Vineeta Rao
Around the world, mental-health systems are grappling with a widening mismatch between rising demand and limited resources. In New Zealand too, this gap has become increasingly visible as workforce shortages, long wait-times and declining specialist access strain the system.
Digital mental-health innovations are increasingly emerging as one of the few viable ways to scale care equitably and sustainably.
Professor Anil Thapliyal, whose work centres on practical implementation, frames the problem in direct terms: “somebody out there is wanting to access something right now.”
Why Mental Healthcare Is Under-Resourced
New Zealand’s mental-health system faces significant workforce shortages. The Office of the Auditor-General has described these shortages as long-term and deeply embedded, particularly in specialist mental health and addiction services. Recruitment relies heavily on international clinicians, and vacancy rates remain high across key professions, including nursing and psychiatry.
These staffing constraints have had a direct effect on access. The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission reported that more than three thousand fewer people used specialist mental-health and addiction services in the most recent year compared with the previous year, and over sixteen thousand fewer than several years earlier. The Commission attributes the decline to limited capacity and increasing complexity among those who do enter care, which raises the threshold for who is seen.
The Reality of Wait-Times for Patients
Wait-times illustrate the scale of unmet need. New Zealand’s national target is for 80% of people to be seen within three weeks of referral. Recent monitoring shows that the country is marginally below that overall benchmark, but the picture is more concerning for younger people. Only about 60% of children and adolescents are seen within three weeks, with just over 84% seen within eight weeks.
Data from the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission indicates that telehealth wait-times have also lengthened over the past six years, suggesting that even digital pathways are absorbing pressure as demand intensifies.
A Continuum of Care, not a Crisis Line
For Professor Thapliyal, the solution lies in reframing mental-health care as a continuum, one that begins long before people reach crisis point. He argues that focusing on wellbeing promotion and early intervention is essential to preventing downstream strain. “Why pick up people only at the bottom of the cliff,” he asks, “when we can prevent them from getting onto the cliff in the first place.”
He believes the largest unmet need lies in the well-being, mild or moderate part of the continuum, where early intervention could prevent escalation. Yet clinicians often struggle to prescribe non-medicated tools because they lack clarity on what is effective. “93% of the clinicians prefer to give a non-medicated treatment option,” he says, “but they do not know where to find them, so they end up prescribing the medication.”
The Promise of Digital Solutions
Digital mental-health tools, including teletherapy, digital mental health solutions, remote assessments and AI-supported triage, are increasingly being adopted internationally as a response to resource constraints. For Professor Thapliyal, the most important scalable solutions emerge when countries collaborate knowledge about what actually works sustainability.
eMHIC, the mental health charitable organisation he leads, has been organising an global Congress annually for the last 10 years that gathers clinicians, academics, government officials, industry , caregivers and those with lived and living experience under the same roof for exactly that sort of knowledge exchange.
Thapliyal explains that the annual Congress that eMHIC convenes is designed to showcase practical success stories. “Countries that have done it well are featured under a highly popular initiative called “Brag and Steal.” During these Brag and Steal sessions “ a country can highlight some really cutting-edge initiatives they are super proud of, and other countries can steal the idea through government-to-government knowledge-exchange programmes.”
Among these innovations is an AI powered digital nurse assistant developed by Drive Health in Arizona. “Her name is Avery,” he says. “She will be a fully licensed as a registered clinical nurse for Arizona state by mid-2026. She is currently attending Arizona State University.” He sees Avery as an example of “what good looks like,” and notes that 725 international delegates from 44 countries are already confirmed to attend the eMHIC25 Congress in Toronto, Canada to observe exactly such cutting edge developments firsthand.
New Zealand’s Digital Opportunity
New Zealand, Professor Thapliyal believes, is well positioned to adopt digital solutions, describing the country as “a breeding ground of innovation.” Yet he is candid about why progress has been uneven. “There have been sporadic starts,” he says, “but that did not last long enough for it to become embedded fully into the system.”
While initiatives such as the Digital Mental Health and Addiction Assessment Toolkit (DMHAT) framework offer a starting point for evaluating digital interventions, ProfessorThapliyal argues that New Zealand still lacks a basic regulatory guidance for digital mental health. Beyond regulation, he emphasises the need for clearer navigation so people know how to access help. “It is not the lack of services,” he says. “It is not knowing where to go and how to access.”
Equity Through Self-Referral and Digital Access
One of the key strengths of digital mental-health solutions is their potential to improve equity. Professor Thapliyal highlights the experience of the United Kingdom’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme, where opening self-referral pathways expanded access to communities, such as south Asian communities who were previously underrepresented in GP referrals. For him, this proves that systems must reflect how people actually seek help, rather than expecting users to adapt to rigid pathways. For multi-cultural communities like those in New Zealand, this could change the way they access mental healthcare.
Ethics, Safety and Global Collaboration
As digital tools grow in scale and sophistication, concerns around regulation, privacy, cultural relevance and safety are gaining urgency. Professor Thapliyal believes that countries must collaborate to accelerate progress and avoid reinventing policy and strategy landscape that others have already tested. “We do not need to reinvent the wheel,” he says. “These are international best practices that we need to create a community of interest around. Mental health will never have enough money, so the only way we can create high impact from humble resources is when we collaborate. One plus one equals eleven when we get it right.”
A Path Forward for an Interconnected World
New Zealand’s mental-health system is under severe strain, with persistent workforce shortages, uneven access and long wait-times. Yet within these challenges lies an opportunity to rethink the model of care. Digital mental-health solutions, implemented thoughtfully and with strong governance, offer a way to strengthen prevention, expand access and reduce inequity.
For Professor Thapliyal, the goal is clear; have a bold vision, create champions for change, remove barriers, share solutions internationally and build systems that work for the people who need them most. As he reminds us, “somebody out there is wanting to access something right now”.
Vineeta Rao is an Indian Newslink journalist based in Auckland.
