You’re Ready

Every year, about 1 in 5 New Zealanders deal with mental illness or serious mental distress, and up to 8 in 10 of us will face mental health or addiction challenges at some point in our lives. Despite these issues impacting so many of us, there simply aren’t enough people in the mental health workforce to support us. That’s why Health New Zealand commissioned us to create a campaign to encourage more people to pursue this rewarding and important career.

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In 2022, the Government announced the New Zealand mental health workforce was in crisis, with hundreds of nurses needed across the country. In the previous 5 years, psychologist vacancies had increased by 135% and both psychiatrist and mental health nurse vacancies by more than 90%. Here in Aotearoa, the post-pandemic environment created an urgent need for more nurses to work in mental health and addictions – and a nursing workforce to match the communities they serve.

While we found that many people were interested in becoming mental health and addictions nurses, we learned through research that not many believed they were ready, for a variety of reasons. We wanted to change their minds and encourage them to pursue this career path.

We knew we needed a campaign that unified and inspired, so we co-designed with real nurses. We brought them along the journey from the outset and took the time to really understand our audience’s barriers and motivations. Those insights were compiled into a single motivating platform – ‘You’re Ready’ – that gave us stretch and the freedom to add bespoke messages and assets.

Nearly 400 health workers signed up to specialise in mental health and addictions last year – more than double compared to four years ago.

Encouraging people to choose a career in mental health and addiction nursing

Challenge

Inspiration

Idea

Growth

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