Police Won't Spend More Than An Hour On Most Mental Health Cases
More hospitals and communities will be subject to changes in the way police deal with mental health callouts after 19 May.
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.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Call for action on creating more health roles for Māori
Calls for the government to create more roles for Māori in health in the Southern region will mean nothing if they are not followed by action, the leader of a major Māori health organisation says. Ōtākou Health Ltd (OHL) chairwoman Donna Matahaere-Atariki was responding to concern from Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) Southern leader Dr Hywel Lloyd, who at a recent Southern community meeting said he was "disappointed that Māori leadership has been confirmed to not be coming back to the districts". Ms Matahaere-Atariki shared the disappointment, but said if it was up to HNZ, there would never be the support those roles would need. "If Māori are going to wait on government to make room for us in leadership roles, we're never going to get there. "So my position has always been that I know I have enough information to be a leader in health here and I will take those roles if they're there." OHL created Te Kaika, an integrated health service, in 2018. It now has more than 12,000 people on its books across the region, and through its low-cost approach, is able to offer initiatives such as free dental care for under-18s. "What I've found in my experience is these roles and these Māori roles that [government] created, they have leadership roles, but they never have a budget, they have no staff and so you might get the high salary, but you're actually not able to do anything. "So I think it's better that I've always said, 'no, we'll create our leaders on the outside and we'll wait for them to lean into us'. "So rather than chasing that up, because we can't be held hostage to whatever government is in town and whoever thinks what is right." Previous health board roles dedicated to Māori were "practically useless", she said. "The problem is when you produce Māori leadership roles in your organisation, sometimes you think you don't actually have to go out there and talk to community. "Māori leaders are not public servants — we serve our communities." She said Te Kāika, which is based in Dunedin, Oamaru and Queenstown, was a "one-stop health shop" which improved health and wellbeing outcomes for all whānau and community by making essential health, social, education and employment services affordable and accessible across the wider Otago region. "When we set up Te Kaika and we had to pay for all that ourselves, you know, we got a big bank loan and that to build that — our attitude was 'we set up the infrastructure, they will come knocking'. "We know that we've got ourselves into a position where we have the only health infrastructure that doesn't belong to government in town. "We had to use our own money to get into the sector, set up the infrastructure and then be noticed by them. But we did that really well." The Dunedin base in Caversham was a site designated for high-density residential living. "We could have just gone and built apartments there, but we didn't want to do that. "The most outstanding lesson I've learned is we can't rely on government to look after us. We've had so many reviews that say they don't look after Māori — I'm sort of tired of these reviews and reports." Te Kaika's success reminded her of the need to grasp opportunities. "Over the years, I've realised that there are particular moments that were a perfect storm, that allowed us to put it right at that time: we got that money from the Whanau Ora Commission, the Ministry of Health, and the Education Ministry gave us that building until it was sold — then, of course, when it was sold, we bought it. "So, there was a perfect storm at that gate." She said she wanted to thank Dr Lloyd for his "well-intentioned" comments. "From his perspective, there doesn't seem to be any Māori voice there [in HNZ Southern]. "I think that's important. However, that Māori voice needs to know what they're saying or else I don't want to hear it." HNZ has been approached for comment.
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Call for action on creating more health roles for Maori
Calls for the government to create more roles for Maori in health in the Southern region will mean nothing if they are not followed by action, the leader of a major Maori health organisation says. Ōtākou Health Ltd (OHL) chairwoman Donna Matahaere-Atariki was responding to concern from Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora (HNZ) Southern leader Dr Hywel Lloyd, who at a recent Southern community meeting said he was "disappointed that Māori leadership has been confirmed to not be coming back to the districts". Ms Matahaere-Atariki shared the disappointment, but said if it was up to HNZ, there would never be the support those roles would need. "If Māori are going to wait on government to make room for us in leadership roles, we're never going to get there. "So my position has always been that I know I have enough information to be a leader in health here and I will take those roles if they're there." OHL created Te Kaika, an integrated health service, in 2018. It now has more than 12,000 people on its books across the region, and through its low-cost approach, is able to offer initiatives such as free dental care for under-18s. "What I've found in my experience is these roles and these Māori roles that [government] created, they have leadership roles, but they never have a budget, they have no staff and so you might get the high salary, but you're actually not able to do anything. "So I think it's better that I've always said, 'no, we'll create our leaders on the outside and we'll wait for them to lean into us'. "So rather than chasing that up, because we can't be held hostage to whatever government is in town and whoever thinks what is right." Previous health board roles dedicated to Maori were "practically useless", she said. "The problem is when you produce Māori leadership roles in your organisation, sometimes you think you don't actually have to go out there and talk to community. "Maori leaders are not public servants — we serve our communities." She said Te Kāika, which is based in Dunedin, Oamaru and Queenstown, was a "one-stop health shop" which improved health and wellbeing outcomes for all whānau and community by making essential health, social, education and employment services affordable and accessible across the wider Otago region. "When we set up Te Kaika and we had to pay for all that ourselves, you know, we got a big bank loan and that to build that — our attitude was 'we set up the infrastructure, they will come knocking'. "We know that we've got ourselves into a position where we have the only health infrastructure that doesn't belong to government in town. "We had to use our own money to get into the sector, set up the infrastructure and then be noticed by them. But we did that really well." The Dunedin base in Caversham was a site designated for high-density residential living. "We could have just gone and built apartments there, but we didn't want to do that. "The most outstanding lesson I've learned is we can't rely on government to look after us. We've had so many reviews that say they don't look after Maori — I'm sort of tired of these reviews and reports." Te Kaika's success reminded her of the need to grasp opportunities. "Over the years, I've realised that there are particular moments that were a perfect storm, that allowed us to put it right at that time: we got that money from the Whanau Ora Commission, the Ministry of Health, and the Education Ministry gave us that building until it was sold — then, of course, when it was sold, we bought it. "So, there was a perfect storm at that gate." She said she wanted to thank Dr Lloyd for his "well-intentioned" comments. "From his perspective, there doesn't seem to be any Maori voice there [in HNZ Southern]. "I think that's important. However, that Maori voice needs to know what they're saying or else I don't want to hear it." HNZ has been approached for comment.
Scoop
29-05-2025
- Scoop
Government's Health Boost Less Than Claimed, Expert Says
$31b for Health in Budget 2025 just 3.6 percent increase, compared with what was 'actually spent' in 2024/25, Professor Tim Tenbensel says Most of last year's boost to HNZ's bottom-line 'absorbed' by Holidays Act remediation payouts to staff Axing pay equity settlements in the health sector 'saved' the Government $420m. A leading health systems expert is questioning the Government's claim of 'record investment' in the public system, saying the real increase to the health budget this year is half of what the government claims. Health Minister Simeon Brown and Finance Minister Nicola Willis have said the $31 billion allocation for health in Budget 2025 represented an operating funding increase of 7.4 percent – or nearly $2 billion – year on year. The two ministers donned hard hats and high-vis vests for a site visit at Wellington Regional Hospital on Wednesday, where they announced details of a further $100 million investment in its ongoing upgrade. Speaking to media following the tour, Brown said Health NZ had also had a $1.4 billion uplift in operating funding this year – the second instalment of a $16.6 billion cost-pressure boost over four years. 'It's a significant uplift to allow them to invest in the front-line workforce required to give New Zealanders and timely and quality healthcare they need,' Brown said. The government's investment in health far outstripped either population growth or inflation, the Finance Minister added. 'For context, that operational funding uplift was more than 7 percent over what it's been, which even on a population basis is more than 6 percent,' Willis said. 'So, we're ensuring that funding is going in at a far faster rate than either population growth or inflation.' In response to RNZ's request for a detailed breakdown of the percentage increase, Brown's office later said the figure of 6.2 percent was 'based on Treasury's annual growth rates set out in Budget Economic and Fiscal Update 2025, and the nominal Vote Health operating spend for Budget 2025'. However, Auckland University health policy Professor Tim Tenbensel said, according to his calculations, the $31 billion allocated for health in the Budget was only 3.6 percent more than what was actually spent last year. 'So, we're pretty much treading water at best, or rather sinking a little, in this budget,' Prof Tenbensel said. Furthermore, operational funding last year only increased about 1.2 percent in real terms. 'And the reason for that is because a lot of the money for this financial year's Budget in health was soaked up to remediate the underpayment of staff under the Holidays Act,' he said. 'So, that might help to explain the reality of people in the sector wasn't matching some of the things said by government.' Tenbensel said the Government's oft-quoted claim of a $16 billion boost to Health NZ's bottom-line was 'a bit like your boss giving you a $3000 payrise each year for four years and then claiming your pay has gone up by $30,000 over that time, not $12,000'. The trick was to keep adding on the previous year's increase as 'new money', ignoring the fact that it would have been eaten up by inflation. 'It's a very creative ploy that one, so I think we need to see it for what it is,' he said. 'All governments do this sort of thing, but in the scheme of things, this one is pretty brazen.' Dumping pay equity claims, including for primary care nurses, saved the Government about $420 million in health, which mostly paid for the near $500 million investment in digital health, after hours and urgent care in the Budget, he said.
