Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey announced the first four locations of the new response teams.
Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii
Mental health professionals will join the police on 111 call outs in Canterbury, Auckland, Bay of Plenty and Counties Manukau from June.
Budget 2025 allocated $28 million for 10 mental health co-response teams to respond to mental distress calls, alongside law enforcement.
At the Tauranga Police Station, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey has now announced the first four locations for these teams.
“It’s not right that, when a concerned mum, dad, friend or colleague calls 111 looking for a mental health response, they receive a criminal justice response.”
Doocey said the teams would offer people experiencing a mental health crisis the support they needed on the spot and more streamlined access to the most appropriate services.
“The Wellington co-response evaluation found there was a reduction in the use of powers under the Mental Health Act, fewer people needed to go to an emergency department or police station, and the level of wraparound support increased,” he said.
“This is important, because over the years, I have heard from advocates, those with lived experience and families that having a uniformed police officer turn up during times of mental health need can be disheartening and distressing.
“Most of the time, these people have not done anything criminally wrong, yet a police officer turns up at what can be the lowest time in their life.”
Doocey said about 73,000 mental health-related 111 calls were made each year and the co-response teams would improve outcomes for many seeking help.
“The previous National Government announced $8 million to pilot co-response teams in 2017, but that funding was cut in 2018 under Labour. This government believes these co-response teams are a real gamechanger.
“This builds on the work happening through the police change programme. We’ve implemented a 60-minute handover from police to emergency department staff for people arriving in distress.
“We’ve also changed it, so that if someone is held under the Mental Health Act in a police custody suite, they must be transferred to a health facility within 30 minutes.”
The mental health co-response teams in Canterbury, Auckland, Bay of Plenty and Counties Manukau are expected to be up and running by 30 June 2026, with a further six locations to be announced in due course.
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