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Published: February 2026

Download Mental Health Bill submission pdf, 284 KB Since our formation Te Hiringa Mahara - Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission has contributed to policy development to ensure Aotearoa New Zealand has mental health law based on human rights and eliminates coercive practices or reduces them to the

Published: 17 June, 2020

The Mental Health Commissioner has today released a report , providing insights about mental health and addiction services. Chair of the Initial Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, Mr Hayden Wano, says that this report is timely and signals how Government can enhance the response to He Ara

Published: 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: May 2024

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Published: 20 May, 2022

We commend the Government’s Budget 2022 investment in specialist mental health and addiction, particularly the investment in community-based crisis services, specialist child and adolescent mental health and addiction services, and Kaupapa Māori services.  "We see this latest announcement as a

Published: 22 March, 2022

Te Huringa: Change and Transformation. Mental Health Service and Addiction Service Monitoring Report 2022 [PDF, 958 KB]  is being released today. The report monitors the performance of mental health services and addictions services between 2016 / 17 and 2020 / 21. “Despite significant

Published: 2 February, 2022

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission has presented at an oral hearing on its recent submission on the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill. Speaking after the hearing, the Chair of the Commission Hayden Wano welcomed the opportunity to present on changes currently proposed by the Bill, and

Published: 20 April, 2026

It is one year since the Mental Health Bill was returned to Parliament for its second reading, and Te Hiringa Mahara is calling on the Government to ensure this is passed into law this year. On 17 April 2025, the Health Select Committee handed the Bill back to Parliament to be finalised. Since then

Published: 4 July, 2024

The announcement of targets to address wait times and workforce pressures across the mental health and addiction system has been welcomed by Te Hiringa Mahara – Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission. “Access to appropriate services when and where they are needed is very important to people seeking

Published: 9 April, 2025

On 8 April the NZ Police and Health NZ made a joint announcement about Mental Health Response Changes.  With Phase One complete, the agencies Phase Two will now start from 14 April with both agencies agreeing to a staged implementation across districts. Te Hiringa Mahara has made this