Rural Women NZ Calls for Better Rural Mental Health Support

The strategy sets out how New Zealand will create a system that promotes mental health and wellbeing for all, and provides mental health and addiction support and services that meet people's needs.

Rural Women New Zealand (RWNZ) welcomes the strategy's direction, and has used its submission to bring the lived reality of rural communities to the Ministry of Health's attention.

"Anyone who has lived rurally knows that getting help is rarely simple," says Bronwyn Main, Health Policy Action Advisory Group convenor.

“You might be hours from the nearest service, juggling the farm, the kids, the animals and still trying to find the courage to ask for help in a small community,” she says.

The submission draws on the experiences of RWNZ members to show how distance, cost, stigma, and workforce shortages combine to push rural people to crisis point before they can access support.