Press Release
Thursday 17 July
For Immediate Release
National Depression Initiative to Engage with GPs at New Mental Health Guidelines Launch
Today the Ministry of Health will launch new guidelines for GPs at the Annual Scientific Conference held by The Royal
New Zealand College of General Practitioners.
The guidelines provide best practice for the identification and treatment of depression to GPs and other primary health
care clinicians and have been developed in response to the fact that over one third of adults seeing a primary care
professional are likely to have a mental health problem.
The National Depression Initiative (NDI) is a national public health campaign launched by the Ministry of Health in 2006
to reduce the impact of depression on the lives of New Zealanders. During the Conference the NDI Sector Relationship
Manager, Bram Kukler will begin a process of engagement with GPs and clinicians to raise their awareness about the
resources provided by the initiative, coinciding with the launch of the new guidelines for GPs.
This engagement will help provide valuable feedback from primary health care which will be fed into the ongoing NDI
development of the campaign.
Bram Kukler says, “The NDI is currently working to bridge the gap between clinical treatment for depression and
depression support services such as the Depression Helpline and the NDI and Lowdown websites. By creating developing a
link between primary health care and these services the NDI aims to enable the alignment of clinical treatment and self
management tools.”
Following the successful launch of the Lowdown.co.nz website, which helps young New Zealanders understand, manage and
recover from depression, the NDI website targeted at adults is being redeveloped and re-launched early in the new-year.
The new website will be an engaging, interactive destination for people to access information on depression, put them in
contact with appropriate help services and arm them with self-help strategies and solutions to improve lives affected by
depression.
By making GPs and primary health care clinicians aware of depression support services available the NDI aims to develop
effective and cohesive support and treatment for people experiencing depression.
ENDS