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Forensic mental health services are being boosted by $33 million to improve early intervention and treatment services for youth offenders, Associate Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman announced today.

The funding, spread over four years, will provide mental health, alcohol and drug assessment services for the 4200 young offenders who appear in youth courts each year. This will allow referral to relevant health services as appropriate.

Good afternoon. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this afternoon as part of Mental Health Awareness Week. 

The theme for today’s seminar is 'The Great Push: Investing in Mental Health'.

In New Zealand there was a 'Great Change' in the way we delivered mental health services, before the “Great Push” to invest in mental health began.

Mental Health Awareness Week is a timely point at which to measure progress in New Zealand mental health services, says Associate Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman.

’’This week is Mental Health Awareness Week and the theme is to connect with family, friends and neighbours to strengthen your support networks. Support networks are vital for preventing people becoming unwell.

‘’It’s also important that New Zealanders can access mental health services, especially at the primary care level so interventions can take place at an early stage.

Welcome guests and welcome to The Cloud.

The Cloud showcases New Zealand’s creativity and innovation – it’s a national centre showcasing everything that New Zealand does well.

The Rugby World Cup has provided a great vehicle for New Zealand to present itself to the world. We’ve warmly welcomed the tens of thousands of visitors here for the tournament and 95,000 are expected to visit in total.

Thank you for the warm welcome. It’s a privilege to be here today to open the Connect Conference.

Today we mark Connect’s “coming of age” since its formation 21 years ago by celebrating the mental health and addiction sector’s journey of growth and development over the same period.

 We do things differently now than we did 21 years ago.

 21 years ago most people with a severe mental illness lived in large psychiatric hospitals, often located in remote areas - hidden away from society.

A bill that gives the public assurances about the safety and efficacy of natural health products passed its first reading in Parliament today, says Associate Health Minister Jonathan Coleman.

The Natural Health Products Bill, one of the shared policy initiatives agreed to by the National and Green Parties under a Memorandum of Understanding, gives consumers confidence that the natural health products they buy are safe, and true to label.

Legislation to ensure consumers can have confidence in the quality of natural health products is being tabled in Parliament today, says Associate Health Minister Jonathan Coleman.

The Natural Health Products Bill is one of the shared policy initiatives agreed to by the National and Green Parties under a Memorandum of Understanding.
Dr Coleman says the Bill provides New Zealanders with assurances that the products they buy are safe and true to claim.

Good morning and thank you for inviting me to address the Centre of Performance Measurement and Management’s inaugural event. It’s good to see you and the Centre for Health Systems jointly looking at improving health system performance. I look forward to hearing the outcomes of having the ‘bean counters’ and the ‘improvers’ in the same room.

Figures released today show that almost 18,000 New Zealanders experiencing depression have registered to use The Journal – a user friendly online tool aimed at managing mild to moderate depression.

The Journal is fronted by former All Black John Kirwan who acts as an online personal coach to help people through a six-week programme. Launched in June 2010, it teaches techniques people can easily use in everyday life to help their own depression from social and physical activities to eating and sleeping well.

Efforts are being stepped up to support quake-stricken Cantabrians with more resources being channelled into mental health services, says Associate Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman.

Extended GP consultations, increased counselling support and a new specialist earthquake response team has been established to help people cope with the on-going effects of the series of major earthquakes and aftershocks in the region.

Dementia sufferers and older people with mental health and addiction problems will benefit from new guidelines for treatment services says Associate Minister of Health Jonathan Coleman.

The national guidelines, released today, aim to improve access to services and provide consistency in service delivery across all District Health Boards and aged care providers.

Cabinet has given the green light for work to commence on a new natural health products regulator, Associate Health Minister Jonathan Coleman confirmed today.

The natural health products regulator is one of the shared policy initiatives agreed to by the National and Green Parties under a Memorandum of Understanding.

Thank you for inviting me here today to the opening of Mind and Body’s new buildings.  This is an exciting time for your organisation, and you should be very proud of your achievements to date.

Good morning everyone. It’s a pleasure to be here at this year’s annual conference and thank you to the conference organisers for inviting me to speak.

Firstly I would like to acknowledge NZMSA president Oliver Hansby and the NZMSA executive and delegates from New Zealand’s four medical schools and overseas guests

Kia ora koutou katoa

Thank you for inviting me here to celebrate International Nurses Day, which is tomorrow May 12, and which also happens to be Florence Nightingale’s birthday.   It is a pleasure to take time to recognise the great contribution that nurses make to the health of New Zealanders.  I’d like to extend greetings to Nano Tunnicliffe, Kerri Nuku,  and Siloma Masina. 

Associate Minister of Health Dr Jonathan Coleman today opened the new Brain Recovery Clinic in Auckland which is set to advance the treatment of brain injuries and neurological conditions.

The Brain Recovery Clinic, which is part of the Centre for Brain Research at Auckland University, will focus on finding and developing new treatments for brain disease and therapies for patients. The initial focus of the Clinic will be on stroke and traumatic brain injury.

Health Minister Tony Ryall and Broadcasting Minister Jonathan Coleman have congratulated New Zealand broadcasters for voluntarily extending the restrictions on advertising to children.

Mr Ryall says, "The updated booklet, Getting it Right For Children, confirms restrictions on when ads for children can be screened, and includes restrictions on advertising children's foods.

Health Minister Tony Ryall and Associate Health Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman today welcomed confirmation the new Northern eating disorder service is up and running and providing much needed treatment to seriously unwell patients in the region.

‘’The Government said it would provide more eating disorder services and we’re delivering on that promise,’’ Mr Ryall says.

Associate Health Minister Jonathan Coleman today welcomed the appointment of Dr Lynne Lane as the new chair of the Mental Health Commission.

Dr Lane has been appointed for three years from 1 January 2011 and replaces Dr Peter McGeorge who resigned earlier this year.

‘’Lynne brings strong management expertise and significant health sector experience to the role,’’ Dr Coleman says.

Associate Health Minister Jonathan Coleman today announced the Government's next steps to improve access to mental health and addiction services over the coming year.

E nga mana, e nga iwi, e nga reo, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa. 

Drug treatment services for the Southern region were boosted today with the opening of an expanded residential service at Dunedin's Moana House.

Associate Health Minister Jonathan Coleman today welcomed the roll out of an initiative to improve the quality of mental health and addiction services.

It's a pleasure to open the Cutting Edge National Conference today and I welcome the many distinguished guests both from overseas and from around New Zealand. You work in a very testing sector.