At the first Addiction Leadership Day of 2024, NCAT co-Chair Deb Fraser-Komene challenged the Government to find ways it can work with the sector to bring a strong addiction, mental health and cultural lens to strengthen and develop services that can provide good outcomes for tāngata whai ora throughout the country.
Speaking to the disparity between service demand and current investment, as well as evidence that Access and Choice is not working for many who need specialist care, Deb asked several questions on behalf of the COmmittee and the wider sector:
- What plans are there to support and broaden addiction treatment options and its requisite investment so New Zealanders can access the specialist care they need?
- What is the Government planning to do to address treatment model shortfalls and the loss of the specialist addiction workforce to better remunerated generic wellbeing roles?
- What tangible plans does the Government have to support efforts to address stigma and discrimination?
Read the entire speech, and find out more about Addiction Leadership Day, March 2024.