We need a new mental heath first responder infrastructure

Health workers worried about violence as police pull back on mental health callouts

Health New Zealand is scrambling to bring in new ways to cope with people in mental health distress from Monday, as police pull back from non-emergency mental health callouts.

It issued new procedures to health staff aimed primarily at patient and worker safety a few days ago. This was followed on Friday by an update it said to “share urgently”, just 72 hours ahead of implementing the untested changes.

Health workers have expressed worries that they – and patients – will be exposed to more violence with less police backup.

Police say they have no choice but to pull back as mental health callouts are cutting into their crime-fighting duties.

The government said Monday’s first phase had been carefully planned to “stand up a workforce” to fill the gap left by police, who began gradually pulling back in recent weeks at the same time as trialling a new way of prioritising non-emergency calls.

Health NZ issued staff with three new mechanisms, called Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), that will apply from Monday.

The Police are a blunt force trauma to mental health call outs…

Taser use on mentally ill people doubles: ‘It just beggars belief’

Mental health advocates have slammed the high use of tasers on people in crisis as a damning indictment on a health system which has left police as the default emergency responder.

New research shows more than half of people tasered by police are mentally ill, in distress or suicidal.

The report, commissioned by police as part of a wider investigation into bias within the ranks, found:

• Taser use during mental health calls-out had doubled since 2017
• 54 percent of people tasered between July and December 2022 were in mental distress, mentally unwell or suicidal
• People in mental health residences or in-patient units were tasered on four occasions
• Data on the mental state of those tasered was poor, with written reports often failing to mention mental distress that was evident from body camera footage
• Some police were using a taser as a “compliance” tool
• People clearly experiencing distress were deemed “non-compliant” (rather than unwell or unable to follow instructions)
• Police were unwilling to approach individuals they perceived to be unwell, seeing them as “unpredictable”.

…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.

Real wrap around social services provided after the call out.

A genuine attempt to heal and help people rather than criminalise them.

You know, solutions rather than counter productive damage.

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 $14billion in unfordable tax cuts, there is no way of that happening.

The system is now in collapse and the way National have manufactured a cost crisis in Health by purposely underfunding health means things are doomed to become more oppressive for the poorest and most vulnerable.

The safety net has become a noose.

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