COVID-19 insights series Supporting wellbeing after a crisis

Te Hiringa Mahara has produced a series of short reports during 2022 and 2023 to add our collective understanding of the wellbeing impacts of the pandemic and to provide key insights on wellbeing areas or populations of focus.

Supporting wellbeing after a crisis 

In this report, we show that lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic can help support the mental health and wellbeing of communities recovering from other crises, like Cyclone Gabrielle.

The report shows the following:

• Help provided will need to target people who already experience disadvantage, including people and whānau with lived experience of distress or addiction, and priority populations
• Immediate support should be provided to community groups, especially marae, as these entities are integral to supporting wellbeing
• It is crucial to re-establish infrastructure that supports connection and communities, ensuring local social hubs, such as marae and libraries, are up and running, putting face-to-face support in place such as carer and social worker visits, opening schools, and ensuring the community services and volunteers that are reaching into communities are supported
• Supports, including access to mental health services, will be needed for some time, and should not have a real or implied time-limit on their provision.
• To help some of our most at-risk communities stay safe and secure during and beyond the recovery we call on the government to work with iwi and community organisations; to prioritise investment in re-building social infrastructure and digital connectivity; to build service capability and capacity with a focus on long-term primary and community options; and to keep watch on the most disadvantaged and impacted communities over the short, medium, and long term.

Watch a webinar on supporting wellbeing after a crisis on the Advocacy section of our website

Read other reports in the Covid-19 insights series