A nurse-led initiative providing early detection of mental health issues and risk behaviours and delivering timely interventions could improve access to care for Māori youth in rural and isolated areas. Youth specialist nurses in Northland used a youth version of an e-screening tool developed in New Zealand, the Case-finding and Help Assessment Tool, to reduce barriers to accessing healthcare. Notably the initiative enabled specialist nurses to work autonomously to improve youth access to healthcare without increasing the workload of doctors.