Cross-party Under One Umbrella report

Cross-party Under One Umbrella report

Released in September 2023 by the Mental Health and Addiction Wellbeing Cross-party Group.

Under One Umbrella: A report into integrated mental health, alcohol and other drug use care for young people in New Zealand

About the report

This new report was commissioned by the Mental Health and Addiction Wellbeing cross-party group (the Group) consisting of ACT’s Mark Cameron, Greens’ Chlöe Swarbrick, Labour’s Glen Bennett, National’s Matt Doocey and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer of Te Pāti Māori.

The report’s findings highlight the significant gap between young people’s need for mental health and addiction services and their level of engagement with them. The report also demonstrates the need for government agencies to work together and prioritise the development of integrated youth services with a strong MH&AOD component.

Funded by Southern Cross, the report reviewed the national and international literature relating to models of integrated mental health, alcohol, and other drug use (MH&AOD) care for young people and identified some potential opportunities for change in New Zealand.

A four-step plan

While the report identifies 14 potential opportunities for change within this space, it recommends a four-step plan that will create a strong platform for improving young people’s access to integrated MH&AOD services.

Those steps are:

1. Have health and social sector leaders prioritise investment in the mental health of young people and co-commission integrated youth programmes that span multiple areas.
2. Have more cross-sectoral activities that integrate services and increase the national consistency of service coverage and quality – but also recognise the need for local flexibility.
3. Have good information to track progress, improve services, and increase accountability.
4. Feature the voice of young people throughout the process.

The cross-party group says addressing the mental health needs of young New Zealanders is its top priority and that creating a network of community-based integrated youth MH&AOD care through these four steps can help address the current issues.

The report compliments the current audit by the Office of the Auditor-General of the effectiveness of mental health and addiction services for your people as well as the report on Youth Mental Health by Te Hiringa Mahara | Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission.

The report is available to download in the sidebar on the right-hand side.