Wellbeing Manifesto for Aotearoa New Zealand – A submission to the Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction

By Mary O’Hagan for PeerZone and ActionStation         [Download Resource]

‘New Zealand led the world by taking the first significant steps in the transformation from Big Psychiatry to Big Community (a multi-sector,
community-led wellbeing system) in the 1990s and 2000s, through the closure of the large psychiatric hospitals and growth in community support services.

However, in the last decade a crisis has developed from persisting inequality, loss of leadership, lack of investment in Big Community and a complex, inflexible and fragmented system. There is widespread public concern about levels of distress and suicide, especially among Māori and youth. Many people cannot access help until they are in a deep crisis. People who use services are poorly served, with increasing rates of coercion, traumatising crisis interventions and a paucity of comprehensive responses.

More of the same will not fix the problem’

Key Content Areas:

• The problem
• What is Big Psychiatry and Big Community
• Our calls to the Mental Health Inquiry

The Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction gives us a rare opportunity to restart the transition from Big Psychiatry to Big Community. New Zealand can lead the world in giving its people open access to a full menu of resources and services to sustain and restore wellbeing.