Prime Minister launches Youth Mental Health Project

Mental health is a big issue for teenagers. Around one in five young people will experience some form of mental health problem during this crucial time in their lives. This week Prime Minister John Key announced a well-balanced package of initiatives to ensure young people with mental health problems receive better, faster, and more modern help. This package covers four different areas – in schools, online, in families and communities, and in the health system.

For more information, visit:
http://www.national.org.nz/Article.aspx?articleId=38248
http://national.org.nz/youth/YouthMentalHealthproject_FAQs_Nat.pdf

Youth Mental Health package: In schools

Schools provide an effective way to reach young people who may experience mental health problems. This is why we are better equipping schools to identify students with mental health issues sooner. We’re spending $18.6 million to put nurses into decile 3 secondary schools and specially trained youth workers in selected low decile secondary schools. We’ll also be asking schools to take more responsibility for the wellbeing of their students. We’ll be measuring how well schools are doing when it comes to student wellbeing and over time we expect them to be able to show decreases in things like bullying.

For more information, click here.

Youth Mental Health package: Online

The internet is a second home for today’s young people and many of them use Facebook, Twitter and Smartphones to look for information or help. We need to lift our game and modernise our approach if we are to reach the young people who need our help. We will overhaul mental health resources to ensure they are youth friendly and technologically up to date. We are investing $2.7 million in E-therapy for young people. We’re also launching a Social Media Innovations Fund to support providers of youth services to better use social media technology, including smart phone apps and Facebook-related programmes.

For more information, click here.

Youth Mental Health package: Families and Communities

We know parents, friends, and families have a big role to play in identifying mental health issues in young people and seeking the right help. So we’re establishing a new contestable fund for NGOs to get information out to the families and friends of young people to help them understand what to look for and where to get help. We’re also going to trial a new approach through Whānau Ora to see if its focus on a whole family rather than an individual can deliver better results.

For more information, click here.

Youth Mental Health package: Health

When a young person with mental illness takes the crucial step of seeking help within the health system, it’s important that we deliver high quality and timely care. We are putting an additional $11.3 million into primary mental health care and ensuring that more young people will benefit.

We’re also going to set new wait-time targets for Child and Adolescence Mental Health Services so that waiting times are cut, and we’re going to improve post-discharge follow ups. We will also review Government-funded alcohol and drug education programmes to ensure they’re having a positive effect.

For more information, click here.

Crime at 15-year low

Nationally, recorded crime has decreased 4.8 per cent in the last calendar year.

That is the lowest number of recorded offences in New Zealand for 15 years, and the second annual drop in a row.

These results are great news for our communities around New Zealand. They reflect the hard work of our local police, as well as National’s commitment to tackle crime and make our families safer in their homes and communities.

The impressive work of the Policing Excellence programme will continue, as the results are clear to see. Under National there is now a much greater emphasis on preventing crime, with Neighbourhood Policing Teams and the use of mobile technology meaning officers can spend more time in their communities.

For more information, click here.

Tougher laws for loan sharks

National is introducing new laws to target loan sharks and protect unwary consumers.

Unscrupulous lenders should not be able to prey on desperate people and end up leaving them worse off.

Our changes also support responsible lenders and allow more effective competition between lenders.

Find out more about our proposed changes and how to have your say here.