Depression Treatment in New Zealand report, A HealthTracker Research Study, August 2006

15 September 2021 

Dear [name and contact details withheld]

Request for information

Thank you for your request dated 20 August 2021 under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) for information about the Management of depression by GPs report. You requested: 

A copy of the report commissioned by Pharmac in 2006 (including the project brief): 

Report Title: Management of depression by GPs

Agency involved: Research Solutions

Objective of research: Identify barriers to identification and treatment of depression by GPs; level of confidence in providing advice and treatment for depression; sources of information; basis for selection of pharmaceutical treatments; use of non-pharmacological interventions.

Please find a copy of the requested project brief (Agreement relating to the provision of market research services, June 2006) and report (Depression Treatment in New Zealand, A HealthTracker Research Study, August 2006) attached with this response. 

Please note that we approach our assessment of requests for information under the OIA on the basis that, once released, the information becomes publicly available. In other words, once we release the information to you, it becomes available to any other party in that exact form (whether by you distributing it to others or by virtue of us receiving the same request from a different third party).

We have redacted a small amount of information from the documents as we consider this is necessary to protect the privacy of natural persons (section 9(2)(a)).

As required under the OIA, we also considered whether, in the circumstances, the withholding of this information was outweighed by other considerations which render it desirable, in the public interest, to make this information available. In this case we did not consider that the public interest outweighed the reasons for withholding the information.

Please note you have the right, by way of complaint under section 28(3) of the OIA to an Ombudsman, to seek an investigation and review of our decision.

We trust that this information answers your queries. We are making our information more freely available, so we now publish selected OIA responses (excluding personal details) on our website. Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about this. 

Yours sincerely 

Rachel Read
Manager, Policy and Government Services