About 300,000 students are to benefit from a $25 million investment by the government to boost mental health care for tertiary students.
Education and health minister Chris Hipkins says the frontline mental health and wellbeing services will help students manage ongoing stresses related to Covid-19.
“The Covid-19 lockdown has been hugely disruptive for students and many of them have had to relocate and move to online learning, isolating them from their peers and tutors,” says Hipkins.
Tertiary education institutions (TEIs) comprise universities, institutes of technology and polytechnics and wānanga.
Hipkins says the initiative will focus on supporting tertiary students with mild to moderate levels of distress through primary-level supports, which may include evidence-informed therapy and treatment services, peer support, cultural support, self-management support and access to a range of social supports.
“The funding builds on the existing roll-out of free primary mental health and wellbeing services for 18 to 25-year-olds including the Piki programme in Wellington and programmes at Auckland and Canterbury Universities."
A Request for Proposals (RFP) process led by the Ministry of Health will get underway from November to select services to deliver the support.
“Local health providers will need to work with tertiary education providers to develop a proposal that best suits the needs of their student community,” Hipkins says.
The expansion of the services will start next year and continue over the following four years.