Health, not haste 

Currently, if you or a loved one are experiencing a mental health crisis, you can contact your local crisis team or call 111. When someone calls 111, the Police may arrive at your house or at a public place to transport you to an emergency department (ED) or mental health facility for assessment and triaging. Once at the ED or mental health facility, Police may also wait with you to ensure your safety.

Last year, the Police received 77,000 mental health callouts – or one callout, every seven minutes

It’s widely agreed the Police are not the best people to respond to most mental health callouts or crises. It is not their core role of law and order to attend mental health callouts, they do not hold specialist mental health training, and their presence, although well-intentioned, can be frightening and distressing for people in crisis.

But, in a mental health system that’s been underfunded and under-resourced for decades, the Police have become a critical safety net for people in distress that would otherwise have little or no options to turn to.

The MHF has long agreed that Police should withdraw from mental health callouts – but only when they can do so safely. Health agencies and Police have a five-year plan to develop a range of options and mental health responses over time, including for the Police to be replaced or accompanied by trained mental health professionals, peer support workers, paramedics and social workers on mental health callouts, and for these professionals to support them in other ways. These future supports are crucial to aid recovery and prevent trauma for people experiencing mental health crises, but will take years to plan and implement effectively.

In the meantime, without an alternative service up and running to replace the role of Police, Police withdrawing from mental health callouts means tens of thousands of New Zealanders in distress will fall through the cracks of our already-stretched mental health system.

Tens of thousands of people in distress will be affected each year if the Police withdraw without an alternative service in place. These people may be waiting for a very long time for support, or receive no support at all.

Police receive around 77,000 mental health callouts a year - one every seven minutes – and these calls have increased by over 150% between 2013 and 2023.

If Police withdraw from mental health callouts before an alternative service is ready, people in crisis will fall through the cracks. If they do withdraw:

- New Zealanders in distress calling 111 from home will be told to call the already-stretched local mental health crisis teams that sometimes dont have much capacity to support them in person.

- People in crisis will be brought to an emergency department by Police and left after 60 minutes (with the aim of getting down to 15 minutes), with a rushed handover process that may miss out vital information about the person’s mental health and safety

One in five of us will experience mental distress or illness this year. The people affected by this Police withdrawal could be you, or someone you care about.

No – Police will still respond to situations involving offences they would normally attend, or where there is an immediate and serious risk to life or safety.

Currently, these types of callouts represent only a fraction of the 77,000 callouts they attend.

This petition asks:

- the Minister of Police to stop the planned Police withdrawal from mental health callouts until a new, alternative service is up and running, and

- the Minister of Mental Health to publicly share a fully worked-up and costed health plan to support this transition, including how this transition will be funded in Budget 2025, what the new, alternative service to replace Police’s role will look like, and how the under-resourced mental health workforce will be immediately supported with the current changes - as well as supported through the gradual, well-planned stages of this transition process.

The MHF estimates it will take at least three to five years of health workforce development before Police can fully scale back their involvement.

In 2024, Police and Health committed to a five-year plan to transition from a Police-led response to a multi-agency approach for 111 calls involving people in mental distress. Part of this transition involved the Police reducing their role in responding to mental health crises from the end of 2024.

In 2025, Police will be:

- accepting fewer requests from mental health services for assistance and transport requests (Phase One)

- accepting fewer requests for assistance from health practitioners (Phase Three)

- spending less time waiting with people at emergency departments for mental health assessments, phasing from a 60-minute handover Phase Two) to a 15-minute handover (Phase Four)

- No longer be the first agency to begin searching for a missing ‘mental health patient’

- responding to fewer requests for welfare checks (Phase Four).

Police have also committed to reducing Police dispatches to 111 mental health callouts.

These changes have already put extra pressure on the mental health sector and facilities like emergency departments, who are unprepared and lack the workforce capacity to response to extra demand.

Phase One is complete. The second phase, scheduled to start in mid-April 2024, will mean Police will limit handover time at emergency departments (EDs) when transporting someone detained under the Mental Health Act for an assessment, to no more than one hour.

Aotearoa’s mental health system was struggling to meet demand before these transitions started, an issue Health New Zealand has acknowledged. Despite this concern, Police are full steam ahead and making quick progress on the transition.

There has been no clear health plan or funding commitment from the Government to ensure that mental health services can meet this increased demand, meaning people who could have expected to receive help may be left with no support.

The health sector has heavily criticised the Police withdrawal transitions so far, saying there has been a lack of consultation with the health workforce and that Te Whatu Ora/Health New Zealand is ill-prepared and rushing through the changes.

The Police also recognise the withdrawal will create service gaps, especially in terms of meeting “a share of the low-level demand that currently presents to Police”, and acknowledge the public may lose trust and confidence in the mental health system if no one is available to support them in times of crisis.

Whatever new, alternative service will be decided upon to replace Police will require design from a mātauranga Māori perspective and solutions that are effective for Māori, such as leaning into the role of Māori Wardens to give compassionate support to whānau. This new, alternative service will also need to be co-designed with tāngata whaiora/people who experience mental distress and tāngata Māori.