Our calls to the Mental Health Inquiry
Me mahi tahi tatou mo te oranga o te katoa.
We must work together for the wellbeing of all.
We must restart the journey to Big Community and resist pressure to pour more resources into the current obsolete model.
Big Community needs to replace Big Psychiatry at the hub of the system and position psychiatry as one of its many spokes, so that everyone with mental distress and addiction has open access to a comprehensive range of responses.
1. Commitment to the seven wellbeing priorities
The government needs to commit to seven wellbeing priorities across the spectrum – to prevent, respond to, and lessen the impact of mental distress and addiction. All people:
- Live in social conditions that enable them to look after their own and each other’s wellbeing.
- Know how to recognise and respond to stress, distress and addiction.
- Can easily find services and supports for people with distress and addiction.
- Get timely, respectful and helpful responses from them.
- Have access to a comprehensive range of community-based services and supports.
- Are supported by people who have ‘walked in their shoes’, as well as professionals.
- Are enabled to reconnect with themselves, their whānau and valued roles in their communities.