Mental health and addiction service access data collection FAQs

Here are more details about why we want to hear from a wide cross section of people, how the information we collect will be used, and answers to other frequently asked questions. 

If you have any other questions or have issues with the online form, you can email us at kiaora@mhwc.govt.nz.

What is the purpose of the online forms?

For our next monitoring report, we are investigating access to mental health and addiction services.

We want to know what it is like for people to access mental health and addiction services in Aotearoa, and better understand what service options are available.

What people share with us will help us to better understand changes in the number of people who use mental health and addiction services.

Who do we want to hear from?

We want to hear from people who have experience of mental distress, alcohol or other drug harm, gambling harm, or addiction who have sought help and/or decided not to seek help:

• if you have found help, tell us how easy or difficult it was to get what you needed.
• if you didn’t find help, tell us what stopped you from getting the help you needed.

We also want to hear from whānau, family, and supporters of people with these experiences.

What sort of things are being asked?

We have two separate online forms, each with their own set of questions. One online form is for people with experience of mental distress, alcohol or other drug harm, gambling harm, or addiction. The other online form is for whānau, family, and supporters of people with these experiences. Both online forms ask people about their experiences of accessing or not accessing services (for whatever reason).

There are three sets of questions in the online form for people who have experience of mental distress, alcohol or other drug harm, gambling harm, or addiction. These ask about:

• the most recent time people have accessed a service
• a time that people have tried but have been unable to access a service
• a time that people have considered accessing a service but decided not to.

There are two sets of questions in the whānau, family, and supporters’ online form. These ask about:

• the most recent time people have supported a person to access mental health service, alcohol or other drug service, or gambling service
• a time when people have supported a person and they have not accessed these services.

Additionally, both online forms have questions about basic details about you such as your age group. These details will help us analyse data for our priority populations. There are also three privacy and consent questions so you can tell us what you would like us to do with your data.

What will the organisation do with the online form results?

What people share with us in the online form will contribute toward our monitoring report on access to mental health and addiction services. We will also publish a report summarising what we hear from people. We will share quotes from the online form in these reports. These reports will be used to advocate for changes to the mental health and addiction system. If we have people’s permission, we may also use what they share with us for other monitoring and advocacy projects.

Are the online forms confidential and anonymous?

All online form responses are confidential, and people can choose to be anonymous.

At the end of the online form, there are questions about consent and privacy. If people tell us they are happy with us using their name in our reports, we may do so with quotes from their online form. Otherwise, any quotes used in the report will not be named. We will also make sure that there is no identifiable information in the report.

Also, at the end of the online form there is space for people to add their email address. This is for people who are interested in follow-up work for this project, contributing to any other Te Hiringa Mahara project, or going into the draw for the four Prezzy Virtual cards.

How will the information be stored?

The online form responses will be stored in Survey Monkey and a secure folder that will only be accessed by the team working on the service access and options project. 

How long do I have to fill in the online form?

The online form is open until 30 November 2023.