Mental health telehealth review highlights abandoned call rates and lack of integration

NEWS  - eHealthNews editor Rebecca McBeth

The government has accepted all 16 recommendations from an independent review of mental health and addiction telehealth services, which found many calls are being abandoned because of long wait times and fragmentation between services is creating risk.  

The review, conducted between April and June 2026 by an independent expert panel, found that a large number of calls to the country's three national mental health and addiction telehealth providers go unanswered or are abandoned. 

The three providers are Whakarongorau Aotearoa, which operates the 1737 helpline; Youthline; and Lifeline Aotearoa. 

It also found that poor integration between providers is creating gaps in patient care as callers are being passed between services without resolution or, in many cases, without any follow-up support. 

"Safety concerns do not lie primarily within any individual provider, but at the interfaces between them and with the wider emergency and health system," the report says. 

An example is when calls are escalated to emergency services, telehealth providers have no way of knowing whether the caller actually connected with the support they were referred to. 

Mental health minister Matt Doocey announced three immediate responses: an expansion of peer support hours through 1737, a proactive follow-up call pilot for people in acute distress, and the establishment of a dedicated 24/7 national suicide prevention crisis line function. 

"Too many people are not getting through quickly enough, and we do not always have enough visibility of what happens after someone is referred or escalated to another service," Doocey said. 

Peer support availability through 1737 will be extended to 9am-12pm, seven days a week, with five additional full-time equivalent peer support workers. The expanded service is expected to add between 15,000 and 20,000 additional contacts per year. 

Health New Zealand will commission Whakarongorau to pilot proactive follow-up calls for up to 1,000 people experiencing acute distress following an initial telehealth interaction. 

The government also plans to set up a 24/7 suicide prevention crisis line within the telehealth system. 

Doocey said he has asked officials for advice on introducing a dedicated mental health and addiction telehealth target to drive improvements in wait times. 

The review found abandonment rates range from 29 percent to 33 percent on the 1737 line, 57 percent to 69 percent on Lifeline's main line, and 49 percent to 68 percent on Lifeline's Tautoko suicide crisis line. 

Average wait times on the 1737 line run between 21 and 26 minutes, with only around half of calls answered within 10 minutes, despite the key performance indicator target of 80 percent. 

"It takes a lot of courage to make that call, and the longer you are waiting, the more opportunities you have to lose that courage and just hang up," one lived experience participant told the review panel. 

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