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The Times is partnering with University of Auckland Media, Screen Studies and Communications student Kaitlyn Norton to publish a series of news stories examining New Zealand’s mental health sector. This is part two and looks at youth mental health.
- By Kaitlyn Norton
Youth mental health in New Zealand is a major issue and experts have clear opinions on what the Government can do to better equip organisations working in the sector to help young people in need.
Liz Hosking-Clement, clinical improvement lead for Youthline, says it’s a question the organisation recently asked at the inaugural Youthline Youth Mental Health Summit, staged in March.
“At Youthline, we see young people dealing with anxiety, depression, distress, loneliness, self-harm, suicidality, identity-related struggles, family conflict, school and university pressure, social disconnection, and the impact of the digital world, often all at once rather than as separate issues,” she says.
“Those experiences are also shaped by things like cost-of-living pressure, housing insecurity, racism, colonisation, disability-related barriers, and unequal access to support.
“Young people need services that are easy to access early, before things escalate, and organisations need funding that allows them to build and retain a skilled workforce, respond across multiple channels, and provide support that’s culturally relevant and fits how young people want to receive support.
“We need to invest in prevention, early intervention, community-based support, and youth development services alongside specialist care.”
For Dr Ella Cullen, director of wellbeing system leadership and insights at Te Hiringa Mahara – Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission, it’s really important that young people have a say in anything that impacts them.
“The government can resource the youth co-design and participation in both service and policy development,” she says.
“It’s critical that young people co-design support and services. The big part of the development and the design of any service and policy that guides service development.
“Government agencies can work together to ensure a more holistic wraparound support is available for young people.
“The pathway and transitions between services [can] take more of a person-centered approach and services are focused on connecting young people to what they need.”
Howick Youth Council spokesperson Behrad Etemadipour says the group believes a stronger, centralised approach to mental health would be positive.
“I think the Government is honestly not doing enough and the things they do seem scattered and un-cohesive.
“In addition to this there needs to be more funding and recognition of mental health in general.
“I think depression and anxiety/stress are the biggest issues I see young people facing today.
“I would highlight in my opinion, young people in a liminal time of their life (16+), are at greater risk of developing these mental health issues.
“I believe these issues are definitely growing more rampant among youth, due to but not limited to social media, rising economic strain, global tensions and increasing competition for education employment, housing, etcetera.
“Sometimes it can work backwards, further strengthening stigma around these mental health issues or creating echo chambers where certain mental health issues are the new ‘norm’.”
Dr Cullen says in a recent report produced by UNICEF, New Zealand ranks high in terms of rates of suicide for young people and that’s especially the case for rangatahi Māori.
“Surveys that recently have been published, the New Zealand Health Survey and the Youth Health and Wellbeing survey, both have shown that young people in New Zealand, about 23 per cent, or one in four or five, are experiencing high to very high levels of psychological distress. We are concerned about that as a commission.
“We heard from a number of experts in the Mental Health Summit. There’s a genuine increase in distress … there’s an actual trend.
“There’s some nuance, so there’s early signs of mild to moderate rising levels of distress, then there’s diagnosable and then there’s self-diagnosis. There’s a lot of interaction here with the online space as well.”
Hosking-Clement says it’s wrong to dismiss such findings as the result of better awareness through more open discussion.
The New Zealand Health Survey shows psychological distress among 15-to-24-year-olds is very high and has increased sharply over the last decade.
Young people are talking more openly than they used to, which is encouraging, and the data also shows the level of need is real.
The Times asked the experts if there’s enough support in the community to help young people who are experiencing such issues.
Hosking-Clement responds: “Not consistently. There are many committed organisations doing excellent work around the country, but the response remains too patchy, too stretched, and too dependent on where a young person lives, what they can afford, and whether they meet service criteria.
“For many young people, support is still hard to access at the right time and in the right format.
“That’s exactly why services like Youthline matter. Alongside our counselling and mentoring offerings, we provide free support across the channels young people use, including text, webchat, phone and WhatsApp, and we’re available 24/7.
“We can support young people who may be questioning whether they need support, as well as how and where they can access it.
“Young people also need timely access to specialist services when required, and opportunities to access whānau support, school and community-based help, and practical social supports that reduce the pressures driving distress in the first place.”
Dr Cullen says she thinks more needs to be done for young people.
“We’ve called for more acute community options for young people … who are in acute states and distress.
“Young people get the support they want when they need it, but we’re calling for more community options generally for young people, and for earlier support … so rather than waiting for people to get really unwell and then go through the crisis response system.
“We want to see less admissions into inpatient units and more options in communities.”
