Kiwi mental health nurses still in the dark as police prepare to back away from distress callouts

Police will begin a phased withdrawal from mental health callouts from November 1. Composite image / NZME

• Mental health nurses are unclear about plans for a health-led response to mental health callouts.
• Concerns include workforce shortages, a lack of legal powers, and personal safety.
• Health New Zealand is collaborating with police and other agencies to develop an aligned approach.

Mental health nurses say they’re still in the dark about how Health New Zealand is going to take over mental health callouts from police, just weeks before the changes are set to be phased in.

Handling of mental health callouts will start transitioning from a police-led response to a health-led response from November 1.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) mental health section chairwoman Helen Garrick said they have seen the police plan for the shift but have not heard anything about how health services are proposing to fill the void.

“We’re very concerned about the lack of workforce available to take over this work, and alongside that is a concern about the lack of suitable places for people to be taken,” Garrick said.

Garrick said nurses also have concerns about both their legal powers and their safety, particularly given their workforce was ageing.

New Zealand Nurses Organisation mental health section chairwoman Helen Garrick. Photo / Supplied

An NZNO survey last year found 76% of mental health nurses had been physically threatened on the job, 40% had been assaulted in the previous 12 months, and some felt burnt out.

“We have very limited powers in terms of being able to detain and work with people in those very severe crisis situations,” Garrick said.

“We are wondering how this workforce is going to be prepared, for such things as entry into quite volatile situations that previously police would have been involved in.”

The United Kingdom has also had problems when it made a similar change, despite having designated areas inside health services for assessment and decision-making.

“We don’t have anything like that in New Zealand,” Garrick said.

“They created co-response teams of mental health, police and ambulance officers – we currently have very little in that area.”

Health New Zealand co-director funding – hospitals Rachel Haggerty said the service is working with police, the Ministry of Health, Hato Hone St John and Wellington Free Ambulance on an agreed and aligned approach to the changes.

She said Health New Zealand expects to share more details with staff and stakeholders about changes in the near future.

In a statement, police said the first phase will go ahead as planned, with police applying a higher threshold for involvement in transporting mental health patients and for attending mental health facilities.

Police would also streamline the voluntary handover process.

Claudia O’Neill is an Auckland-based multimedia journalist with an interest in science, health and geopolitics. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Auckland and a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism (Distinction) from Massey University. She joined NZME in 2023.