The Mental Health Minister said the government is progressing towards doubling the number of clinical psychologists trained nationally.
Minister Matt Doocey said the frontline workforce has increased by approximately 10% over the past year, with progress made in areas like clinical psychology.
“We had a target of growing the number of clinical psychology internship places from 40 to 60. The latest data I’ve seen we’ve now grown that to 76, so we’re on target to double the amount of clinical psychologists that we’re training,” Doocey said.
Universities have increased the number of clinical psychology training places by 12 to help address a 12.6% vacancy rate in the field.
Doocey said that expanding the Health NZ-funded psychiatry workforce remains the greatest challenge, as it faces an almost 20% vacancy rate.
“We have also made it a priority to grow the number of stage one psychiatrist registrar training positions available each year, it has gone from 33 in 2024 to 54 in 2026,” he said.
According to Doocey, the government has set a goal to train 500 mental health and addiction professionals annually. 349 individuals started their training in the first semester.
“We’re on track to meet that 500 target by the end of the year,” he said.
“What we do know is there’s too many workforce vacancies that stop people getting the timely access to support they need.”
“At the one-year mark, it’s appropriate that Health NZ is updating the plan. This gives us the opportunity to acknowledge early gains, introduce new actions, and target workforce pressures.”
The workforce plan is looking to enhance training opportunities for enrolled nurses, develop training programmes to address methamphetamine-related harm, expand and strengthen the forensic workforce, and evaluate the growth of psychology hubs to increase capacity for psychology training.
“What we’ve seen from wastewater testing is that the recorded meth use has doubled. We’re also seeing through other data the number of people reporting daily use in the last six months has doubled as well. We’ve got to take a range of prevention and early intervention approaches,” Doocey explained.
Lisa Gestro, the interim director for Health NZ Mentally Well, acknowledged that while progress has been made, additional efforts are still required to address the pressures facing mental health services. She highlighted the role of the workforce in ensuring Kiwis can access the care they need when facing mental distress or addiction issues.