Whakapaingia te toiora o te rangatahi me te taiohi Improve wellbeing for rangatahi and young people
The mental health and wellbeing of rangatahi Māori and young people is one of the most important issues we can focus on today. More needs to be done to support rangatahi Māori and young peoples’ mental health and wellbeing.
What are we advocating for?
- Rangatahi Māori and young people must have a seat at decision-making tables.
- Expand access to youth mental health and addiction services in all localities.
- Eliminate admissions of rangatahi Māori and young people to adult in-patient mental health services.
- Invest in youth specific acute options for rangatahi Māori and young people across all districts, including Kaupapa Māori services, residential alternatives to hospital based inpatient mental health care and short-term respite care.
Why is this important?
Rates of distress for rangatahi Māori and young people have increased over the last ten years, and more needs to be done to address this. We are particularly concerned that:
- Rangatahi Māori and young people experience the highest rates of mental distress of any age group – and report the highest rate of unmet need for health services and barriers to access services.
- Young people continue to experience longer wait times than other age groups to access specialist mental health and addiction services.
- Rangatahi Māori and young people fare worse than adults on several determinants of wellbeing, such as adequate income and loneliness.
We are seeing improvements
- After increasing for four years, young people are receiving fewer mental health medications.
- Our last year of reporting shows a decrease of young people being admitted to adult in-patient mental health services.
- There are increasing options for youth mental health services, such as telehealth, services provided through the Access and Choice programme and school-based services.
- There is growing support for, and progress towards tino rangatiratanga for rangatahi Māori, such as an increase in students enrolled in kura kaupapa, growing support for te reo Māori and strong connections to te ao Māori.