Mental Health Workers Fear For Safety Of Patients After Police Withdrawal Of Support - PSA Survey

- Nine out of 10 workers say change will increase risks to them and clients

- Two out of three workers not confident workplace can manage risks

- Nine out of 10 workers say change will add to already heavy workloads

Mental health workers fear serious harm to themselves, their clients and members of the public from the withdrawal of police support for mental health call outs, a PSA survey shows.

The phased withdrawal of police from responding to mental health callouts begins today. This includes police staying in EDs for a maximum of 60 minutes, falling to 15 minutes.

"Mental health workers are saying loud and clear the implementation of the change is profoundly unsafe and that the risks of serious harm to them, the people in their care and the public are very high," said Ashok Shankar, Health Lead for Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.

"We are calling on Te Whatu Ora and the police to delay this change until we can be reassured it can be done safely. Our members are at the frontline of this change, they know the risks, so it’s extremely disappointing that their views to date have been ignored.

"It’s high time both the Health and Mental Health Ministers step in before real harm is caused.

"Te Whatu Ora is failing to properly plan for the transition to the new regime despite months of consultation. Our members are not getting the extra training they deserve to adjust to the change.

"One highly experienced mental health worker, who leads a team, said he only received a raft of documents explaining changes to operating procedures 10 days out from the 4 November start date.

‘These changes are going to add to the burden of what we endure now’, he said. He warned Te Whatu Ora that ‘patients, the public and staff will be injured, maimed and no doubt die in response to these changes and the poor planning and resourcing that goes with it’.

Ashok Shankar said: "Mental health crisis teams are already under extreme stress - workloads are as heavy as they have ever been, yet the Government is allowing even more pressure to pile on overstretched teams.

"Te Whatu Ora needs to expand mental health teams and provide additional training, if required, so they can safely pick up the burden of taking over from the police.

"But the hiring freeze and the Government’s failure to properly fund Te Whatu Ora is making a dire situation that much worse.

"The survey shows members expect time taken to see people in distress will increase. It will mean those with less urgent needs will wait even longer as more urgent cases are prioritised. Their health outcomes are being put at risk. That’s just not acceptable when we already have a mental health crisis in this country.

"Mental health should be a priority - all of us want the best outcome for the people and their families facing challenges, but this process of police handover feels botched from the get-go - patients and workers may pay a heavy price," said Ashok Shankar.

Summary of findings from PSA survey (attached summary graphs)

The survey was taken between 8 and 22 October 2024 and sent to 6,151 members who work in mental health. It attracted 438 responses. The margin of error is 5% at a 95% confidence interval.

- 66% of workers say they are not confident in the ability of their workplace to manage risk. Only 12% are confident.

- 38% disagree or strongly disagree that their workplace has a process in place to assess risk in mental health response

- 88% say it will increase safety risk for clients

- 91% say it will increase safety risk for workers

- 86% say it risks increasing workloads

- 72% say it risks increasing the time taken to see people

Sample of quotes from survey of mental health workers

I can understand the pressures that the police service are under and the reasons they want to withdraw, however there is no alternative in place so this just leaves a dangerous void in the process and I would not be surprised if there is an increase in incidents and possibly even lives being at risk.

I do not understand how an 111 operator with just one days training in mental health could over rule the registered mental health professional decision who could be facing an client and made a risk assessment.

Police are the only ones who can detain under the Act, and therefore, a withdrawal of their support when requested means more people will go without treatment, more people will fall off the act, the more people with become unwell, and the more mental health patients will end up in Police custody

As a staff member I am left wondering of we will be safe and whether we will have to argue with police comms to get officers to respond to a danger to life. Having the building smashed up is scary enough but risk to staff, clients and the public is even worse.

I think it is appropriate. My only concern is if Police take it upon themselves to determine if a person is mentally disordered or not. It could open the gate for police to deliver people to ED who are socially problematic but do not meet a criminal offense threshold. Would not want to see ED inappropriately burdened with these people. Perhaps police liaison nurses, based with Police would be a better use of a resource.

The withdrawal of police at mental health jobs ultimately shows a failure in resource division at the national government level.

I feel sorry for the police, but our system is in crisis. I am actually returning to work at present after being knocked out by a patient and having several months off with a nasty concussion. I don't want this to happen again to myself or any other staff. I am lucky that I did not suffer a more serious injury.

We are feeling very anxious about the safety of both ourselves and the patients and families involved with the withdrawal process. While we understand that we have the right to refuse and walk away, doing so may leave families at risk with individuals who are very unwell.

It makes me reconsider my career choices. Do I really want to be in a front-line role where I have to justify my requests for assistance by Police in writing to non-health professionals with limited training in assessing mental health risk?

The most important change that could be made is for us to have more staff, skilled staff rather than inexperienced ones that we have to spend time teaching when there already is too much to do in terms of clinical assessments.

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