Young people are missing out on access to mental health services

Te Hiringa Mahara is calling for increased urgency to improve access to specialist mental health and addiction services for young people after new analysis shows a continued reduction in the number of young people accessing services.  

Despite 15-to-24 year-olds reporting increasing levels of high psychological distress, our findings show fewer were seen by specialist services in the most recent year, and wait times show little sign of improvement.

“We are not alone in sounding the alarm, yet we continue to see too many young people missing out on vital specialist mental health and addiction care when they need it,” said Karen Orsborn, Chief Executive.

“We’ve got to ensure young people know where to seek help and when they do, there is capacity and workforce available to respond in a way that works for them and their circumstances. This means help is available early, with a range of options and is responsive.

“We have been told by young people about the challenges they face gaining access to support.  Not being able to access services can have devastating consequences for them and their whānau. Ensuring support is available when it’s most needed can reduce the lifelong effects of mental health issues.

“The data we have gathered clearly shows that the system is less responsive to the high level of mental health need of Māori, Pacific and disabled people. Options need to be available that are tailored for these young people to enable better mental health and wellbeing outcomes.

“It's vitally important that we close this gap, and it is becoming more urgent. At a population level young people are reporting increasing levels of psychological distress. In our summary of NZ Health Survey 2024/2025 data, the trend of increasing high levels of psychological distress is not slowing down.

“We need to see focused action and sustained leadership to ensure young people receive the care and support they need in a timely way,” said Ms Orsborn.

The Commission has recommended that Health NZ take action to improve access to specialist mental health and addiction services for young people, including youth-specific crisis responses, streamlined pathways into care as well as an increased range of effective acute community options tailored for young people.

It is positive to see an overall increase in access to specialist mental health and addiction services and the new primary and community services in the 2024/2025 year.

“We are very pleased to see that over 6,000 more people accessed specialist mental health and addiction services, something that is largely due to an increase in the workforce. The Access and Choice programme saw close to 29,000 additional people, including young people, however it is still falling short of the aim of 325,000 per year,” Ms Orsborn said.

Editor’s note - summary of key findings

More people were able to access services overall

• 183,356 people used specialist services in 2024/2025, an increase of 6,072 (3.4% increase) compared with 2023/2024
• In 2024-25 236,300 people used Access and Choice programme services, up from 207,000 in 2023/2024 (a 14% increase)

Young people are the age group who experienced the largest decrease in access

• Over the last five years almost 5,000 fewer 19-25 year olds (a 20% decrease), and 2,800 fewer 0-18 year olds (a 6% decrease) accessed services.
• Between 2023/2024 and 2024/25, 390 fewer rangatahi and young people aged 19-24 used specialist services (a 2% decrease). Over the last five years the proportion of this population using services has decreased from 6.1% in 2020/21 to 4.9% in 2024/2025.
• 69.6 per cent of young people aged 0-18 years met the target of people accessing specialist services seen within three weeks (set at 80%)

NZ Health Survey 2024/2025 shows almost 23% of young people experienced high or very high levels of psychological distress in 2024/2025. 

• The number of 15-24 year olds who experienced high or very high levels of psychological distress in the past 4 weeks has increased from 7.7% in 2014/2015 to 22.9% in 2024/2025
• Young people (aged 15 to 24 years old), Pacific, Māori and disabled adults have the highest levels of psychological distress. 

Downloads

Access to mental health and addiction services data summary - February 2026

Mental health and substance data summary: Key findings from the NZ health Survey 2024/2025 - February 2026