people, and disabled people experiencing much higher unmet need.
Wait times for telehealth services have increased markedly over the last six years.
More than one third of people presenting to emergency departments with mental health and addiction needs wait longer than six hours for admission, discharge or transfer.
Workforce shortages continue and vacancy rates for roles in mental health and addiction services increased between 2018 and 2024.
“We’re just not making a dent in these inequities,” said Robinson.
What was needed, he said, was more focused resourcing to ensure there were staff in youth-oriented services, and Māori and Pasifika led services
He also said the politics needed to be taken out of mental health.
“Everybody needs to have the same agenda and to work to it, whoever is holding the reins of power in any particular political term.”
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