Breakups can be tough, heartbreaking and difficult to recover from. Especially for young people, breakups can be tricky to get over. In New Zealand, the government plans to spend $4 million in three years to help young people who broke up with their sweethearts overcome the trauma of the separation.
The New Zealand government has launched a campaign called "Love Better" to help young people navigate breakups with the long-term aim of preventing family violence, as reported by CNN.
The program, run by the Ministry of Social Development, offers a text, phone or email contact with advice specifically for young people going through a relationship breakup.
Associate Social Development Minister Priyanca Radhakrishnan said supporting young people through these formative experiences could improve how they approached relationships in the future.
"We know that breakups hurt. We want to support our young people to deal with the hurt and know that there is a way through without harming themselves or others," she said.
"Love Better, which asks young people to 'own the feels,' is a primary prevention campaign that features young people sharing real stories to help their peers who may be going through similar experiences," she noted.
She said the program had not been trialed by any government around the world, but New Zealand needed innovative approaches to "break the cycle" of New Zealand's "shameful statistics."
According to the Department of Justice, more than 100,000 cases of domestic violence are investigated in New Zealand each year.
While 9,723 reports of sexual violence were reported to the police in New Zealand in 2020, it is stated that nearly half of the reporters were under the age of 18 at the time of the incident.
