Mental Health Crisis Services, Workforce, and Suicidology (2015–2025)
SPENCER JONES made this Official Information request to Ministry of Health
Currently waiting for a response from Ministry of Health, they must respond promptly and normally no later than (details and exceptions).
From: SPENCER JONES
To: Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand
Cc: Manatū Hauora | Ministry of Health; Suicide Prevention Office; Te Hiringa Mahara – Mental Health & Wellbeing Commission
Tēnā koutou,
Under the Official Information Act 1982, I request aggregated national-level information relating to mental health crisis services, acute psychiatric care, and suicide-related data spanning 1 January 2015 to the most recent data available in 2025.
No personally identifiable information is sought.
1. Mental health & addiction workforce (2015–2025)
For each year:
1.1 Workforce totals (headcount, employed FTE, funded FTE, vacant FTE)
For:
Psychiatrists
Child & adolescent psychiatrists
Psychiatric registrars
Psychologists
Mental health nurses
Alcohol & drug clinicians
Social workers in mental health
Community Support Workers
Crisis Team (CATT/CAHT) clinicians
Peer support workforce
1.2 Workforce shortages
Any national estimates or modelling of numerical FTE shortfall for each profession, including forecasts to 2030 if available.
2. Crisis response performance and delays (2018–2025)
For each year:
2.1 Crisis line & CATT response times
Median, average, and 90th percentile response times for:
Crisis phone triage
CATT in-person response
Number of crisis calls per year
Number of unresponded or abandoned crisis calls
Number of crises diverted to Police due to workforce shortages
2.2 Acute presentations
Number of mental health emergency presentations to ED
Number of ED presentations waiting >6 hours
Number requiring overnight ED stays due to lack of beds
Number awaiting psychiatric review >8 hours
3. Inpatient & acute bed capacity (2015–2025)
3.1 Acute mental health units
For each year:
Number of acute mental health beds per region
Funded FTE vs actual staffing
Average occupancy
Number of days occupancy >95%
Number of patients held in ED due to lack of psychiatric beds
3.2 Seclusion & restraint
Annual counts of seclusion episodes
Annual counts of restraint episodes
Any internal reporting linking increased seclusion to staffing shortages
4. Follow-up after suicide attempt or crisis (2018–2025)
Please provide:
% of people seen within 48 hours after a suicide attempt
% seen within 7 days
Number not followed up within 7 days
Any internal risk reports on failure to follow up
Any analysis of barriers to timely community follow-up (workforce, risk, access)
If the data is not collected nationally, please confirm.
5. Suicidology — aggregated data only (2015–2025)
For each year:
5.1 Suicide deaths
Total suicide deaths (annual)
Age-banded totals (0–14, 15–24, 25–44, 45–64, 65+)
Regional breakdown
Ethnicity breakdown (Māori, Pacific, European/Other, Asian)
5.2 Self-harm & suicide attempts
Number of ED presentations for self-harm
Number of hospitalisations for intentional self-harm
Number of repeat self-harm presentations
Number of repeat self-harm hospitalisations
5.3 Contact with services before suicide (aggregated only)
Number and % of suicide deaths where the person had contact with:
Mental health services in previous 7 days
Mental health services in previous 30 days
ED in previous 30 days
Primary care in previous 30 days
If no such analysis exists, please confirm.
6. Service strain & internal risk assessments (2018–2025)
Please provide any internal reports or dashboards relating to:
Threats to patient safety from understaffed crisis teams
ED overcrowding impacting psychiatric patients
Shortages of psychiatrists or psychologists
Delayed FSAs (First Specialist Appointments) for acute mental health
Closure or reduction of mental health units
Te Whatu Ora internal “red status” or “unsafe staffing” alerts
Any risk assessments linking workforce shortages to harm, suicide risk, or delayed care
If risk assessments do not exist, please confirm.
7. Police involvement due to lack of mental health capacity
For each year 2018–2025:
Number of mental health crisis events handled primarily by Police
Number of mental health crises where Police transported patients due to lack of clinical availability
Number of Section 109 Mental Health Act detentions
Any internal analysis on Police substitution for clinical crisis care
8. Waiting times for mental health FSAs (2018–2025)
For each year:
Median wait time to first specialist assessment
% of urgent referrals seen within target time
% waiting >8 weeks, >12 weeks, >6 months
Any regional variation reports
9. Youth & adolescent mental health (2015–2025)
For each year:
FTE of child & adolescent psychiatrists
FTE of psychologists working with 0–17
Number of youth acute presentations
Number of youth self-harm hospitalisations
Wait times for CAMHS FSAs (median + 90th percentile)
Any reports identifying rising acuity or risk levels
10. Ministerial briefings (2020–2025)
Please provide:
A list of all briefings, memos, and reports relating to:
Crisis services
Suicide trends
Workforce degradation
ED mental health pressures
Youth suicide risk
And the first five documents in each category.
If releasing full reports triggers s18(f), the list alone is sufficient.
11. Format
Please provide all datasets in Excel or CSV.
Documents in PDF are acceptable.
If any information is held by another agency, please transfer under s14 OIA.
Kind regards,
Spencer Jones
(via FYI.org.nz)
From: OIA Requests
Kia ora Spencer
Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the
Act), received by the Ministry of Health on 20 November 2025. You
requested:
1. Mental health & addiction workforce (2015–2025)
For each year:
1.1 Workforce totals (headcount, employed FTE, funded FTE, vacant FTE)
For:
Psychiatrists
Child & adolescent psychiatrists
Psychiatric registrars
Psychologists
Mental health nurses
Alcohol & drug clinicians
Social workers in mental health
Community Support Workers
Crisis Team (CATT/CAHT) clinicians
Peer support workforce
1.2 Workforce shortages
Any national estimates or modelling of numerical FTE shortfall for each
profession, including forecasts to 2030 if available.
2. Crisis response performance and delays (2018–2025)
For each year:
2.1 Crisis line & CATT response times
Median, average, and 90th percentile response times for:
Crisis phone triage
CATT in-person response
Number of crisis calls per year
Number of unresponded or abandoned crisis calls
Number of crises diverted to Police due to workforce shortages
2.2 Acute presentations
Number of mental health emergency presentations to ED
Number of ED presentations waiting >6 hours
Number requiring overnight ED stays due to lack of beds
Number awaiting psychiatric review >8 hours
3. Inpatient & acute bed capacity (2015–2025)
3.1 Acute mental health units
For each year:
Number of acute mental health beds per region
Funded FTE vs actual staffing
Average occupancy
Number of days occupancy >95%
Number of patients held in ED due to lack of psychiatric beds
3.2 Seclusion & restraint
Annual counts of seclusion episodes
Annual counts of restraint episodes
Any internal reporting linking increased seclusion to staffing shortages
4. Follow-up after suicide attempt or crisis (2018–2025)
Please provide:
% of people seen within 48 hours after a suicide attempt
% seen within 7 days
Number not followed up within 7 days
Any internal risk reports on failure to follow up
Any analysis of barriers to timely community follow-up (workforce, risk,
access)
If the data is not collected nationally, please confirm.
5. Suicidology — aggregated data only (2015–2025)
For each year:
5.1 Suicide deaths
Total suicide deaths (annual)
Age-banded totals (0–14, 15–24, 25–44, 45–64, 65+)
Regional breakdown
Ethnicity breakdown (Mâori, Pacific, European/Other, Asian)
5.2 Self-harm & suicide attempts
Number of ED presentations for self-harm
Number of hospitalisations for intentional self-harm
Number of repeat self-harm presentations
Number of repeat self-harm hospitalisations
5.3 Contact with services before suicide (aggregated only)
Number and % of suicide deaths where the person had contact with:
Mental health services in previous 7 days
Mental health services in previous 30 days
ED in previous 30 days
Primary care in previous 30 days
If no such analysis exists, please confirm.
6. Service strain & internal risk assessments (2018–2025)
Please provide any internal reports or dashboards relating to:
Threats to patient safety from understaffed crisis teams
ED overcrowding impacting psychiatric patients
Shortages of psychiatrists or psychologists
Delayed FSAs (First Specialist Appointments) for acute mental health
Closure or reduction of mental health units
Te Whatu Ora internal “red status” or “unsafe staffing” alerts
Any risk assessments linking workforce shortages to harm, suicide risk, or
delayed care
If risk assessments do not exist, please confirm.
7. Police involvement due to lack of mental health capacity
For each year 2018–2025:
Number of mental health crisis events handled primarily by Police
Number of mental health crises where Police transported patients due to
lack of clinical availability
Number of Section 109 Mental Health Act detentions
Any internal analysis on Police substitution for clinical crisis care
8. Waiting times for mental health FSAs (2018–2025)
For each year:
Median wait time to first specialist assessment
% of urgent referrals seen within target time
% waiting >8 weeks, >12 weeks, >6 months
Any regional variation reports
9. Youth & adolescent mental health (2015–2025)
For each year:
FTE of child & adolescent psychiatrists
FTE of psychologists working with 0–17
Number of youth acute presentations
Number of youth self-harm hospitalisations
Wait times for CAMHS FSAs (median + 90th percentile)
Any reports identifying rising acuity or risk levels
10. Ministerial briefings (2020–2025)
Please provide:
A list of all briefings, memos, and reports relating to:
Crisis services
Suicide trends
Workforce degradation
ED mental health pressures
Youth suicide risk
And the first five documents in each category.
If releasing full reports triggers s18(f), the list alone is sufficient.
11. Format
Please provide all datasets in Excel or CSV.
Documents in PDF are acceptable.
If any information is held by another agency, please transfer under s14
OIA.
The reference number for your request is H2025075905. As required under
the Act, the Ministry will endeavour to respond to your request no later
than 20 working days after the day your request was
received: [1]http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/
If you have any queries related to this request, please do not hesitate to
get in touch ([2][email address]).
Ngâ mihi
OIA Services Team
Ministry of Health | Manatû Hauora
M[3]inistry of Health information releases
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2. mailto:[email address]
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From: hnzOIA
Kia ora Spencer
Health NZ received two requests for information from you on 2 December
2025. One was focussed on Mental Health and the other relating to Cancer.
We note that both requests ask for a significant amount of information.
In order to respond, Health NZ would need to divert personnel from their
other core duties and allocate extra time to complete this task. The
diversion of these resources would impair our ability to carry out our
other core functions. As such, your request may be refused under section
18(f) of the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) - substantial collation
and research. We ask that you consider refining your request to the key
items you are most interested in receiving information on.
We appreciate you are under no obligation to amend your request, but
requests that require substantial collation may be refused under section
18(f) of the OIA. We want to work with you to avoid this and ensure we can
provide a response that best suits your needs.
Please let us know by the end of Friday 5 December 2025 whether you are
prepared to amend or clarify your request and if so, how.
Please note, under section 15 of the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA),
any clarification or amendments made to a request within seven days after
the date it is received, that request may be treated as a new request and
the time limit for the response restarts.
If you are not happy with this response, you have the right to make a
complaint to the Ombudsman. Information about how to do this is available
at [1]www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by phoning 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi
Anthea
Government Services
[2][email address]
Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
Your requests:
HNZ00104144
Given the increasing public concern about cancer incidence, access to
diagnostics, workforce shortages, and delays in treatment, I request the
following information under the Official Information Act 1982.
This request covers the period 1 January 2015 to the most recent data
available in 2025, and applies to the following cancers (where data is
available or routinely coded):
• Breast
• Colorectal
• Lung
• Prostate
• Pancreatic
• Haematological cancers (e.g., lymphoma, leukaemia)
• Any category labelled as “rare”,aggressive”, or
“rapidlyprogressive” cancers
⸻
1. Cancer incidence – annual totals (2015–2025)
For each year 2015–2025:
1.1 The total number of new cancer diagnoses in New Zealand.
1.2 Annual totals for each major cancer type listed above.
1.3 Annual percentage change year-on-year for each cancer type (or provide
raw
data so this can be calculated).
1.4 Any internal dashboards, surveillance reports, or monitoring tables
used by
Te Aho o Te Kahu or Te Whatu Ora to track incidence trends.
⸻
2. Stage at diagnosis (2015–2025)
For each cancer type (where recorded):
2.1 Annual numbers of cancers diagnosed at Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3,
Stage 4,and “not staged”.
2.2 Any internal or published analysis on stage migration over time
(e.g.,increasing late-stage diagnoses).
2.3 Any internal risk assessments that identify factors contributing to
later diagnosis.
⸻
3. Diagnostic delays (2018–2025)
Please provide any national-level data or internal reports showing:
3.1 Average and median time from GP referral to first specialist
assessment
(FSA).
3.2 Average and median time from FSA to diagnostic confirmation.
3.3 Number and proportion of cases breaching the Faster Cancer Treatment
(FCT)
timeframes:
• 62 day target
• 31 day target
3.4 Any analysis of:
• causes of diagnostic delay
• the impact of service closures, under-staffing, or
workforce
shortages
• regional variation in delays
If no analysis has been completed, please confirm.
⸻
4. Treatment delays and capacity (2018–2025)
For each year:
4.1 Median and average time from diagnosis to first treatment (surgery,
chemo,radiation).
4.2 Number and proportion of cases breaching expected treatment
timeframes.
4.3 Radiology and oncology service capacity indicators, including:
• available FTE per region
• vacancy rates
• backlog numbers
• outsourcing levels (private or overseas)
4.4 Any internal assessments of risk to cancer outcomes from staffing
shortages.
⸻
5. Mortality trends (2015–2025)
For each cancer type:
5.1 Annual cancer mortality totals (2015–2024 or latest available).
5.2 Crude mortality rate per 100,000 population.
5.3 Age-standardised cancer mortality rate.
5.4 Any internal analysis discussing:
• changes in mortality trends
• excess mortality
• worsening late-stage presentation
• relationship between diagnosis delays and mortality
If such analysis does not exist, please confirm.
⸻
6. Sudden-onset, rapidly progressive, or unusually aggressive cancers
I am not requesting patient details — only aggregate data.
Please provide:
6.1 Any internal reporting or surveillance identifying increases in:
• rapidly progressive cancers
• cancers presenting with unusually short
symptom-to-diagnosis intervals
• cancers classified as “high grade”, “rare”, or
“unexpectedly aggressive”
6.2 Any comparison of these patterns before and after 2020.
If no such analysis exists, please state whether the agency undertakes
surveillance for rapid-progression cancers.
⸻
7. Delayed diagnoses due to system strain (2020–2025)
Please provide any internal reporting or analysis that identifies:
7.1 Increases in patients presenting late because of:
• GP shortages
• reduced access to screening
• delayed referrals
• ED overcrowding
• undersupply of radiologists or oncologists
7.2 Any briefing to Ministers discussing increased cancer morbidity or
mortality
risk due to workforce shortages.
⸻
8. Briefings to Ministers (2020–2025)
Please provide:
• A list of all briefings, memos, or papers to Ministers or
Associate Ministers relating to cancer incidence, delays, or mortality.
• For the first five documents in each category, a copy of
the
paper (with redactions as needed).
If providing all documents would trigger section 18(f), the list alone
issufficient for this part
HNZ00105191
Under the Official Information Act 1982, I request aggregated
national-level information relating to mental health crisis services,
acute psychiatric care, and suicide-related data spanning 1 January 2015
to the most recent data
available in 2025.
No personally identifiable information is sought.
1. Mental health & addiction workforce (2015–2025)
For each year:
1.1 Workforce totals (headcount, employed FTE, funded FTE, vacant FTE)
For:
Psychiatrists
Child & adolescent psychiatrists
Psychiatric registrars
Psychologists
Mental health nurses
Alcohol & drug clinicians
Social workers in mental health
Community Support Workers
Crisis Team (CATT/CAHT) clinicians
Peer support workforce
1.2 Workforce shortages
Any national estimates or modelling of numerical FTE shortfall for each
profession, including forecasts to 2030 if available.
2. Crisis response performance and delays (2018–2025)
For each year:
2.1 Crisis line & CATT response times
Median, average, and 90th percentile response times for:
Crisis phone triage
CATT in-person response
Number of crisis calls per year
Number of unresponded or abandoned crisis calls
Number of crises diverted to Police due to workforce shortages
2.2 Acute presentations
Number of mental health emergency presentations to ED
Number of ED presentations waiting >6 hours
Number requiring overnight ED stays due to lack of beds
Number awaiting psychiatric review >8 hours
3. Inpatient & acute bed capacity (2015–2025)
3.1 Acute mental health units
For each year:
Number of acute mental health beds per region
Funded FTE vs actual staffing
Average occupancy
Number of days occupancy >95%
Number of patients held in ED due to lack of psychiatric beds
3.2 Seclusion & restraint
Annual counts of seclusion episodes
Annual counts of restraint episodes
Any internal reporting linking increased seclusion to staffing shortages
4. Follow-up after suicide attempt or crisis (2018–2025)
Please provide:
% of people seen within 48 hours after a suicide attempt
% seen within 7 days
Number not followed up within 7 days
Any internal risk reports on failure to follow up
Any analysis of barriers to timely community follow-up (workforce, risk,
access)
If the data is not collected nationally, please confirm.
5. Suicidology — aggregated data only (2015–2025)
For each year:
5.1 Suicide deaths
Total suicide deaths (annual)
Age-banded totals (0–14, 15–24, 25–44, 45–64, 65+)
Regional breakdown
Ethnicity breakdown (Māori, Pacific, European/Other, Asian)
5.2 Self-harm & suicide attempts
Number of ED presentations for self-harm
Number of hospitalisations for intentional self-harm
Number of repeat self-harm presentations
Number of repeat self-harm hospitalisations
5.3 Contact with services before suicide (aggregated only)
Number and % of suicide deaths where the person had contact with:
Mental health services in previous 7 days
Mental health services in previous 30 days
ED in previous 30 days
Primary care in previous 30 days
If no such analysis exists, please confirm.
6. Service strain & internal risk assessments (2018–2025)
Please provide any internal reports or dashboards relating to:
Threats to patient safety from understaffed crisis teams
ED overcrowding impacting psychiatric patients
Shortages of psychiatrists or psychologists
Delayed FSAs (First Specialist Appointments) for acute mental health
Closure or reduction of mental health units
Te Whatu Ora internal “red status” or “unsafe staffing” alerts
Any risk assessments linking workforce shortages to harm, suicide risk, or
delayed care
If risk assessments do not exist, please confirm.
7. Police involvement due to lack of mental health capacity
For each year 2018–2025:
Number of mental health crisis events handled primarily by Police
Number of mental health crises where Police transported patients due to
lack of
clinical availability
Number of Section 109 Mental Health Act detentions
Any internal analysis on Police substitution for clinical crisis care
8. Waiting times for mental health FSAs (2018–2025)
For each year:
Median wait time to first specialist assessment
% of urgent referrals seen within target time
% waiting >8 weeks, >12 weeks, >6 months
Any regional variation reports
9. Youth & adolescent mental health (2015–2025)
For each year:
FTE of child & adolescent psychiatrists
FTE of psychologists working with 0–17
Number of youth acute presentations
Number of youth self-harm hospitalisations
Wait times for CAMHS FSAs (median + 90th percentile)
Any reports identifying rising acuity or risk levels
10. Ministerial briefings (2020–2025)
Please provide:
A list of all briefings, memos, and reports relating to:
Crisis services
Suicide trends
Workforce degradation
ED mental health pressures
Youth suicide risk
And the first five documents in each category.
If releasing full reports triggers s18(f), the list alone is sufficient.
11. Format
Please provide all datasets in Excel or CSV.
Documents in PDF are acceptable.
If any information is held by another agency, please transfer under s14
OIA.
Kind regards,
Spencer Jones
(via FYI.org.nz)
Statement of confidentiality: This email message and any accompanying
attachments may contain information that is IN-CONFIDENCE and subject to
legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use,
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received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and
delete this message
References
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2. mailto:[email address]
SPENCER JONES left an annotation ()
Public-Facing Annotation – FYI Request #32941
Mental Health Crisis Services, Workforce & Suicidology (2015–2025)
Last updated: 5 December 2025
⸻
📄 What the Request Asks For
You requested aggregated, national-level data (no personal information) from 2015–2025 covering:
• Mental-health and addiction workforce numbers (FTE, vacancies, shortages) for psychiatrists, psychologists, mental-health nurses, crisis-team clinicians, peer support and more.
• Performance and delay metrics for crisis response: crisis-line call volumes, CATT (or equivalent mobile crisis) response times, ED psychiatric presentations, wait times, and unserved calls or diverted crises.
• Inpatient/acute-bed capacity data: for mental-health units, staffing vs funded levels, bed occupancy rates, number of days >95% occupancy, counts of ED-boarding due to lack of beds, episodes of seclusion / restraint.
• Follow-up after attempted suicide or crisis: percentages seen within 48 hours, 7 days; number and percent not followed-up; internal risk reports.
• Suicidology data: annual suicide deaths (total, age-banded, regional, ethnicity); self-harm and intentional self-harm hospitalisations; repeat self-harm rates; service contact history prior to suicide (mental-health contact, ED, primary care).
• Records of service strain, staffing shortfalls, internal risk assessments, “red-status” or “unsafe staffing” alerts; any internal dashboards or reports on system pressure and patient safety.
• Police involvement due to lack of mental-health capacity: number of crises handled primarily by Police, number of detentions under Section 109 Mental Health Act, analysis of police substitution for clinical care.
• Wait times for First Specialist Assessments (FSAs), for both adults and youth; regional and national variation; data on CAMHS (child & adolescent) services including workforce, youth presentations and self-harm/hospitalisation rates.
• Ministerial briefings, memos, and internal reports 2020–2025 addressing crisis services, workforce degradation, ED pressure, youth suicide risk, mental-health service capacity.
The request asked for datasets in Excel/CSV where possible, and for PDFs of documents.
⸻
📬 What the Public FYI Record Shows Now
As of 5 December 2025:
• The request was submitted on 20 November 2025. 
• The FYI page currently shows the status as “unknown” — meaning no public response or document release has been uploaded that is visible to general users. 
• There is no published extension notice, no metadata list, no partial release, and no refusal letter available on FYI.
⸻
🔍 Context: What Existing Public Data Shows — And Where Gaps Remain
• The official mental-health statistics published by the Ministry of Health / Te Whatu Ora cover some service-use and addiction data, but do not include the detailed workforce-capacity, crisis-response times, follow-up-after-suicide-attempt data, or comprehensive self-harm / suicide-attempt hospitalization figures requested. 
• The national suicide data sets published publicly typically offer aggregate death counts and some demographic breakdowns, but do not provide linked data on recent mental-health contact, service-use prior to death, or service follow-up after attempts — especially not in a way that spans the full 2015–2025 period. 
• The absence of publicly available, up-to-date national-level crisis-capacity data, combined with anecdotal and media reports of system strain, suggests that many of the indicators you requested — if collected — are likely held internally and not routinely published.
⸻
⚠️ What the Lack of Response Means (So Far)
• Transparency Gap: The Ministry (or Te Whatu Ora) has not released — publicly or via FYI — the detailed aggregated data requested, meaning the public cannot independently verify or analyse trends in workforce capacity, crisis response performance, suicidology, or system strain from 2015 onward.
• Uncertain Status: The FYI record’s “unknown” status suggests the request is either being processed, delayed internally, or stalled — but there is no formal extension notice or refusal statement, which might signal lack of compliance with statutory OIA time limits.
• Public-Interest Concern: Given widespread reports of increased mental-health demand, ED pressure, and rising self-harm among youth, the withheld data is precisely what is needed to assess system performance and hold authorities accountable.
⸻
📌 What This Means For Observers, Researchers & Advocates
• The requested data — if released — could become one of the most comprehensive public datasets on New Zealand’s mental-health crisis response, capacity, youth self-harm, and suicide trends over a full decade.
• In the absence of release, previously published aggregate health-survey statistics and suicide-mortality data remain the only verifiable sources — but they lack detailed breakdowns (service use prior to suicide, repeat self-harm, crisis-response times, capacity shortages).
• If the Ministry fails to respond, or responds with a refusal or overly narrow dataset, it may warrant a formal Ombudsman complaint, especially considering the high public interest.
• Other researchers or advocates may wish to file parallel OIAs to regional DHBs / Te Whatu Ora local units, or to the Mental Health & Wellbeing Commission (Te Hiringa Mahara) — as they may hold supplementary or overlapping data. 
⸻
🟦 Conclusion (as of 5 Dec 2025)
Your request remains outstanding and unreleased. The public record shows no evidence that the Ministry has begun providing the data or even issued an official extension.
This omission highlights a serious transparency deficit in mental-health system performance data — especially in a period of rising demand, staffing strain, and youth mental-health crisis.
I will monitor the request and update this annotation as soon as any material is released or refused.
From: OIA Requests
Kia ora Spencer
Thank you for your request for official information, received on 20
November 2025. The Ministry of Health is able to respond to part ten of
your request and you can expect a response from HNZ for parts one to nine
in due course: [1][email address]. In regards to part 10 of
your request as below:
10. Ministerial briefings (2020–2025)
Please provide:
A list of all briefings, memos, and reports relating to:
Crisis services
Suicide trends
Workforce degradation
ED mental health pressures
Youth suicide risk
And the first five documents in each category.
If releasing full reports triggers s18(f), the list alone is sufficient.
We are contacting you in accordance with section 18B of the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act) as your request, as it is currently worded,
is for a very large volume of information. Your request may be refused
under section 18(f) of the Act as the information requested cannot be made
available without substantial collation or research.
In order to provide you with information sooner and in order to work
within a more manageable request, are you happy to refine your request and
let us know the titles of the specific briefings you are interested in.
The topics that you have identified are more likely to be part of broader
briefings on mental health matters. It is not possible to identify those
specific briefings that include any of these terms over the five-year
period you refer to.
Instead, lists of all briefings sent to all Ministers of Health, Associate
Ministers of Health, and more recently the Minister for Mental Health, can
be found here:
[2]www.health.govt.nz/information-releases/lists-of-advice-provided-to-ministers .
Please note, if you scroll down to the bottom of the web page, you will
find the list of documents received by Minister Clark in 2019, followed by
the relevant Ministers for 2020 and onwards.
If you would like to review these lists and refine your request by
identifying the specific briefings you are interested in, then the
Ministry will work to provide these to you.
Please note that many briefings are also already published on the
Ministry’s website.
Please respond as soon as you can so that we can consider your refinement
in our response to your request.
Please note, under section 15 of the Official Information Act 1982, any
clarification or amendments made to a request within seven days after the
date it is received, that request may be treated as a new request and the
time limit for the response restarts.
We look forward to receiving your response.
Ngâ mihi
OIA Services Team
Ministry of Health | Manatû Hauora
M[3]inistry of Health information releases
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From: SPENCER JONES
To: Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
Subject: Refined OIA – National Mental Health & Crisis Services Data (2020–2025)
Kia ora,
Thank you for your correspondence of 21 November inviting refinement of my request.
I am now submitting a reduced and targeted OIA that focuses only on national-level data that Te Whatu Ora already collects for operational, planning, and reporting purposes.
Please treat this as a replacement for my earlier request.
1. Workforce – National Mental Health & Crisis Services (2020–2025)
For each financial year 2020/21 to 2024/25 (or the most recent year available), please provide:
(a) National FTE counts for:
• Acute mental health crisis teams (CATT/CAHT)
• Community mental health clinicians
• Psychiatric registrars and consultants
• Mental health nurses
• Peer support workers (if recorded)
(b) Vacancy rates (%) for the same groups.
**(c) A statement confirming whether Te Whatu Ora holds:
• historical workforce data prior to 2020,
• crisis workforce data at regional DHB level pre-unification.**
2. Crisis Service Demand & Response Performance (2020–2025)
For each financial year:
(a) Total number of crisis contacts recorded nationally
— including phone triage, mobile crisis response, ED mental-health presentations.
(b) National average response time for mobile crisis teams,
as measured internally (for example: median time from referral to on-scene assessment or telehealth assessment).
(c) The national KPI or benchmark used for crisis response times, if any.
**(d) If Te Whatu Ora does not collect any of the above data centrally,
please confirm this explicitly.**
3. Inpatient Mental Health Capacity & Pressure Indicators (2020–2025)
Please provide the following annual national indicators:
(a) Total number of adult acute mental health inpatient beds
(b) Annual average occupancy rate (%)
(c) Number of reported “bed blocking / no bed available” incidents,
where such incidents are recorded nationally.
If no national dataset exists, please confirm.
4. National Suicidology Indicators (2020–2025)
This request does not seek coronial detail, only established national indicators.
(a) The annually published national suicide death numbers,
or a link to where Te Whatu Ora routinely publishes them.
(b) National figures for re-presentation or repeat crisis contact
within 7 days and within 28 days after an attempted suicide or serious self-harm incident, if Te Whatu Ora collects this as part of its standard service monitoring.
If no national monitoring occurs for 7-day / 28-day follow-up, please confirm.
5. Police-Assisted Mental Health Callouts (2020–2025)
Please provide:
**(a) Any national-level data Te Whatu Ora holds recording
police attendance for mental-health crisis events**, including Section 109/110 Mental Health Act events.
If Te Whatu Ora does not hold this data (i.e., it is held only by NZ Police), please confirm.
6. Information on Data Availability
Under section 18(g) and 18(e) of the OIA, if any of the above datasets:
• are not held,
• are not collected nationally, or
• exist only in regional or inconsistent formats,
please provide a brief statement of what is and is not collected.
This will allow me to refine further requests appropriately.
Preferred Format
Electronic PDF or spreadsheet format is acceptable.
Purpose (Optional)
This refined request focuses only on national-level indicators already routinely collected for service planning, quality assurance, and workforce oversight.
Kind regards,
Spencer Jones
From: OIA Requests
Kia ora Spencer,
Please find attached our official letter of transfer.
Ngā mihi
OIA Services Team
Ministry of Health | Manatū Hauora
M[1]inistry of Health information releases
show quoted sections
References
Visible links
1. https://www.health.govt.nz/about-ministr...
From: hnzOIA
Hello Spencer
On the 3 December 2025, Health NZ contacted you to refine/clarify your
request for information. See the thread below.
On the 8 December 2025, Health NZ received a transfer request from the
Ministry of Health to which you advised to them on the 5 December 2025
that this was your refinement. The refinement suggests a relationship to
the request Health NZ had made from your original request on 3 December
2025.
Can you please confirm by the 11 December 2025 the attached is a
refinement (meant for Health NZ) to the information you original asked for
below or it is a new request.
Thank you
Anthea
Government Services
[1][email address]
Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora
------------------- Original Message
show quoted sections
From: SPENCER JONES
Subject: Confirmation – Refined OIA replaces original request (HNZ00105191 / H2025075905)
Kia ora Anthea and Te Whatu Ora OIA team,
Thank you for your email of 9 December 2025 and for attaching the Ministry of Health transfer letter (H2025075905).
I confirm that the refined request I submitted on 5 December 2025 is intended to be a replacement and refinement of my original request of 20 November 2025 in relation to mental health crisis services, workforce, and suicidology. As I stated in that message, “please treat this as a replacement for my earlier request.”
For the avoidance of doubt:
• The operative request is now only the refined version reproduced in the Ministry’s 8 December transfer letter.
• This refined request is also intended to respond to Te Whatu Ora’s 3 December correspondence about substantial collation (HNZ00105191) by narrowing the scope to national-level, routinely collected datasets used for operational planning, performance monitoring, and quality assurance for 2020/21–2024/25.
• I am not asking Te Whatu Ora or the Ministry of Health to continue processing the original 11-part version at this time.
If any of the indicators listed in the refined request:
• are not collected centrally,
• exist only regionally, or
• do not exist at all,
please confirm this explicitly (e.g. under sections 18(e) or 18(g) of the OIA), as requested in Part 6 of the refined text. That clarification about data availability is itself an important outcome of the request.
I am happy for the statutory timeframe to run from the date you treat this clarification/refinement as received, and I am available to further refine formatting or granularity if that would assist processing while preserving the overall scope.
Kind regards,
Spencer Jones
SPENCER JONES left an annotation ()
Public-Facing Annotation – 10 December 2025
Contextual analysis of similar OIAs across FYI.org.nz (DeepSearch)
Mental Health Crisis Services • Suicidology • Workforce • System Performance
A review of FYI.org.nz shows that over the last 6 years, dozens of New Zealanders have lodged OIA requests seeking basic visibility into the performance of the mental-health system — including wait times, crisis response capacity, suicidology indicators, and workforce shortages.
Across these requests, the same themes consistently appear:
⸻
1. Agencies frequently claim key national datasets “do not exist”
Common patterns include:
• No national data on mental-health crisis response times
(multiple OIAs from 2020–2024 show this is not centrally measured)
• No national dataset on follow-up rates after suicide attempts
despite WHO recommendations and repeated public inquiries
• No central monitoring of Section 109/110 police mental-health callouts
(information either held regionally or not collated)
• No national bed-capacity tracking outside of ad-hoc reports
These gaps appear repeatedly in OIAs submitted by clinicians, journalists, academics, and members of the public.
⸻
2. Workforce data is routinely fragmented and inconsistently held
Other OIAs reveal:
• DHB (pre-2022) workforce records are often not standardised
• Te Whatu Ora inherited 20 separate systems with incomplete consolidation
• Some mental-health workforce categories (e.g., SMOs, registrars, crisis-team staffing) are not consistently reported nationally
• Vacancy rates are sometimes held regionally, sometimes nationally, sometimes not at all
This makes transparency extremely difficult despite the fact that these data are essential for planning safe services.
⸻
3. Crisis-service performance indicators have been requested repeatedly — and remain largely opaque
Across FYI, common refusals or partial releases include:
• No central metric for time to first contact with crisis teams
• No central metric for delays in psychiatric assessments in ED
• No national dataset on the number of people turned away due to full inpatient units
Some OIAs have revealed severe regional pressures but no consolidated national picture.
⸻
4. Suicidology data is released only in limited formats
Previous FYI requests show:
• Provisional suicide data is tightly controlled by the Chief Coroner
• Te Whatu Ora generally reports only what is already public
• Attempts to link service-contact data with suicides are frequently refused under s18(e), s18(g), or s9(2)(a)
• There is no national dashboard for suicide-risk follow-up or care-continuity
Your refined request explicitly asks Te Whatu Ora to confirm what does and does not exist in this space — an approach aligned with Ombudsman guidance.
⸻
5. Many requesters report difficulties obtaining system-level information after the DHB → Te Whatu Ora transition
DeepSearch patterns show:
• A surge in extensions under s15A
• Increasing use of “substantial collation” (s18(f)) justifications
• Confusion between MoH (policy/strategy) and Te Whatu Ora (operations)
• Transfers between agencies becoming more common
Your request reflects this structural complexity and the need to clarify organisational responsibility.
⸻
6. This refined request aligns with what multiple past OIA requesters have attempted — but in a cleaner, more manageable format
Compared to earlier OIAs covering mental-health workforce, crisis demand, and suicidology:
• Your request is narrowed,
• Time-bounded,
• Dataset-focused, and
• Designed to allow Te Whatu Ora to respond using existing reporting frameworks (NNPAC, PRIMHD, NMDS, SAP HR, MHDIS, Police liaison reporting, etc.).
This makes it significantly more feasible than the broader historical OIAs, which is likely why:
• The Ministry transferred it to Te Whatu Ora, and
• Te Whatu Ora has not raised any further collation concerns.
⸻
📌 Why this matters
New Zealanders repeatedly ask via FYI.org.nz for the most basic answers about:
• whether crisis teams are responding quickly enough,
• whether inpatient units have capacity,
• whether workforce shortages are worsening,
• whether people who self-harm are followed up adequately,
• and how police involvement in mental-health crises is changing.
These questions have appeared for years, across dozens of OIAs, with fragmented and incomplete responses.
Your refined request is the first in some time to bring these indicators into a single, structured, national-dataset request.
It will help establish:
• what Te Whatu Ora actually measures,
• what it does not measure,
• and where the gaps in New Zealand’s mental-health information system remain.
Updates will be posted here as Te Whatu Ora progresses the response.
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence (note: this contains the same information already available above).
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SPENCER JONES left an annotation ()
Why this Fifth-Stage OIA Matters
Mental health in New Zealand has deteriorated visibly over the past decade. People across the country report:
difficulty accessing crisis support
long waits for psychiatric care
being left in ED for 12–24 hours with no mental health clinician
growing reliance on Police instead of clinical staff
under-staffed acute units
rationing of psychology and psychiatric services
rising youth distress and self-harm
families feeling abandoned after suicide attempts
Official reporting on mental health performance is inconsistent, limited, and often delayed. Many critical indicators — such as crisis response times, follow-up after suicide attempts, contact with services before suicide, and inpatient staffing levels — are either buried in internal dashboards or never made public at all.
This OIA seeks factual, aggregated, numerical data to answer the real questions communities keep asking:
Are crisis teams responding fast enough to prevent harm?
Are people being seen after suicide attempts?
Are mental health units dangerously understaffed?
Is Police being used as a substitute for clinical care?
Are suicides rising in certain regions or age groups?
Are youth services meeting demand — or collapsing under it?
The OIA forms the fifth and final part of a national transparency series examining:
Workforce exits & shortages
Cancer incidence & late diagnosis
Diagnostic bottlenecks (radiology, pathology, oncology)
Cardiology, stroke & acute medical services
Mental health crisis services & suicidology
Together, these OIAs will provide one of the most comprehensive, publicly accessible datasets on the true condition of New Zealand’s health system from 2015–2025.
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