Skylight Blog

Last week, the Skylight team had the opportunity to attend a Mitey school visit at Brooklyn Primary in Wellington, alongside Mitey Founder, Sir John Kirwan, Chief Executive Sarah Manley, and the wider Mitey team.

On May 20th, our media coordinator, Maddie, organised a Pink Ribbon Breakfast Fundraiser at our Wellington office. For those unfamiliar, a Pink Ribbon Breakfast is a yearly event hosted by individuals or organisations throughout the country to support the Breast Cancer Foundation NZ (BCFNZ). BCFNZ funds cancer research, provides resources, and advocates for education.

It's important to remember that emotional dysregulation is something that can be experienced by anyone. However, it appears to be more often observed in people with ADHD. Some research even suggests that challenges with emotional regulation affect around 25%-45% of children, and up to 70% of American adults with ADHD (ADDA, Shaw et al., 2014). That is a huge number!

We care about tamariki and rangatahi a lot, and that's why we've made our submission about the Health and Physical Education curriculum refresh to the Ministry of Education.

Skylight's Director of Operations, Amanda, went to a mental health course over the weekend. It sounded like a fantastic day, so here's what she had to say;

Kathryn, our CEO, took some time this week to write about her reflections on an article that came across her desk - Lived experience perspectives on resilience, mental health, and wellbeing: a focus group study of individual, social, and systemic determinants in Aotearoa New Zealand

This blog post summarises and reflects on a journal article regarding transgender people and mental health.

The World Youth Report, a publication created by the UN, looks at youth mental health and well-being of nearly 3,000 young people from 137 countries. Our CE Kathryn gives us her thoughts and reflections on this piece.

We review and reflect on the most recent report of Growing Up. The information for this part of the study was collected in 2025 from more than 4,000 young people and their main caregivers, when they were around 15 years old and in Year 11 at school.

From the most recent NZ Health survey, it was reported that young adults had experienced the highest rate of psychological distress. As measured in 2024/25, 22.9% of young adults (15–24 years old) experienced high or very high levels of psychological distress in the four weeks prior to the survey. With nearly 23% of young people experiencing high levels of distress, a number that has tripled since the survey in 2014, there is certainly cause for concern.

Children and young adults are increasingly turning to online platforms for information, resources, and support related to mental health. Among others, ADHD is fast becoming a popular topic to speak about online. Which begs the question... what could the psychoeducational quality of these TikTok videos be?

Ambiguous loss, or ambiguous grief, refers to the loss that is felt without resolution or closure. The term was first coined in psychological research by Pauline Boss in 1977, but has been written about decades earlier by poets. Since then, ambiguous loss has expanded from its original meaning regarding grief from war to a spectrum of contexts in which grief is felt without closure (Boss & Yeats, 2014).

He Tohu is a permanent exhibition in Wellington of 3 iconic constitutional documents that have shaped, and continue to shape, Aotearoa New Zealand.

As we approach the 6th of February, 2026, it is important that we collectively recognise the significance of Waitangi Day as a day of remembrance, acknowledgement, and responsibility.

This 2-part series explores what grief can look like for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, primary school children, older children and teenagers. We also offer clear, age-appropriate ideas to help you support them.

This 2-part series explores what grief can look like for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, primary school children, older children and teenagers. We also offer clear, age-appropriate ideas to help you support them.

A review of two relevant references regarding the unmet demand of children's mental health services.

We’re proud to share Skylight’s latest Annual Report, highlighting a year of growth, collaboration, and impact across Aotearoa. ​ The report reflects on the progress we’ve made in counselling, school programmes, and creative therapies, as well as the launch of our Te Kupenga Māori Strategy and Action Plan – a key milestone in our journey toward being a truly Te Tiriti-based organisation. ​ It’s also an opportunity to acknowledge the collective effort of our kaimahi, funders,

ADHD prevalence has certainly surged in the last couple of decades. And along with increased diagnoses, more research, and greater support for those with ADHD, there are more myths. These myths or stereotypes about ADHD have the potential to be quite harmful to people with ADHD, to people without, and to people learning more about ADHD.

This article takes a deep dive into ADHD: what it is, what it means, and how you can best support a child diagnosed with ADHD.