Hon Matt Doocey
Minister for Mental Health

Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey today officially marked the start of a new peer support service at Wellington Hospital Emergency Department, an initiative that will help people to have faster access to mental health support.

“The peer support specialists are workers with lived experience who are available talk to people who are presenting to the ED in mental distress, they provide comfort, as well as help connect people with the needed community services,” Mr Doocey says.

“I have been heartened to hear that early feedback is showing that peer support specialists are already proving to be beneficial for people presenting to emergency departments in mental distress.

“Mental health is about lived experience. Peer support specialists have the ability to offer others hope and show that there is a pathway forward. These are workers that have been trained on how to adequately support others going through similar experiences.

“I’m very pleased that this service is now being rolled out to Wellington ED. The hospital services a large community across the region, and ensuring we have peer support specialists available will mean extra support for people and their families.

Wellington ED is the most recent hospital to provide the service with Auckland Hospital and Middlemore hospital already rolled out. The service will be extended to Christchurch and Waikato EDs in the coming months and three further locations will be announced soon.

“One of the biggest barriers to support is the workforce, that is why we are focused on growing the mental health and addiction workforce so people can access timely mental health support when and where they need it.”

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