Quarter four mental health and addiction target results released today include youth access data for the first time, while nationally more people are getting faster access to support, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says.
“The Government committed to publicly reporting youth mental health data because we agree there needs to be greater transparency around youth mental health,” Mr Doocey says.
“For the first time, today’s results give New Zealanders a public picture of how young people are tracking against the Government’s three access targets.
“These results show 77.5 per cent of young people accessed primary mental health support within one week and 78.7 per cent accessed specialist mental health support within three weeks.
“Nearly half of the districts met or exceeded the 80 per cent target for faster primary mental health and addiction services.
“74.2 per cent of young people were admitted, transferred or discharged from an emergency department within six hours.
“We know there is more work to do to make sure young people can get faster access to support. The youth roadmap that is being developed with young people, will be a real game changer. This will ensure that support is designed around their needs and what works best for them.
“Nationally, the results show we are meeting four out of the five targets, with over 83 per cent of people accessing primary mental health and addiction support within one week, while more than 82 per cent are accessing specialist services within three weeks. Both remain above the Government’s 80 per cent targets.
“Reassuringly, whilst the number of people accessing mental health and addiction support has continued to increase, we are also still improving how quickly people are being seen.
“In quarter four, more than 64,000 people accessed primary mental health and addiction support, the highest quarterly result so far. Despite this, 83.3 per cent of people have continued to get faster access to support.
“We have also seen more people presenting to emergency departments seeking mental health support, with more than 6,400 presentations recorded in quarter four, up from 5,679 when we first started reporting the data. Despite this increase, 70.8 per cent were admitted, transferred or discharged within six hours, up from 68.5 per cent last quarter.
“This shows we are continuing to improve access and reduce waiting times while more people are coming through the system and getting the support they need.
“The youth data will give us an important measure of whether we are improving access for young people. Alongside the national results which covers all ages, they show we are continuing to move in the right direction.
“We will keep driving improvements so more New Zealanders, including young people, have faster access to support, more frontline workers and a better crisis response.”
Notes to editor:
The full results can be found here