Policy positions and submissions

MHF submission to Worksafe on their draft guidelines Mentally Healthy Work: Good practice guidelines for managing psychosocial risks at work. These guidelines will be an important part of the suite of supports available to create and promote mentally, and culturally, healthy workplaces.

The Mental Health Foundation sent this letter to the Minister of Health welcoming the recent publication of policy decisions on the reform of the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992.

We are pleased with the purpose of the new legislation to respect human rights, support te ao Māori approaches to recovery, take a holistic approach to mental health and wellbeing, to facilitate a supported decision-making regime and to minimise the use of compulsory treatment orders, seclusion and restraint. 

We will however be watching developments in this space closely, particularly on areas where we believe more transformation is needed including seeking certainty that Aotearoa will reach zero seclusion across the mental health sector, that the legislation will truly be grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and in the strengthening of advocacy processes, including the role and powers of District Inspectors. 

The MHF's petition, launched in October 2025, calls on the Minister for Mental Health to take urgent action on child and youth mental health. As of 12 December, we have received over 14,000 signatures of support for this petition, from a range of concerned New Zealanders. The petition will remain open into early 2026. This letter invites the Minister to formally respond to our petition's request for urgent action and reaffirms our commitment to engage with the public on this issue until we are satisfied an adequate response is forthcoming.

Developing a Mental Health and Addiction System and Service Framework is one of the key actions recommended by Kia Manawanui Aotearoa – Long-term pathway to mental wellbeing. As the light bearer for delivery of the mental health and addiction transformation within the new health system, the System and Service Framework will be one of the most important tools employed to ensure the locality approach does in fact take a broad approach to mental wellbeing and decision makers place the mental wellbeing of their community at the forefront of actions.

In our letter to the Ministry of Health, we argue that the System and Service Framework should emphasise prevention and mental wellbeing more strongly, provide a phased action plan with clear accountability mechanisms, include an explicit action to address/eliminate racism, and align with and reinforce related strategic documents and frameworks such as the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission’s He Ara Āwhina monitoring framework and He Tapu te Oranga o ia Tangata (the national suicide prevention strategy and action plan) as well as the incoming new mental health legislation.

This submission is to the Pae Ora Legislation Committee on the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill. The Bill outlines the new structures and accountabilities in the health system. Our submission makes several recommendations to strengthen the Bill including recommending a focus on wellbeing, and to require for a mental health, addiction and wellbeing strategy in the Bill. 

In this submission to the Parliamentary Health Committee, the Mental Health Foundation recommends this Bill be rejected because it removes:

• most of the legal mechanisms that support an equal Te Tiriti o Waitangi-based partnership with Māori, including the expression of tino rangatiratanga and equitable outcomes
• the health sector's focus on protecting and promoting health and wellbeing; equally prioritising mental and physical health; and valuing the views of people with lived experience of mental health challenges.

Our chief executive Shaun Robinson has laid down a wero to the Minister of Mental Health, Matt Doocey, to deliver an integrated, whole-of-system mental health and wellbeing implementation plan within one year to coincide with Budget 2025.

The plan must outline the Government’s commitment to a clear timeline for change, with sequenced actions, and designated people responsible for delivering work to secure the confidence of the sector and the public.

The MHF fully supports the proposal to move towards a health-led response to mental health events, it’s good for vulnerable people and it’s good for Police. However,we estimate it will take at least five years of health workforce building until Police can fully scale back their role. The MHF is particularly concerned about the Police announcement with firm dates for transition starting in 2024 but with no corresponding health actions. 

The MHF urges Police not to make changes to its operating model before an effective alternative is in place, and we urge the government to ensure the overall transition process is exceptionally well planned and coordinated, fully transparent to the public and the mental health sector and implemented on a gradual scale, otherwise vulnerable people and their families will fall through the cracks of a disjointed health response.

The MHF wrote to the Minister of Police and Minister for Mental Health on 13 May 2025 to tell them we received 16,059 signatures of support for this petition, from a range of concerned New Zealanders.

Together with our signees, we ask:

1. For Hon. Mark Mitchell as the Minister of Police to stop the Police’s hasty withdrawal from mental health responses until a fully-funded and operational alternative service is in place nationwide.
   
   
2. For Hon. Matt Doocey as the Minister for Mental Health to show the public a fully developed and costed health plan to support the short- and long-term Police transition away from mental health responses, created in consultation with the people most affected and with adequate funding allocated in Budget 2025.
   
   
3. The Government to roll out and test their replacement crisis response service before the Police step away, to ensure New Zealanders will continue to receive the mental health support they need, and deserve, throughout this transition.

The Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand opposes the Regulatory Standards Bill, as we believe it will jeopardise progress to improve public health and mental health and wellbeing outcomes for all New Zealanders, and particularly those who face inequities, such as whānau Māori, Pacific peoples, people living in areas of high socioeconomic deprivation, people with disabilities, and the rainbow community.