Te Whatu Ora adult mental health and addiction workforce: 2022 adult alcohol and drug and mental health services report

This report presents estimates for the 2022 Te Whatu Ora adult alcohol and drug, forensic, and mental health workforce based on the Health Workforce Information Programme employee dataset.

The report estimates the FTE workforce size, vacancies, composition, and turnover. It also summarises the age, gender, ethnicity, and length of service profile for Te Whatu Ora employees on 31 March 2022.

Key findings are as follows.

• The workforce totals 7,311 FTE positions (employed and vacant).
• Vacancy rates (11 percent) are nearly twice those of 2018 (6 percent).
• The workforce is comprised of support workers (15 percent), registered health professionals (71 percent), and advisors, managers, and administrators (14 percent).

The report finds some progress towards health policy and strategy goals to grow the workforce size is being hampered by high vacancy rates and recruitment at replacement levels only. A workforce development plan is needed to build sustainable workforce pipelines, increase ethnic and gender diversity, reduce vacancies, increase recruitment and improve retention, and address the challenges of an ageing workforce.