Te Rau Hinengaro literally translates as ‘the many minds’ and is a reference to how the mind may be thought of as having many different states or levels. It is used to capture the objective of the survey to measure mental disorder.
This report, Te Rau Hinengaro: The New Zealand Mental Health Survey:
- provides important and not previously available information about the prevalence of mental disorders and their patterns of onset and impact for adults in New Zealand
- explores the relationship between mental disorders and physical disorders
- provides information about the patterns of health and non-health service use by people with mental health problems
- examines the relationship between sociodemographic correlates and the probability of people meeting criteria for a mental disorder or accessing care
- describes the prevalence and correlates of suicidal behaviour.
This report has been written to meet the aims of the survey and to interpret findings; it does not advocate actions or policies.
The full report is here, or the individual chapters can be downloaded from the Ministry of Health website.
Purpose
The four main objectives of Te Rau Hinengaro: The New Zealand Mental Health Survey were, for the total New Zealand, Māori and Pacific populations living in New Zealand, to:
- describe the one-month, 12-month and lifetime prevalence rates of major mental disorders among those aged 16 and over living in private households, overall and by sociodemographic correlates
- describe patterns of and barriers to health service use for people with mental disorder
- describe the level of disability associated with mental disorder
- provide baseline data and calibrate brief instruments measuring mental disorders and psychological distress to inform the use of these instruments in future national health surveys.