Mike King: New Zealand’s youth deserve action, not empty promises

Mike King, founder of the I Am Hope Foundation. Photo / Alan Gibson

Opinion

OPINION

In a country as beautiful as New Zealand, it’s disheartening to witness the pain and suffering of our young people grappling with their mental health issues. The I Am Hope Foundation’s Gumboot Friday, fuelled by the generosity of caring Kiwis, has made significant strides in addressing this crisis, funding more than 25,000 counselling sessions this year alone.

Despite the success of Gumboot Friday and many other grassroots programmes in our communities, access to funding continues to be denied by the bureaucrats at Te Whatu Ora. It’s time for all political parties to move beyond the rhetoric and take immediate, meaningful action to save our youth.

New Zealand’s mental health system is teetering on the edge, and it’s our young ones who bear the brunt of it. It is time to face the harsh reality: in 2021, 127 young souls between the ages of 9 and 24 took their own lives. That’s more than one young life extinguished every three days.

New Zealand must also come to grips with the fact that our nation wears the shameful crown of having one of the highest youth suicide rates in the world. These are not statistics, as Te Whatu Ora would have you believe, they are our children.

For too long, the mental well-being of our young people has been pushed to the back burner. Public waitlists, intended to be the gateway to essential care, have become insurmountable barriers for our kids and their families. Unbearable wait times mean that individuals deteriorate while they wait for treatment, and despite significant investments, these wait times have scarcely budged since the He Aranga Inquiry into Mental Health in 2019.

The grim statistics persist within our communities. A staggering 23.6 per cent of young Kiwis aged 15-24 report high or very high psychological distress, marking a fourfold increase over the past decade. Despite the Government’s allocation of $44 million to mental health initiatives for youth through the Access and Choice budget, the outcomes have fallen woefully short. A pitiful 52,700 Access and Choice sessions were provided between November 2021 and March 2023, leaving countless young lives hanging in the balance.

We can no longer allow this crisis to continue unchecked. Every election cycle, political parties make grandiose promises of radical change to our mental health system, yet concrete improvements remain elusive. This current election season is no different, with pledges galore from all sides. We can no longer afford to be swayed by empty assurances; our kids need resolute action, and they need it now.

It’s high time for the Government to invest not only in the training of doctors, nurses, and mental health professionals but also in the small, undervalued army of community-based organisations that punch above their weight in delivering early intervention solutions that actually work. Over half of all diagnosable mental health conditions manifest before the age of 14, underscoring the critical need for early intervention.

Furthermore, the Government must cut through the bureaucratic red tape that stifles the delivery of care. The funds ensnared in administrative quagmires must be freed up and directed to the thousands of trained providers and grassroots organisations in our communities, each inundated with pleas for help from young people and families on the brink.

The incoming government, whoever they may be, must confront the challenge of breaking down systemic bureaucracy that often prevents timely decision-making and action. Bureaucrats must be held accountable and directed to prioritise the well-being of our children over their personal hidden agendas and safeguarding their organisations. Transparency, accountability, and immediate action must be the benchmarks by which all new policies are evaluated.

New Zealand can no longer afford to stand idle while our youth suffer. It’s time for all political parties to transcend partisan politics and heed the urgent call for action. I implore our leaders to prioritise the mental health of our youth and implement genuine, effective interventions. The era of empty promises and stonewalling is over; it’s time to save young lives, and we cannot wait any longer.

· Mike King is founder of the I Am Hope Foundation