{"id":943020,"date":"2026-05-07T04:19:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T04:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/943020\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T04:19:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T04:19:21","slug":"collaborative-approach-needed-to-fix-the-mental-health-crisis-for-young-people-youthline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/943020\/","title":{"rendered":"Collaborative approach needed to fix the mental health crisis for young people – Youthline"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"No<\/p>\n

\nPhoto: Public Health Summer School – Otago University\n<\/p>\n

Youthline says it is undertaking an average of three emergency interventions a day, up from one a week five years ago.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the helpline released a new report<\/a> that found young people are facing a perfect storm of mental health distress, rising living costs and digital pressures.<\/p>\n

The State of the Generation report interviewed 1041 young people from across Aotearoa aged 12-24.<\/p>\n

Chief executive Shae Ronald told Nine to Noon it ensured diversity was represented in the survey – wanting to “deep dive” into under-served communities.<\/p>\n

Ronald said Youthline wanted to find out the challenges diverse groups – such as the rainbow community and neurodiverse communities – were facing and how they could be supported.<\/p>\n

The report’s findings were in line with what the helpline was hearing from callers, she said.<\/p>\n

While mental health remained the top concern for nearly 60 percent of respondents, many felt the system was failing them due to long wait times, high costs, and a significant lack of awareness regarding available support services.<\/p>\n

\"Shae<\/p>\n

\nYouthline chief executive Shae Ronald.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n

A concerning factor, Ronald said, was that 40 percent of respondents didn’t know that mental health services were available to them at any time of day.<\/p>\n

A public campaign may be needed to ensure youth know they didn’t have to go through hard times alone, she said.<\/p>\n

Financial anxiety was a major driver of stress, with nearly half of younger teens worried about their parents’ finances and older youth struggling with a difficult job market and cost of living pressure.<\/p>\n

Ronald said Youthline was seeing increasingly complex cases, with emergency interventions jumping from one a week to more than 20 in just five years.<\/p>\n

Callers were also getting younger – with 10 percent of all calls now coming from children under the age of 12<\/a>, she said.<\/p>\n

Improving the situation for young people in New Zealand had to be done with their input, Ronald said.<\/p>\n

When it came to young people using social media, Ronald said a “nuanced approach” was needed and platforms needed to ensure being online was safe for them.<\/p>\n

This included enabling safety features and removing harmful content proactively.<\/p>\n

Any approach in improving social media for young people needed their input to ensure solutions were meaningful.<\/p>\n

This went for any approach to improving the “youth mental health crisis”, Ronald said.<\/p>\n

Systems needed to be co-designed with youth, early intervention was needed, and programmes should be developed for schools.<\/p>\n

Ronald didn’t believe that there was no money to fix the issues in the system.<\/p>\n

“We will pay as a society if we take that approach.”<\/p>\n

She said she had hope that Aotearoa would pay attention to what young people were saying and work together to strengthen and develop a system that works better for them.<\/p>\n

Where to get help:<\/p>\n