The Wellbeing Commission’s latest report shows measurable gains in New Zealand’s mental health system – but the picture looks very different depending on who and where you are, writes Henry Oliver in today’s excerpt from The Bulletin.

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A new report from Te Hiringa Mahara – Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission has found improvements in parts of New Zealand’s mental health system, but warns those gains have not reached Māori, Pasifika, or young people. The NZ Herald’s Julia Gabel reports this morning that the commission found access to primary and community mental health services had improved, with the government surpassing its target of seeing 80% of primary care patients within a week. Workforce vacancy rates have also fallen, from 11% in 2022 to 8% in 2025, and the number of people entering mental health and addiction training rose from under 400 in 2023 to 514 in 2025.

But overall access to specialist services remains below pre-Covid levels, the commission’s chief executive Karen Orsborn told RNZ’s Kate Green, and young people who do not live near one of the country’s three dedicated youth facilities are still being admitted to adult wards not well-suited to their needs. Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey told the Herald the report showed New Zealand was “turning a corner”, but acknowledged more work was needed for young people.

Sorry young, Māori, Pasifika and disabled people

According to the report, nearly a quarter of young people reported high or very high levels of psychological distress in the month before the survey, with distress rates significantly elevated among Māori (22.5%), Pasifika (24%), and disabled people (35.5%). Psychological distress across the general population has more than doubled over the past decade, now affecting around 609,000 people.

The report found that young people aged 15–24 had the highest rate of intentional self-harm hospitalisations – nearly three times the overall average, at 370 per 100,000 – and that investment in kaupapa Māori services had not kept pace with other mental health funding, with unmet need among Māori rising from 10% to 16% over two years while general rates remained flat. The commission warned that if these disparities were not addressed urgently, mental distress among these groups would continue to grow.

The seclusion problem

The report flagged ongoing concerns about the use of seclusion – isolating people in distress in rooms they cannot leave. Māori in adult inpatient settings are subjected to seclusion 6.6 times more often than non-Māori, a disparity the commission described as “an ongoing trend” that was moving away from a rights-based approach. In 2024/25, 755 people were placed in seclusion, the NZ Herald reported – a practice the Ministry of Health’s own guidelines acknowledged was “not therapeutic and may be harmful”.

The commission called on Health NZ to publish a national plan to eliminate seclusion by 2027. The government’s new Mental Health Bill, currently before Parliament, would require the person in charge of a service to report annually on steps taken to eliminate seclusion, and would prohibit the practice entirely for people under 18. “Eliminating seclusion is an issue I have been closely looking at since coming into office and one I care strongly about addressing,” Doocey told the Herald. “In the meantime, I have been very clear that seclusion should be used only as a last resort.”

Funding questions

Yesterday on RNZ, The Detail reported that psychiatrists have raised doubts about whether the government’s $100m budget commitment for mental health will address the sector’s real needs. Dr Hiran Thabrew, chair of Tū Te Akaaka Roa – the New Zealand office of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists – told RNZ the funding had been made without a comprehensive system plan or up-to-date data. The last adult mental health prevalence study was conducted more than 20 years ago, and without that foundation, “we’ll just end up paying more for less effective care.”

The College described the budget spending as piecemeal and reactive, with decisions appearing to be driven by lobbying rather than transparent, planned, and equitable planning. Thabrew was particularly sceptical about the $52m allocated for 20 new inpatient beds, noting that without sufficient workforce to staff them, the money risked going unspent. On the $20m for maternal mental health peer support, he welcomed the intent but warned it wouldn’t be sufficient for women with serious or complex needs, who require specialist clinicians rather than peer workers. He said the sector needed to “move beyond these short-term or piecemeal kind of measures or funding, towards consistent, long-term planning to build and support the mental health system”.