Five mental health and addiction targets for the health system
The Minister for Mental Health has announced five mental health and addiction targets which provide clear expectations for health system performance and are intended to improve outcomes for people with mental health and addiction needs, as well as supporting people to stay well.
These targets will drive faster access to primary and specialist mental health and addiction services, shorter stays in emergency departments, workforce growth and a stronger focus on prevention and early intervention.
Implementation of the target programme will start immediately but work is needed to improve data collection, quality and completeness. As some of these measures are new, monitoring and reporting will become more robust and complete over time.
Monitoring of mental health and addiction targets sits within a wider suite of monitoring of health system performance by the Ministry. These targets are key measures in the Government Policy Statement on Health 2024–2027.
Faster access to specialist mental health and addiction services
80% of people accessing specialist mental health and addiction services are seen within three weeks.
The target: 80%
Faster access to primary mental health and addiction services
80% of people accessing primary mental health and addiction services through the Access and Choice programme are seen within one week.
The target: 80%
Shorter mental health and addiction-related stays in emergency departments
95% of mental health and addiction related emergency department presentations are admitted, discharged, or transferred from an emergency department within six hours.
The target: 95%
Increased mental health and addiction workforce development
Train 500 mental health and addiction professionals each year.
The target: 500 trained per year
Strengthened focus on prevention and early intervention
25% of mental health and addiction investment is allocated towards prevention and early intervention.
The target: 25%