Assessment of progress - implementation of Kua Tīmata Te Haerenga | The Journey Has Begun recommendations downloads

Te Hiringa Mahara – Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission has legal functions and powers, including the mandate to make recommendations. With any recommendations we make, we are committed to following up on progress towards and assessing achievement of them. This public accountability mechanism ensures transparency, acts as a lever for change, and allows people to see the impact from our recommendations. 

The first recommendations were made in the Kua Tīmata Te Haerenga | The Journey has Begun, monitoring report published in June 2024. These were directed towards Health New Zealand and the Government. 

These five recommendations had a focus on improving access to mental health and addiction (MHA) services. They were:

• Health NZ develops a mental health and addiction workforce plan to address service capacity and workforce shortages by June 2025 (inclusive of clinical, peer and cultural workforces, Māori and lived experience leadership, and across primary, community, and specialist services).
• Health NZ develops an action plan by June 2025 to meet the needs of Māori and whānau accessing specialist mental health and addiction services.
• Health NZ provides guidance for the delivery of effective acute community options tailored to meet the needs of rangatahi and youth by June 2025.
• Health NZ develops a mental health and addiction data plan by June 2025 that ensures information systems are integrated and enables collection of quality and timely data.
• Government commits to funding a planned programme of work to collect mental health and addiction prevalence data by June 2025, to enable improved services and ensure value for money.   

Each of the recommendations had a completion date of 30 June 2025.   

This report assesses the progress that has been made towards achievement of these five recommendations.  

This progress report illustrates that substantial progress has been made overall. Having a plan to support the workforce and address workforce shortages, improved prevalence information, and better data systems, will provide a solid foundation for enabling system changes that are most effective in improving access and addressing gaps in mental health and addiction services.    

There are still some areas that need further work, particularly ensuring that services meet the needs of population groups who are not always been well served by mental health and addiction services — Māori and young people.