Mental wellbeing is worse and more people have been feeling lonely since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, but the Mental Health Foundation says Covid-19 is not solely responsible.
There are also more people feeling lonely than when the last Stats New Zealand's 2021 Wellbeing survey was taken. Photo: Unsplash / Timon Studler
Stats New Zealand's 2021 Wellbeing Statistics show more than 28 percent of the population reported poor mental wellbeing, which is nearly five percentage points more than the last survey in 2018.
There are also more people feeling lonely.
However, life satisfaction remain unchanged since 2018 with 81 percent of the population aged 15 and over satisfied with their lives, and people are significantly more optimistic about the future.
The fact that mental wellbeing was worse across the motu came as no surprise to anyone spoken to for this story.
Wellbeing principal analyst Dr Claire Bretherton said the data clearly showed life in a pandemic.
"The difference in mental wellbeing, for example, is a really important one that we think reflects what's been happening in New Zealand over the past couple of years," she said.
Those surveyed were asked the WHO-5, a list of positively worded questions by the World Health Organisation, which looked at whether in the past two weeks people felt all or most of the time: Cheerful and in good spirits, calm and relaxed, active and vigourous, fresh and rested, and whether life was filled with interesting things.
All of those measures went down in 2021 compared to the 2018 results.
Photo: Stats NZ
Overall life satisfaction remained unchanged since the last survey, with 81 percent of the population aged 15 and over satisfied with their lives.
But as wellbeing design analyst Dr Ben Atkins pointed out, they "found that poor mental wellbeing was associated with lower life satisfaction".
The figures showed minority groups like Māori, LGBT+ people, and disabled people aged 15 to 64 had poorer mental wellbeing than the general population.
Tabby Besley, the managing director of rainbow support charity InsideOUT, said the pandemic amplified issues and cut people off from support services and community spaces.
"People haven't necessarily been able to access those same supports or be in those community environments that we know are really protective factors for their wellbeing," she said.
"I think, as well, for many in rainbow communities they don't always have the same strong relationships with family, for example."
Photo: Statistics New Zealand
Besley was concerned with how things could have worsened since the study was conducted, noting a recent spate of anti-rainbow sentiments.
There needed to be better resourced support for rainbow communities, she said.
But people could also help out on the individual level, which included things like respecting people's names and pronouns, creating inclusive environments, and calling out trans- and homophobia, she said.
Mental Health Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson said while the pandemic definitely played a role in worsening wellbeing, it could not cop all of the blame.
"We already had an ongoing, major issue with mental health and wellbeing in this country pre-Covid-19."
Improving mental wellbeing was not always a quick fix, he said.
"As a society we definitely need to build the kind of environment where everybody's mental health is uplifted by the conditions they live in."
The country also needed to build support services and a culture of supporting one another and manaakitanga when people were struggling, Robinson said.
Minister of Health Andrew Little also said improving mental health was a "big task" and existing issues were "exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic".
He said work needed to be done around things like social cohesion, and recognising and welcoming diversity, as well as "making sure good social supports are in place for people to maintain their independence".
Improving wellbeing was also about "recognising how actions in the past that repressed and marginalised people can still be felt today", Little said.