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Published: November 2025

Aotearoa New Zealand’s approach to mental health and wellbeing. Kia Manawanui was released in 2021 and it is timely for Te Hiringa Mahara - Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission to consider if the right foundations have been put in place to deliver the medium and long-term changes. The cross-government

Published: 3 April, 2025

  At the five- year mark, the Access and Choice Programme has proved to be a valuable addition to the mental health, addiction and wellbeing support services available to people throughout the country. Today Te Hiringa Mahara – the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission released a report that

Published: 16 February, 2024

Recommendations in the Meeting the mental health needs of young New Zealanders report released yesterday by the Auditor General show there is a long way to go to ensure every young person who needs support can access it.  “We’ve got to do everything we can to ensure rangatahi and young people

Published: 29 August, 2023

Ara Oranga? is progress happening fast enough (and how much further is there to go)? what areas need further focus or priority? Read and download the progress report: Downloads Mā Te Rongo Ake / Through Listening and Hearing Billingual pdf, 7.5 MB Download Easy Read - Summary of Mā Te Rongo Ake docx

Published: 27 June, 2023

More investment in kaupapa Māori mental health and addiction services is needed to ensure the support available meets the level of mental distress experienced by Māori. Despite funding increases over the past five years more needs to be done to achieve equitable funding. This is a

Published: 27 October, 2022

services. “As the Commission notes, the arrival of the Omicron variant has exposed long-standing, fundamental weaknesses in our health system. There is little capacity in the mental health system to cope with shocks, there are entrenched inequities in access to services and better outcomes experienced by

Published: 24 March, 2026

A think tank convened by Te Hiringa Mahara created space for ‘blue sky’ thinking about the future role primary and community care can play in supporting people with mental health and substance use needs. To share the outcome of the think tank workshop held in August 2025, we have published a short

Published: 15 December, 2025

working for people and their whānau. It was also the first time in over a decade that Australian based TheMHS Learning Network have run an event in Aotearoa New Zealand.   Bringing together over 200 people generated a lot of energy and discussion. The final session led by Ember Innovations

Published: 27 June, 2024

More evidence of the state of New Zealand youth mental health — Youth and rangatahi wellbeing and access to services assessment — has been released today and shows that while most youth and rangatahi are doing well, there is a steady decline in youth wellbeing in comparison to older age groups more

Published: 25 February, 2026

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