Mental Health and Work: New Zealand
Tackling mental health problems of the working-age population is a key issue for labour
market and social policies in OECD countries, not just for health systems. Governments
increasingly recognise that policy has a major role to play in keeping people with
mental health conditions in employment or bringing those outside of the labour market
into it, and in preventing mental illness. This report on New Zealand is the tenth
in a series of reports looking at how broader education, health, welfare and labour
market policy challenges are being tackled in a number of countries. The report is
also the first one published after the endorsement of the OECD Recommendation of the
Council on "Integrated Mental Health, Skills and Work Policy" and assesses New Zealand's
performance against the strategic policy framework agreed by all OECD countries. The
report concludes that awareness and policy thinking is well developed in New Zealand
but that structural and institutional weaknesses limit the provision of timely, integrated
health and employment services, with particularly disappointing outcomes for the indigenous
population. Against the background of the OECD Council Recommendation, the report
proposes improvements in policy development and policy implementation to make youth,
workplace, health and welfare policies ready for the challenge.
Published on December 12, 2018
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