New campaign to beat depression

A $6.4 million campaign to reduce the impact of depression has been launched today by the Associate Minister of Health, Jim Anderton.

The National Depression Initiative is a national three year project to raise awareness of depression, to aid early recognition, appropriate treatment and recovery and will see former All Black John Kirwan front a series of high profile television advertisements.

“I secured the funding for this important initiative as part of a Progressive Party Budget bid and I am very pleased to be launching it today. The quality of the advertisements is impressive and I would like to thank John Kirwan for his time and commitment to them,” Associate Minister of Health Jim Anderton said

"We know that up to 90% of suicides are caused by depression and that each year 500 New Zealanders are dying by suicide. Depression is a significant concern for this Labour-Progressive Government and if we can raise awareness and reduce the impact that depression has on peoples' lives, hopefully we can reduce the number of lives being lost to suicide every year.

Jim Anderton says, "The World Health Organisation has predicted that by the year 2020, depression will be second only to cardiovascular disease, in contributing to the global burden of disease. We must tackle this problem head on and the National Depression Initiative will go a long way to achieving this objective.

"We are not talking about people feeling down or moody, we know everyone feels like that at some time in their lives, but some people continue to feel like this for long periods of time. We don't want New Zealanders to suffer from depression unnecessarily. People will recover much sooner if they seek treatment and for most people, there is a complete recovery.

Mr Anderton says depression not only affects the quality of peoples' lives but it also affects the quality of life for family and friends as well. Because of this we want the National Depression Initiative to reach New Zealanders who may be depressed or know someone who is and highlight the fact that there is a way through depression and there is hope.

The National Depression Initiative campaign will be supporting a range of new and existing primary mental health and mental health promotion services at a community level.

• A website has also been developed to provide information about depression and how to seek help:www.depression.org.nz
• Freephone information and support line is available on 0800 111 757.