Understanding the mental health and impact of substance use on infants, children, and youth in Aotearoa New Zealand: Findings from a scoping review.

Te Pou, in partnership with Infant, Child and Youth workforce centre, Whāraurau, commissioned the University of Auckland to undertake this scoping review on measuring the mental health and impact of substance use on infants, children, and youth.

The research was made possible with support from Oranga Tamariki.

We would like to thank the lead researchers and authors of this report Vartika Sharma, Lovely Dizon and Julia Vajda de Albuquerque at the University of Auckland.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank the expert technical rōpū for their input, insights and support during the various stages of the review:

Abigail McDonald, Youth Consumer Advisor, Whāraurau, Cameron Lacey, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago, Ōtautahi, Denise Kingi-Uluave, Chief Executive, Le Va, John Zonnevylle, Acting Chief Clinical Advisor, Manatū Hauora, Jude Ball, Senior Research Fellow, Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington, Karin Isherwood, Senior Consultant Clinical Psychologist and Senior Advisor, Whāraurau, Romy Lee, Youth Advisory/Peer Workforce Development Lead, Whāraurau, Stacey Porter, Senior Advisor, Whāraurau, Stephen Murray, Manager, Life-course, and Systems Analytics, Oranga Tamariki, Terry Fleming, School of Health, Victoria University of Wellington, and Terryann Clark, School of Nursing, The University of Auckland.

We also acknowledge the peer review and valuable feedback provided by Ben Birks Ang, Deputy Executive Director Tumuaki Tuarua, NZ Drug Foundation, Ian Town, Chief Science Advisor, Manatū Hauora and Mary Silcock, Principal Advisor Mātāmua Kaitohutohu, Office of the Chief Science Advisor Te Pou Whakamārama.

This report forms part of a wider programme of work Te Pou has initiated, taking a collaborative approach to supporting the design of future mental health and substance use prevalence studies: Understanding population mental health and substance use | Te Pou

An executive summary of the report is also available.

A spreadsheet of commonly used measures in New Zealand for understanding mental health symptoms and substance use in infants, children and young people is also available.