Source: Te Hiringa Mahara – Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission
Te Hiringa Mahara welcomes the findings and Government response to the independent review of mental health and addiction telehealth services.
“Telehealth services are an essential part of the full continuum of services that support young people and adults so we are pleased to see such a swift response to the recommendations in the review,” says Te Hiringa Mahara Chief Executive, Karen Orsborn.
“The Minister for Mental Health and Health New Zealand have moved quickly to introduce a raft of changes. This will make an immediate difference to people seeking support and their whānau. We know that the three providers delivering telehealth services will welcome the changes and are committed to building up their services.
“Ensuring highly effective telehealth services are available to people is a cornerstone of a well-functioning continuum of services for people to draw on when it’s most needed.
“There is a lot of work to do to implement the 16 recommendations, and we look forward to seeing concrete plans being put in place to ensure more people can access timely support.
“These services have increasingly become a gateway for people needing to access crisis or specialist services with more than 50 per cent of people accessing crisis services through telehealth services. Of significant concern is the finding that around 50% of people calling these lines do not get through, and many people experience long wait times.
“All three providers are under real pressure to meet the burgeoning demand for telehealth services and respond to a broader range of needs. While all providers are working hard to respond to the increasing number and complexity of callers, the review found that too many people who reach out to mental health and addiction telehealth services are not getting through they have not been designed or funded sufficiently well to do this.
“Telehealth services must have consistent processes for identifying high-risk situations, escalating care and ensuring people are supported beyond the initial contact. We support the findings of the Telehealth Review, for not only services to meet increasing demand and needs, but also for telehealth services to ensure better connection and collaboration across services and with other parts of the mental health and addiction system.
“The endorsement of a pilot to initiate follow-up calls to evaluate the outcome for callers will help inform future developments.
“The Review has set out clear recommendations that Te Hiringa Mahara fully supports.
“We are particularly pleased to see the focus on young people’s telehealth services and the challenge they face responding to demands. Many young callers present with complex and urgent needs. We agree wholeheartedly with the Review’s recommendations that young people need to have different service models that are developed with their input to more effectively meet needs.
“Through Te Hiringa Mahara’s independent monitoring of crisis services in 2025, we found that these services are hard to navigate, fragmented and patchy, which is why we have consistently called for a nationally cohesive crisis response system that includes nationwide access to 24/7 phone-based crisis support.
“As work implementing the recommendations gets underway, we will be paying particular attention to responsiveness of services to the communities that use them. This means delivering services that are culturally appropriate for Māori, Pacific peoples and other priority populations.”
“We will continue to monitor crisis responses as when people are in crisis, they need to be able to rely on an effective mental health response that can respond and escalate as needed. In 2025 we made recommendations to HealthNZ and are monitoring implementation to ensure we see the improvements that are needed,” says Ms Orsborn.
Notes:
See Te Hiringa Mahara's report defining what is needed to ensure services recognise and respond appropriately: Urupare mōrearea: Crisis responses monitoring report | Te Hiringa Mahara-Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission