Wait time measures for mental health and addiction services. Key performance indicator literature review – March 2025

Long wait times for access to mental health and addiction services can negatively impact the wellbeing of tāngata whai ora. Timely access to services is a key sector and policy priority in Aotearoa New Zealand (Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction, 2018; Minister of Health, 2024). As part of the Government’s health sector priorities for 2024 to 2027, it established wait time targets of seeing 80 percent of tāngata whai ora accessing mental health support (through specialist or primary care services) within three weeks.

Available data across Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora and non-government organisation (NGOs) mental health and addiction service providers shows that in the past five years, just under 80 percent of tāngata whai ora waited less than three weeks to be seen (KPI Programme, 2024). The data further shows disparities in wait times; in 2023 almost 1 in 3 rangatahi aged under 24 years waited longer than 3 weeks to access services. While these show services are close to achieving the wait time target, there is a need to place more focus on further reducing wait times so more tāngata whai ora receive timely support.

Wait times are influenced by several factors including range and availability of services, lack of continuity between services, workforce shortages, and limited capacity and bottlenecking within services (Controller and Auditor-General, 2024; Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction, 2018; Te Pou, 2023a, 2023b). Meeting the national target for wait times and enabling timely access to services will require effort at both system and service levels. It is vital to understand what services and the wider mental health and addiction system can do to shorten wait times and support people waiting to access services.

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