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Published: January 2026

For any questions or feedback about Te Hiringa Mahara - Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, you can contact us at kiaora@mhwc.govt.nz . Our postal address is: Te Hiringa Mahara, DX Box SP22502, Wellington. For media queries, contact  media@mhwc.govt.nz  or call 021 613 723. For

Published: 29 May, 2025

years there has been a drop in the number of people accessing treatment and support. The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission is concerned that people may not be able to access support when they need it,” said Sonya Russell, Director Mental Health and Addiction System Leadership.   In 2023

Published: April 2026

over the past decade. The research is clear that supporting young people earlier, before distress escalates, can reduce the long-term impacts on their mental health, wellbeing, education, employment, and family outcomes. It also reduces the demand on the mental health system which is under pressure

Published: 15 March, 2023

lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic can help support the mental health and wellbeing of communities recovering from other crises, like Cyclone Gabrielle. The report shows the following: Help provided will need to target people who already experience disadvantage, including people and whānau

Published: January 2026

barriers to wellbeing have been identified by young people between 2018 and 2022 relating to uncertain futures, racism and discrimination, social media and online harms, and challenges to whānau wellbeing and intergenerational connections. While this report does not cover all the issues faced by

Published: 9 March, 2023

made accessing help difficult for some communities, digital technology also allowed online violence and abuse to be brought directly into people’s homes. While social media was useful to mitigate physical isolation and enhance social connectedness, experiences of digital harm and violence skyrocketed

Published: 25 February, 2026

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

Published: January 2026

, income adequacy, experience of discrimination, educational achievement, access to services and levels of psychological distress. We did this assessment to feed into policy and system responses to promote mental health and wellbeing for young people and rangatahi Māori in Aotearoa. The aim is to promote

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: 1 November, 2023

A big thank you to everyone who gave us feedback on their journey accessing mental health and addiction services. We received over 300 responses through the data collection that we ran in November. This is now closed. We wanted to hear from people seeking help with mental distress or addiction: If