Mapping the mental health monitoring landscape to drive systems improvement: Stocktake of mental health and addiction monitoring data

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission needed to map all mental health and addiction monitoring activities across New Zealand, but faced several critical challenges such as scattered information sources, hidden data collectors and unclear reporting relationships. 

Data collection activities were spread across dozens of agencies with no central directory or coordination point. Without a system-wide view, multiple agencies likely gathered similar data, creating inefficiencies and inconsistencies. While major systems like Ministry of Health PRIMHD were well-known, many smaller organisations were quietly collecting valuable mental health data with little visibility. The connections between data collection activities were often undocumented, making it difficult to understand how information flowed through the system. 

As a relatively new organisation, the Commission lacked institutional knowledge about these complex monitoring networks. They needed a comprehensive map of who collected what data, how that information was used and where critical gaps existed – all within a two-month timeframe and a limited budget.

Throughout the project, we held regular liaison meetings and sense-making sessions with the Commission. This ensured alignment with their needs and allowed us to refine findings in real time. 

Our project was structured into three phases:

We developed a centralised landscape map that clearly showed who collects mental health and addiction data, what specific information they monitor, when and why this monitoring occurs and how the collected data gets used in practice. 

The landscape map provided the Commission with three key benefits: