The Government is looking at potentially adding a mental health option for when people call 111 as they look to ease the workload on police.
A proposal has been put forward for police to reduce the number of mental health callouts they attend. In the 2022-23 year, police attended more than 77,000 events involving mental health but only 2 to 4 percent resulted in a criminal offence.
Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey told AM on Tuesday morning work is underway to establish new teams to work alongside police.
"Quite often when people call 111 with a physical health crisis, they get a health response, but currently in New Zealand when you call 111 with a mental health crisis, you get a criminal justice response," he told AM co-host Melissa Chan-Green.
"So I think it's quite right the officials are looking at how we can look at what's called a co-response mental health team service. That's about pairing up mental health professionals with police to go out in that time of need."
He also believes it's time for a more streamlined response involving other agencies, not just police.
"I think what we need to do is to triage those calls better in the emergency dispatch centres," he said.
"Think about when there's a risk to the person or the family or people around them. Quite rightly, the police would go out but there are other times when there's mental distress that potentially mental health professionals can be paired up with our police officers or potentially just mental health professionals sent out on their own and I think that's the work we need to look at."
Doocey told AM he's also getting advice on potentially adding a mental health option alongside fire, ambulance and police when people call 111.
"We will understand the issues of the call out, the risks and the potential team that needs to be sent out," he said.
"Clearly, we need to look at is the service coming out appropriate to the level of risk, whether that will be police and mental health professionals as well."
But while there might be plans to add a mental health team, people have questioned where the worker would come from given the demand for mental health workers is already incredibly stretched.
Doocey admitted on AM the biggest barrier to timely mental health and addiction support in New Zealand is currently down to the mental health workforce "crisis".
The Mental Health Minister said he's requested that Health NZ, the police and the Ministry of Health look at a five-year rollout of a mental health co-response team programme and would be receiving a report on this proposal in March.
Watch the full interview above.
