NZ’s mental healthcare is in crisis – but research shows us how to shorten wait times and keep staff

• New Zealand’s youth mental healthcare continues to experience a rolling crisis with long waiting times for services.
• There have been calls to expand the mental health workforce and to diversify the range of available services.
• As our research shows, it can help to shorten bulging waiting lists and retain staff in the workforce.

Training is necessary, but not sufficient

• These are often talking therapies that have been proven effective for most people through research studies such as clinical trials.
• Many mental health services deliver therapies based on dialectical behaviour therapy to help young people and adults improve their emotional regulation.
• There will always be a need to develop and adapt therapies, but a central challenge is better implementation of those we already have.

Better implementation of proven therapies

• It studies methods to enhance the adoption, implementation and sustained delivery of evidence-based practices to improve the quality of routine care.
• Rather than asking tired clinicians to do more, implementation science can identify the influences on clinician behaviour and target supports accordingly.
• Implementation science teaches us that providing guidelines or training in evidence-based therapy is necessary, but often not enough to achieve quality care.

Quality in action

• Their aim is to promote national standards for care quality in partnership with whānau, consumers and local communities.
• Beyond mental health, apparently simple solutions such as surgical checklists have been shown to substantially improve quality, even in resource-limited settings.
• Service leaders, funders and policymakers must urgently consider how we can best equip existing and new staff to deliver quality care, based on insights from implementation science.

Melanie Woodfield works as a clinical psychologist for Te Whatu Ora (Health New Zealand). She receives funding from the Health Research Council of New Zealand. Hiran Thabrew does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.