Kia ora whānau

I hope you all had a chance to look through our year in review that I sent last Monday to see just how far we have come and what we have achieved together. Over the coming weeks we also want to be able to share with you our plans for what we’ll be focusing on for the year ahead.

I am also pleased to be able to share some great news about a collaboration between the Ministry and Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees to bridge the digital divide by providing free access to essential health information and services.

Expanding peoples’ access to and choice of mental health support and services is a key part of what my team are delivering over the next four years, and online is a preferred option for many especially young people and rural communities.

Listening to feedback from health providers that the cost of mobile data can be a barrier to people in using these services led the Ministry to collaborate with the three big telcos to fund a solution, so that access is fair for all.

Find out more including which websites are free to access and please pass on this information to your networks and communities.

I hope you all have a good weekend.

Robyn