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Massive investment to improve mental health

Bill English

Wellington, August 24, 2017

Almost every New Zealander has been affected either by mental health issues themselves, or when supporting family or friends.

In 2007, 96,000 people used specialist mental health and addiction services. In 2017 that number has increased to 168,000.

The Government aims to support these people, families and frontline staff as much as possible and wants to work with them and their communities to improve treatment and prevention.

Massive investment

In this year’s Budget, the Government built on the $1.4 billion-a-year investment in mental health and addiction services by investing a further $224 million over four years into mental health, and $100 million of this was set aside for new and innovative approaches.

Last week, alongside Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman, I announced we’re investing that $100 million dollars into 17 new initiatives for mental health services.

This package will enhance and expand support across five focus areas: children and young people in crisis, adults in crisis, people with mild to moderate mental health needs, housing support for those who need to avoid or respond to crisis, and support for children in order to respond to trauma or to prevent crisis.

Improved access

These initiatives will improve access to effective and responsive mental health services while at the same time starting to transform our approach to mental health, re-orientating our focus towards prevention, early intervention, and building resilience.

The funding will use researched solutions to focus on improving our primary health care services, greater access to e-therapy, more support through schools, assistance for particular housing needs, and assistance for the police in dealing with mental illness.

It also involves using evidence to realign and expand our services—in this case, across schools, prisons, primary health care—to meet a wide range of individual and family needs.

Government priority

Mental health is a social investment priority for this Government.

It’s one of our most challenging social issues and it affects a large number of New Zealanders with complex needs.

We want to help individuals and their families through the challenges they’re facing so they can lead healthier and more independent lives, and we are bringing together a range of services and new targeted approach to do so.

There is not one single solution that can meet all the needs in the area of mental health, and while there’s further work to be done to transform our approach to mental health, I am confident that that this range of measures represents a significant step forward and help ensure Kiwis live mentally and physically happier lives.

Bill English is Prime Minister of New Zealand.

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