Mental health crisis: Safety fears as police prepare to pull back from distress calls
Police plans to attend fewer mental health-related incidents have alarmed frontline clinicians, who say they are concerned people experiencing a psychological crisis could fall through the cracks while a new health-led system is established.
Frustrated that officers’ time has increasingly been taken up by responding to calls involving distressed or suicidal people, police ministers and officials have said they want to reprioritise their workloads to focus on “core” criminal justice activities, such as investigating organised crime, gangs and firearms offences.
The New Zealand Police, the Ministry of Health and Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora have developed a five-year plan for a new system for supporting people in a mental health crisis led by health professionals, with police officers playing a more limited role.
Good, get the bloody cops out of mental health responses.
Cops are trained thugs, they are the brutal arm of the State and protect capitalists property.
More often than not, they are turned on the very communities they are supposed to be ‘protecting’.
Police should not be the ones sent in to deal with people having a mental health episode, we need specially trained ‘First responder mental health teams’ who have the resources and skill set to de-escalate a situation and get a person the help they need.
The problem is that the entire mental health industry is horrifically underfunded and we have dumped them onto the Police, when the Police don’t have the skill set to deal with them.
We need our Police actually countering crime, not wasting their time on mental health call outs which they are more likely to exacerbate than help.
To do this requires enormous investment and a whole new branch of emergency response and with a Government focused on a $2.9b tax break for the richest landlords alongside $16billion in unfordable tax cuts, there is no way of that happening.
I look forward to whatever nonsense they prop up quickly imploding.
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Easier said than done
Martyn – Agreed…yet how?
A good idea. A sensible government, might even increase the number of acute mental health beds in Auckland to as many as a round hundred. Maybe even more!
From experiance we used to have a mental health flying squad based at the nearest hospital .They had a direct line you could call them on and they responded very quickly .We had to use them on several occasions with great results .They became the victims of the last national government as they wound down mental health services in readiness to sell off the health service to parasites .No one wanted mental health services as they could not milk it for easy money .
gordon walker – I remember those flying squads…they worked.
When someone is violent, out of control, nurses and social workers cannot legally restrain them, police have to be involved. Certainly police should be less involved, and better trained but it is unfair to say they’re all thugs in this context. Many see themselves as helping the community and exhibit considerable compassion in dealing with the mentally unwell.
Well said. Dig out the stats on physical abuse that our medical staff cop in mental health institutions. You need thugs to restrain lot of these patients.
Correct, having witnessed the violent client with the meth induced psychosis and the almost super human strength displayed, our team were very grateful for the three man police team support that was not only required but given. It enabled this person to get the support needed without others being harmed. The bathroom he had gone into and locked was a different story as the end scene looked like Armageddon.
Agree Franel – we must encourage police in their good efforts, draw attention to the resounding bad but not damn them all, for fear of us looking in to the abyss etc. as in Niesche’s saying? Understand it?
Franel. Well said. What a responsible government would do is address the socio-economic conditions which contribute to or cause many mental health issues.
What happened to the millions ear market for mental health by Labour . National have a great minister in charge of mental health so let’s hope we get the improvements so badly needed
Well said Franel.
“Cops are trained thugs, they are the brutal arm of the State and protect capitalists property.”. That’s quite a statement to level at them.
I think Jazz Thornton was quite pleased about the police when she encountered them. And I was pretty impressed with the brutal thuggish behaviour of Jim Manning and Scott Carmody. Or those that this weekend will have dealt with the horrific car crashes.
I’d hate to be a cop in this country. I know a number and they are all decent caring people and who care deeply about people in the community and want to serve them.
PCarron. 100%. Most are ok, some are very brave. Always remember it was the police who tried to stop Mallard abusing the Parliamentary protestors and escalating that whole situation.