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Mental hospitals were built in 1953 and 1954 in Auckland and Wellington respectively and mential health services have always been offered at Dunedin Hospital which was built in 1951. Before these were estblished mental health patients were instead placed in prison.
An Inspector of Asylums was employed by the new national government of 1876, but a government department was not formed until 1908 and this merged with the Department of Health in 1947. During the 1970s New Zealand local health boards were given the responsibility of operating mental health institutions, with the excpetion of Marton's Lake Alice Hospital. This was followed in the 1980s and 1990s by deinstitutionalism of mental health to improve the quality of life for mental health patients.
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