Police Won't Spend More Than An Hour On Most Mental Health Cases

Wednesday, 7 May 2025, 5:07 pm
Article: RNZ

Shorter hand-overs to Emergency Departments (EDs), and tighter rules for people in distress in police custody will be rolled out across more health districts in a little over a week's time.

The changes are part of Phase Two of the police's withdrawal from mental health events, which were announced in August last year.

They were initially planned to be implemented between January and March, but have been pushed amid safety concerns.

The key changes in Phase Two are:

• Police spending no more than 60 minutes when handing over a person detained under the Mental Health Act to EDs, unless they consider there is an immediate risk to life or safety;
• People in custody under the Mental Health Act need to be taken to a health facility within 30 minutes.

The changes kicked in across a first tranche of health districts on 14 April - including Waitematā, Counties Manukau, Waikato (excluding Tokoroa and Taumarunui), Nelson-Marlborough, and West Coast.

On Tuesday, the police and Health New Zealand (HNZ) announced that from 19 May, the changes will be extended to Auckland, Canterbury, South Canterbury, Capital Coast and Hutt Valley, Wairarapa, Bay of Plenty, Lakes (excluding Taupō), Hawke's Bay (excluding Wairoa), Tairāwhiti, and Southern (excluding Waitaki and Southern Lakes) districts.

The police said they expect that a third tranche of districts will see the Phase Two changes implemented after 16 June, pending final readiness assessments.

Police Assistant Commissioner Mike Johnson said police remained committed to a system that supported mental wellbeing, and gave people access to the best help that "works for them".

"Outside of an emergency, police have a threshold for what mental health related work sits with police and what doesn't," he said.

"This supports us all to clarify roles and responses, ensuring police are only involved where it's appropriate - that means where there is an offence identified (that we would attend through normal prioritisation) or where there is an immediate risk to life or safety," he added.

HNZ national director of mental health and addiction Phil Grady said workforce shortages were a long-standing issue, with many comparable countries struggling with similar challenges.

He said HNZ was continuing to recruit and fill mental health vacancies.

Grady said HNZ continued to work with police, the Ministry of Health, St John ambulance and Wellington Free Ambulance on the changes to how agencies respond to mental health.

HNZ director of specialist mental health and addiction, Karla Bergquist, said the safety and wellbeing of patients and staff was paramount.

"We have adopted a staged approach and extended our timeframes for Phase Two, introducing it in a planned and safe way," she said.

"As part of this planning work, we have developed new procedures with clinical input and created training materials for staff to support them through this change."

The Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey said in a statement that the safety of patients and staff has been and will remain the top priority through the change process.

"This is evident by this being a phased approach with each phase only being activated when and if it is safe to do so," he said, pointing to that the districts greenlighted for Phase Two have been assessed for their readiness.

"At the end of the day, we want what's best for those suffering from mental distress. The approach we are transitioning to moves away from those seeking support to now receive a mental health response, rather than a criminal justice response," he said.

Doocey said he's made it a priority ensure that the government grows the mental health workforce.

PSA union calling for better support

Meanwhile the Public Service Association (PSA) is calling on the government to take urgent action to address what it said was an acute shortage of mental health workers.

The union said it had sighted a draft report to Doocey, which stated that 1485 more frontline mental health and addiction workers were needed right now, including 470 specialist nurses, 145 psychiatrists and 145 clinical psychologists.

"There is a crisis in every hospital where mental health workers are under more pressure than ever. The phased withdrawal of police support is compounding the problem," PSA's national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said.

PSA was asking the government to fill all vacancies, lift the hiring ban across the country, and reinstate police support for all mental health call outs.

RNZ has asked police, Health NZ and Police Minister Mark Mitchell for comment.

Recent HNZ data showed hundreds more health workers were assaulted at work last year - with Auckland central and Waikato seeing the biggest spikes.

Nationally, about 14,000 assaults on staff by patients, family members and visitors, were recorded in the two-year period between January 2023 and December 2024 - amounting to a 30 percent increase over the period.

Auckland central (covering Auckland City Hospital, Starship Children's Hospital and Greenlane Clinical Centre) saw the number of attacks double over the period, and accounted for 57 percent of the national increase.

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