The Government must guarantee New Zealanders will not be at risk after making changes to the way mental health callouts are handled.

“Police should stay involved in all 111 callouts until the Government can guarantee safety won’t be compromised by exiting them from mental health first response services,” Labour mental health spokesperson Ingrid Leary said.

“Matt Doocey is playing Russian Roulette by agreeing to roll out a new emergency response system for mental health callouts that doesn’t involve Police before having all the pieces in place to ensure safety of people and first responders.

“Mental health professionals are on record warning that Police should remain involved in 111 callouts until a new multi-agency response is up and running.”

The Minister’s own officials advised that “Police involvement is critical in situations to ensure the safety of all persons involved, where mental health workers are not able to safely undertake certain functions without risk” and that work to “assess potential gaps jointly with police” is not yet complete.

“Matt Doocey should guarantee that Police will remain on the frontline of 111 callouts until his officials have provided him with a full gaps analysis and solutions, and he can prove he has adequate additional funding to ensure those in crisis and those responding to crisis calls are safe and don’t fall through the cracks,” Ingrid Leary said.

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