Submission on the Mental Health Bill

This submission echoes calls from mokopuna who are urging action to tackle the immense and enduring challenges in child and youth mental health in our country. We emphasise the importance of both prevention and response in the mental health space for mokopuna, and that sustained holistic efforts are needed.

Mana Mokopuna supports the intent of the Mental Health Bill (the Bill), and we endorse certain areas of the Bill which protect, uphold and safeguard the rights of mokopuna. We also recommend that further work is done to strengthen some aspects of the Bill. This submission provides recommendations that amplify mokopuna, whānau, kaimahi and experts in mental health spaces. We continue to hear from mokopuna that there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to addressing mental illness. The Bill must put mokopuna at the centre of decision-making about their own care, and ensure that whānau are well informed, involved and supported throughout the journey to wellness.

As a National Preventative Mechanism (NPM) under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT), Mana Mokopuna have highlighted the following issues requiring action in these spaces and we recommended that the Committee prioritise these issues in the reforms:

• The ongoing lack of community-based placement options;
• Lack of appropriate complaints processes;
• Inappropriate nature of some physical settings for mokopuna in some in-patient facilities;
• Shortage of specialist staff to meet the needs of mokopuna; and
• Varying cultural capacity and capability across sites.

All mokopuna have the right to the highest attainable standard of health, and Aotearoa New Zealand, as a States Party to the Children’s Convention, is duty-bound to take measures to uphold this right. Our submission supports the general intent of the Bill however, we advocate for the Bill to go further to truly uphold mokopuna rights.