Mental health is set to receive a $1.9b boost from this year’s ‘Wellbeing’ budget that will
include suicide prevention and response as well as addiction treatment services.
The funding will be spent as follows:
- 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.
Tackling New Zealand’s long-term challenges of mental health, child poverty, children in State care, family violence and homelessness, The Improving Child Wellbeing budget includes the following key initiatives:
- New programmes and funding to break the cycles of child poverty and family violence
- Stopping children from falling through the cracks – a $1.1 billion investment to protect our most vulnerable kids
- Taking financial pressure off parents by increasing funding to decile 1-7 schools so they don’t need to ask for school donations
- Taking action to improve incomes and reduce inequality through benefit indexation and removing punitive sanctions
- Encouraging physical activity and healthy eating in schools
- $320 million to address NZ’s shameful domestic violence record
Whanau Ora received a budget boost of $80 million supporting Māori and Pasifika aspirations. Following an independent review found opportunities to develop the programme further. The budget covers the following:
- $80 million boost for Whānau Ora
- More support for te reo Māori and Pacific languages
- Targeted funding for improved health, housing, education and skills
- Kaupapa Māori approach to tackling reoffending
- An additional 2,200 young people supported through the Pacific Employment Support Service
- Investing $56 million to unlock whenua Māori
In addition to the budget announcement the Labour Government is committed to fixing hospitals such as Middlemore in South Auckland, and further funding to the DHB’s with the extension programmes such as bowel screening and access for quality healthcare all round.
