Mental Health systems in New Zealand are understaffed, underfunded and overcrowded. I have sent multiple emails directly to Jacinda Ardern and had a response completely disregarding everything I had said and emails to the District Health Board have received no response, I have been given no alternative to gain their attention and as an irrelevant teenager, I know I cannot get their attention alone.

Waitlists to get help are reaching as long as 8 and a half months. During the waiting period, most illness's get progressively worst and majority of people end up in intensive care or worse, before reaching their full wait period. There is opportunity for these systems to be improved however, the desperate and urgent improvements needed are been ignored by the New Zealand Government. As a victim to mental illness I was fortunate enough to be able to go into private care however, had I not been fortunate enough to have that opportunity I would have been added to the extremely long wait list and most likely would’ve been hospitalised before my full wait period was up. This is the very real outcome for many New Zealanders who do not have the same options as I have had.

I urge you to sign this petition so the New Zealand Government can notice that New Zealanders all over the country are pleading for them to make a change. To devote more attention towards our systems, to help the wellbeing of so many people and to ensure the future of our mental health systems are headed in a more positive direction. Without the attention from the Government, the people who have the power to change our systems for the better, New Zealand's approach to mental illness will continue at this rapid decline.