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Published: January 2026

mental health and wellbeing outcomes for all people in Aotearoa New Zealand. Our 2025-29 strategy responded describes three key shifts; we will have a much clearer focus on people with lived experience of mental distress or addiction through our work. We will utilise knowledge and insights to

Published: February 2026

people’s rights, will and preferences, to make decisions about their care. Shifting to supported decision making The Bill does not go far enough to enable the shifts in practice we want to see lead to better outcomes for people. The Bill’s second half retains substituted decision-making roles and

Published: 8 August, 2025

Pacific adults. Synthesising the health survey data is part of Te Hiringa Mahara - Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission’s role to be thought leaders in the system for mental health and wellbeing. We primarily do this through our core monitoring products. We have recently expanded our suite of

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

Published: 27 July, 2021

being strong system oversight and an agency that really kept the pressure on the system and also governments to actually do better, and for the system to perform better. So we monitor mental health and addiction services and we also look at some of those wider factors such as housing, education, and

Published: January 2026

Monitoring of the mental health and addiction system is reported on in a number of reports.  Notable reports Mental health and addiction system performance monitoring report | 2025 downloads  (June 2025) Urupare Mōrearea: crisis response services monitoring report (November 2025) Access

Published: 20 May, 2025

Gains – Child Wellbeing at Risk in an Unpredictable World .  Recent findings from the new UNICEF report show worsening youth mental health in Aotearoa New Zealand. This is not new information but seeing how we measure up internationally clearly tells us that we are simply not doing enough. We

Published: 10 March, 2026

-based bans are too simplistic, impractical, easy to get around, hard to enforce, and can push young people to more dangerous corners of the internet. It also does not address the factors that are driving increasing distress. Instead, real solutions require that we go upstream to where the problem

Published: 30 November, 2022

Hayden Wano. “These reports provide us with an opportunity to see where progress is being made, not only in access to services but also in having the opportunity to have genuine service choice. There are more services and capacity in previously under-supported areas, growth in Kaupapa Māori services

Published: 25 August, 2022

Wellbeing Commission, as kaitiaki (guardian) of mental health and wellbeing, monitors the wellbeing outcomes of young people with experience of care now and will do so in the future. It will continue to advocate for their right to be heard and to influence decisions made about them, Board Chair Hayden