Simon Bridges National MP simonbridges.co.nz

Last Tuesday I was made a Minister of the Crown with responsibilities as Associate Minister of Transport and of Climate Change and as Minister of Consumer Affairs.

A small ceremony was held in the Beehive with the Governor-General, the Prime Minister and other ministers in attendance. I was also grateful that my wife, son and family could be present for what was a very special moment in my career as your MP.

I will write more about my new roles soon but in the meantime I thought I would make clear one thing that some people get confused about. Becoming a Minister doesn't mean I have to move full time to Wellington and in fact the amount of time I spend at Parliament won't change much from what has always been the case. My family and I will continue to live in Tauranga and I will commute back and forth to this city I call home.

Prime Minister's Youth Mental Health Package

Young people will shape the future of our communities.

So many of them are on the right track. They are learning, achieving, and have high aspirations for their future. But some find the transition from childhood to adulthood tough going. One in five young people will experience some form of mental health problem during this crucial time.

Last week Prime Minister John Key announced a comprehensive youth mental health package. It is designed to ensure young people with mental health problems receive better, faster, more modern help.

Our Youth Mental Health package covers four areas:

• In schools
• Online
• In families and communities
• In the health system

Schools will be better equipped to identify students with mental health issues. We're investing $18.6 million to put extra nurses, and specially trained youth workers, into low-decile secondary schools.

We want schools to take more responsibility for the wellbeing of their students. We will measure how well schools are doing when it comes to student wellbeing. Over time we expect them to show decreases in things like bullying. Other school-based initiatives in the package include the expansion of a positive behaviour programme to all secondary schools.

Young people are tech-savvy and use the internet as a second home. We need to modernise our approach if we are to reach the kids we need to help.

We will invest $2.7 million in E-therapy for young people. We're launching a Social Media Innovations Fund to support providers of youth services to better use social media technology, including smart phone apps and Facebook-related programmes. We'll ask for support from the private sector to boost this fund.

Parents, families, and friends have a big role to play identifying mental health issues in young people, but they need more authoritative information. We will fund non-government organisations to get that information out to parents, families, and friends.

When a young person with a mental illness seeks help in the health system, it's important we deliver. We are increasing funding for primary mental health care and ensuring that more young people benefit from that money. We will set new wait-time targets for Child and Adolescence Mental Health Services to reduce waiting times. We will also improve post-discharge follow ups.

When it comes to delivering for young people, National is interested in what works. There are many more initiatives than these in the Youth Mental Health package. The details are online at www.national.org.nz and I encourage you to check out what we're doing.