Mr Clark said callouts for mental health services had risen dramatically at the Bay of Plenty District Health Board.
In 2011 there were 31 of such callouts. As of June this year there had been 112 callouts.
"Growing to almost four times as much is shocking. It suggests a growing crisis in the community. The reality is, that could be anybody. A significant portion of the community has a mental health crisis at some point in their life."
There were several reasons for the increase in callouts including a lack of funding for community services, Mr Clark said.
"One of the factors that drives into that is more inequality, which won't be the cause of everything but will be featuring in it.
"It's down to growing need, more stress in the community. With more funding cuts that means there's less education, less early intervention. Lots of preventative measures are being squeezed.
"The number of people hitting crisis point is going up."
Mr Clark said many mental health services had been "devolved into the community". He said that was not a bad thing of itself. It often happened that funding also devolved.
Dr Coleman said claims about funding drying up for mental health services were wrong.
"Funding for mental health and addiction services has steadily increased every year under this Government, increasing from $1.1billion in 2008/09 to over $1.4billion in 2014/15."
Dr Coleman said the Government had several mental health initiatives under way, including a recent $500,000 funding boost for initiatives targeted at rural communities.
An extra 40 youth forensic community mental health workers had been appointed across the country to provide comprehensive assessments, clinical interventions, and transition support for youth offenders.
