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A Hamilton woman who pushed for an inquiry into the mental health system says it needs to be the start of doing things differently.
Jane Stevens lost her son to suicide after he was left unsupervised at a Waikato mental health facility.
She says the inquiry announced yesterday needs to talk not just to the professionals but to the people in the system and their whanau.
She wants the mental health system turned on its head.
"We have to start looking at a more whanau based solutions, community-based solutions, rather than what I call the pill and pillow approach the pharmaceutical approach that doesn't work for a lot of our people, isolating people in hospitals rather than supporting them within their own communities," Ms Stevens says.
The review should look at causal factors behind high Maori mental health and suicide figures, such as colonisation, racism, poverty, unemployment and housing stress.
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