“Around 13% of the region’s prison population is on the forensic mental health caseload, one of the highest rates nationally,” he said.
“These extra beds will help ease that load.”
Forensic mental health services support people with severe mental illness who are involved with the criminal justice system or require specialist secure care.
Doocey said the additional beds would help improve access to treatment while strengthening rehabilitation and reintegration pathways.
The Government investment also includes a new community wraparound support service to help people transition back into the community after prison.
Alongside that, a workforce development fund has been established to recruit and retain specialist forensic clinicians and support workers.
Both initiatives are expected to begin shortly.
The minister said four of the community-based forensic step-down beds had already opened ahead of schedule, through a partnership between Ember Services and Health NZ.
He also said funding for the eight step-down beds had been accelerated from a four-year rollout into a two-year timeframe after feedback from frontline staff, patients and mental health professionals.
“Community-based step-down beds free up inpatient beds for people who really need them and form part of a step-by-step care system,” Doocey said.
Health NZ Midland regional mental health and addictions lead Vicki Aitken said the new beds were needed because inpatient forensic services in the region were consistently operating at full capacity.
Puawai, the regional forensic service based at Waikato Hospital’s Henry Rongomau Bennett Centre, serves prisons at Waikeria, Spring Hill and Tongariro, as well as courts across Waikato, Rotorua, the Bay of Plenty and New Plymouth.
Aitken said the regional prison population was expected to increase from about 2100 people to more than 3200 by the end of 2029, driving further demand for specialist forensic mental health care.
“At the moment, occupancy of inpatient forensic services is consistently at 100%, which is why these 10 new beds are essential,” she said.
There are currently 14 people on the prison waiting list for forensic mental health services, including five on a court-based waiting list.
Aitken said demand was also being driven by increasing rates of serious mental illness and addiction among people in custody, alongside the need for compulsory treatment that could not be delivered in prisons.
All 10 beds are operational immediately and are fully staffed with medical, nursing, allied health, cultural and support workers.
The expansion comes as Waikato continues a broader overhaul of its mental health infrastructure, including construction of a new adult acute inpatient facility on the Waiora Waikato campus.
The new facility is separate from forensic services and won’t provide forensic mental health care.
Aitken said longer-term planning for forensic mental health services was continuing between Health NZ and Ara Poutama Aotearoa as demand across the region continued to grow.
Tom Eley is a multimedia journalist at the Waikato Herald. Before he joined the Hamilton-based team, he worked for the Weekend Sun and Sunlive. He previously worked as a journalist at Black Press Media in Canada and won a fellowship with the Vancouver Sun.