Our history
"The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for staying ashore."
Vincent van Gogh
In 1997, a partnership between the former Health Funding Authority and the Health Research Council was set up to fund and administer a new strategy called the Mental Health Research and Development Strategy (MHRDS). Later, the Ministry of Health took over the lead role in funding and overseeing the strategy, the aim of which was to fund research and development activities to assist in the recovery of people who experience mental illness and alcohol and drug problems.
By 2002, a Mental Health Standard Measures of Assessment and Recovery initiative, known as MH-SMART, had sprung from the New Zealand Mental Health Classification and Outcomes Study (CAOS Study), and found a compatible home within the MHRDS. (One of the objectives of the CAOS study was to trial the introduction of outcome measurement into routine clinical practice, which has now become a Ministry of Health contractual requirement for all DHBs.)
A year later, the Mental Health Workforce Development Programme (MHWDP) was launched in Wellington as a partnership between the DHB chief executives and the Ministry of Health. It was established to ensure a nationally coordinated approach to workforce development in the sector.
The three programmes were run by the Health Research Council until December 2005, when the Ministry of Health selected Wise Trust as the most appropriate host to take them into a new and inspirational era for mental health service delivery in this country.
Consequently, in March 2006, the Wise Trust established a wholly owned charitable company, Mental Health Programmes Ltd, to take responsibility for the programmes.
After a rapid rebuilding and rebranding exercise, in close consultation with the Ministry and tangata whenua, Mental Health Programmes became Te Pou, which has absorbed the original programmes, and is now Te Pou, The National Centre for Mental Health Research and Workforce Development. In 2007, the MH-SMART team, which was inside the research team, became Information in its own right and our name changed to reflect this: The National Centre for Mental Health Research, Information and Workforce Development. In 2008, Le Va - Pasifika within Te Pou, became the fourth progamme.
The centre is in a sustained period of growth, during which time the direction of Te Pou is being charted; it is neither a government department nor an academic institution, but a company with charitable purposes that remains committed to developing the sector and being a conduit for knowledge, learning and, above all, inspiration.
Page last updated: 12 February 2009