133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
T+64 4 496 2000
8 December 2025
Spencer Jones
By email: [FYI request #32941 email]
Ref:
H2025075905
Tēnā koe Spencer
Transfer of your request for official information
Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) to the Ministry of
Health – Manatū Hauora (the Ministry) and Health New Zealand (HNZ) – Te Whatu Or on 20
November 2025 for information regarding mental health. You initially requested a
ten part
question of which the Ministry was only able to respond to part
ten of your request. As below:
10. Ministerial briefings (2020–2025)
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 contacted you on the 5 December 2025 asking you to refine your request by checking the
briefing lists and come back to us with specific briefings that you were interested in as below:
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, in accordance with section 18(d) of the Act
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:
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 wil 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 identify the specific briefings of interest, then the
Ministry wil work to provide these to you. Please note that many briefings are also already
published on the Ministry’s website. If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request with us,
including this decision, please feel free to contact the OIA Services Team on:
[email address].
You then replied on the same day and changed your refined request to:
“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.
Page 2 of 7
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 wil allow me to refine further requests appropriately.
This refined request focuses only on national-level indicators already routinely collected for
service planning, quality assurance, and workforce oversight.
Your request asks for information which is more closely connected to the functions of Health
New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora (HNZ). For this reason, I have decided to transfer your request to
HNZ under section 14(b)(i ) of the Act. You can expect a response from Health New Zealand -
Te Whatu Ora in due course. Their contact email is
[email address].
If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request with us, including this decision, please feel
free to contact the OIA Services Team on: [email address].
Under section 28(3) of the Act, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review any
decisions made under this request. The Ombudsman may be contacted by email at:
[email address] or by calling 0800 802 602.
Page 3 of 7
Nāku noa, na
Jan Torres
Manager OIA Services
Government and Executive Services | Te Pou Whakatere Kāwanatanga
COPY OF OIA REQUEST
From: SPENCER JONES
<[FYI request #32941 email]>
Sent: Friday, 5 December 2025 20:54
To: OIA Requests
<[email address]>
Subject: Re: Refinement of your request for information, ref: H2025075905 CRM:0294872
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)
Page 4 of 7
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.
Page 5 of 7
(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 col ected for service
planning, quality assurance, and workforce oversight.
Kind regards,
Spencer Jones
-----Original Message-----
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
Page 6 of 7
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
Page 7 of 7
