Cat Flynn says she stays in her job because she respects the staff on her team and finds helping patients deeply rewarding. Photo / Michael Craig
Health New Zealand (HNZ) specialist mental health and addiction director Karla Bergquist said while healthcare settings could be challenging environments, staff safety was a top priority.
“We do not expect staff to put themselves at risk or in dangerous situations,” Bergquist said.
Flynn said the management and staff at her workplace were incredibly supportive and dedicated to their jobs, but they were often working overtime and facing a constant risk of assault.
A lot of her former colleagues had left the profession.
A 2023 survey by the New Zealand Nurses Organisation found 76% of mental health nurses said they had received a physical threat in the past 12 months, while over 40% said they had been assaulted in that time.
Public Service Association national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons believed the police withdrawal from mental health callouts had been poorly thought through and “rushed”, which was having a dangerous impact.
“We hear from workers, health workers all over New Zealand, that violence and assaults have become commonplace in our hospitals. It’s reached crisis point,” Fitzsimons said.
“The police withdrawal has been a disaster for public health workers.”
The Government announced changes to mental health callouts in 2024, with Police Minister at the time, Andrew Coster, saying demands from mental health callouts were preventing police from servicing other needs in the community.
In response to questions about the increasing violence in mental health wards, Police Assistant Commissioner Mike Johnson said police would always respond in an emergency when there was an immediate risk to life or safety, or when an offence had taken place.
“Any requests for assistance that do not meet the threshold for an immediate response will be considered for police involvement where police powers or capabilities are required to prevent future significant harm,” Johnson said.
“This may include situations which have become unmanageable for Health NZ staff or when there is no suitable alternative to manage the risk.”
Earlier this week, the Public Service Association complained to the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA), saying multiple calls for help from mental health workers who were allegedly assaulted by a patient were ignored by police.
In 2024, Police Minister at the time, Andrew Coster, announced sweeping changes to how police would handle mental health callouts. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Flynn said she understood police were not trained to handle psychiatric patients and it could be highly traumatising for people, but the current settings allowed patients who were high on drugs and violent to be left in the hands of a few community mental health workers.
Patients dealing with addiction issues were often high on substances and if a patient was experiencing psychosis or a paranoiac episode, their behaviour could be highly unpredictable.
“When I started there was a really bad incident where a guy was threatening to kill us, throwing things and trying to break into our office,” Flynn said.
“We called the police; they picked him up and he didn’t come back.”
Now, there had been cases where patients had carried out serious assaults on staff, only for police not to answer their calls, or to pick the patient up and bail them back to the hospital a few hours later, Flynn said.
HNZ mental health and addiction director Bergquist said they routinely reviewed any incidents of concern in mental health services for any insights and improvements.
HNZ was closely monitoring phase three of the police withdrawal, which began in November, following an extended planning period.
“We continue to emphasise to staff that they should call 111 when it is an emergency and there is an immediate risk to life or safety.”
A shortage of supported accommodation services and emergency housing was also having an impact on mental health wards, as patients were being held in hospital for longer because they did not have a safe place or fixed abode to be discharged to.
“With emergency housing being taken away we’re holding people who don’t need to be in hospital for a very long time,” Flynn said.
Flynn injured her right hip in February of 2024 while helping a man with a neurodegenerative condition who had lashed out and kicked her suddenly.
The pain was searing and exploded through her leg, but she pushed through the injury and continued with her shift.
“I wasn’t angry at him because I know he didn’t understand what was happening,” Flynn said.
However, she felt because the man was suffering from a neurodegenerative condition rather than a mental-health-related illness, he should not have been admitted to the ward in the first place.
But there was no other facility that could take him.
The facility was “constantly full” and staff were under pressure to release patients before they were fully recovered because of the demand for beds, she said.
During another incident, Flynn had been cornered by two male patients trying to force her to come into a room alone. Although she managed to escape, she feared what could have happened if she had not.
It was these types of close calls that had left her feeling more and more scared to go to work.
Johnson said the police and Health NZ were committed to working together towards a system that ensured people in mental distress received “the most appropriate care from the right agency”.
Despite the pain from her hip injury and her family wanting her to resign from her work, Flynn has continued to do her job.
She said she was committed to her team, who were devoted to their roles despite stretched staffing and difficult working conditions.
The deeply fulfilling part of her work was being able to watch people who arrived at the ward extremely unwell transform into their true selves and personalities again.
It had taught her that there was no profile for mental illness, and it could impact anyone from every walk of life and area in society.
She wanted to see changes made by the Government to ensure frontline mental health workers were protected and no longer had to work in a constant state of fear.
Eva de Jong is a reporter covering general news for the New Zealand Herald, Weekend Herald and Herald on Sunday. She was previously a multimedia journalist for the Whanganui Chronicle, covering health stories and general news.
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