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Published: 24 March, 2026

paper. The paper documents the discussion which answered two provocative questions: What does the primary care landscape need to look like? How do we get there? This discussion followed the release in April 2025 of our final monitoring report on the Access and Choice programme. During development of

Published: July 2025

joining our lived experience mailing list advocating together to bring about change sharing your views, experiences and hopes for the future when we are monitoring parts of the mental health, addiction and wellbeing system.

Published: 31 October, 2025

Today’s announcement of changes to the composition of the Board of Te Hiringa Mahara – Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission by Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey have been welcomed. “The new appointments and other board changes are the beginning of the next chapter for Te Hiringa Mahara

Published: 10 July, 2025

Te Hiringa Mahara hosted a webinar outlining findings from our 2025 Assessment of wellbeing for people who interact with mental health and addiction services .     Webinar - Achieving equitable wellbeing outcomes for tāngata whaiora: what we know, what needs to change recording. The

Published: 4 November, 2025

system either supports someone or fails them. It’s that important.”  “We need to build a system that supports people when and where they need it. The current system doesn’t always work well for Māori, young people or those living rurally in particular,” said Karen Orsborn, Chief Executive of Te

Published: April 2026

improvement in services or changes in wait times for specialist mental health services over the past five years. Wait times for young people to access specialist mental health services continue to be well below target and wait times for addiction services have increased over the past five years. Despite

Published: 16 June, 2022

, and crisis co-response teams involving paramedics, mental health clinicians, peers and police staff. Over the past 10 years, such services have demonstrated that they can support people safely, and that people's levels of distress decrease when they are aided by people with lived experience who

Published: 25 March, 2026

sustained leadership embedded to ensure lasting, meaningful change,” says Ms Russell. 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

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: February 2026

are limited options, pathways and resources – particularly for people experience crises related to substance use. We continue to see the impact of workforce shortages, and are concerned about challenges of coordination and consistency of care for tāngata whaiora. Changes we want to see In the report