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May 31, 2019 at 2:43 PM

From Beehive.govt.nz

 Key Budget initiatives:

Record $1.9 billion total Mental Health package, including:

• New universal frontline mental health service established, expected to help 325,000 people with mild to moderate mental health and addiction needs by 2023/24
• $200 million extra for new and existing mental health and addiction facilities
• Expanding the nurses in schools programme to decile 5 secondary schools – reaching an extra 5,600 students
• $128.3 million for Department of Corrections to spend on mental health and addiction services
• $197 million to tackle homelessness through Housing First
• Funding for the Te Ara Oranga programme in Northland to help up to 500 people a year who are addicted to methamphetamine.

Budget 2019 delivers on many of the recommendations contained in the Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction, He Ara Oranga.

The Inquiry revealed that a new approach to mental health and addiction is needed in New Zealand which the Government is starting to deliver.

Current data suggests one-in-five New Zealanders experience mental health and addiction challenges at any given time.

This comes at huge social cost. To individuals, families – and to the economy. It’s estimated that in 2014 the economic cost of serious mental illness alone was $12 billion, or five per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

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