2. Question No. 2—HealthJAMI-LEE ROSS (Botany) to the Minister of HealthQuestion No. 2—Health2. JAMI-LEE ROSS (Botany) to the Minister of Health: Does he agree with the calls made at the teen suicide awareness march at Parliament yesterday for more counsellors in schools as one measure to help reduce New Zealand's youth suicide rates; if so how many more counsellors will be funded over the next four years?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK (Minister of Health): School counsellors are just one of a range of supports available in schools to help students with their mental well-being. This Government is committed to helping our young people in distress. For example yesterday when the march arrived at Parliament about which the member speaks I was at Victoria University announcing the further roll-out of the Piki pilot which is delivering free mental health support to 18- to 25-year-olds in the Greater Wellington region. What we want young people to know is that there is no wrong door to accessing mental health support. In our first Budget we extended the nurses in schools programme to cover decile 4 secondary schools and we've also rolled out Mana Ake which makes mental health support available in all primary and intermediate schools in Canterbury and Kaikōura.Jami-Lee Ross: Will the Government adopt recommendation 30 of the mental health and addiction inquiry to Urgently complete the national suicide prevention strategy and implementation plan and ensure the strategy is supported by significantly increased resources for suicide prevention and postvention"?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: The report was a very considered report which got 5200 submissions. We are responding as a Government before the Budget to that report but I'm not able to announce our response today.Jami-Lee Ross: Is he willing to meet with the organiser of yesterday's march Pania Te-Paiho Marsh to discuss ways to reduce New Zealand's alarming rates of teenage and youth suicide? Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: My office will consider requests to meet. Matt Doocey: What does the Minister say in response to the editorial in the Christchurch Press which states "overall the mental health inquiry appears to fit a wider pattern of delays obfuscation and a lack of transparency that has started to afflict this Government … we see a widening gulf between promise and delivery."? Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: I utterly reject that assertion. This Government has got on with investing in mental health even while the inquiry was under way. We put an additional $200 million into the ring-fence for district health boards for mental health and addiction issues. We've put nurses into schools. We have put the Mana Ake programme into place across the Greater Wellington region which is serving young people 18 to 25—sorry that's the Piki programme. We have the Mana Ake programme in Christchurch Canterbury and Kaikōura which is serving primary and secondary students and making sure that they have mental health supports in schools that were not in place previously. We've also extended cheaper doctors visits to community service card holders meaning over 500000 more New Zealanders will have access to cheaper doctors visits—approximately $20 to $30 cheaper on average—and that will mean people will be able to access mental health services in primary care. This is a Government committed to getting on with the job of addressing our mental health challenges. The need went up I'm advised over 10 years by about 60 percent and resource only went up around half of that. So resource has been lacking in this area as it has across the health system and we as a Government are determined to address that. We will be responding soon to the mental health inquiry. It is a worthy inquiry and we will give it a worthy response."