Mental health nurses say they’re still in the dark about how Health New Zealand is going to take over mental health callouts from police, just weeks before the changes are set to be phased in. 

Handling of mental health callouts will start transitioning from a Police-led response to a health-led response from November 1. 

New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO) Mental Health Section Chair, Helen Garrick said they have seen the Police plan for the shift but have not heard anything about how health services are proposing to fill the void. 

“We're very concerned about the lack of workforce available to take over this work, and alongside that is a concern about the lack of suitable places for people to be taken,” Garrick said. 

Garrick said nurses also have concerns about both their legal powers and their safety, particularly given their workforce was aging. 

An NZNO survey last year found 76% of mental health nurses had been physically threatened on the job, 40% had been assaulted in the previous 12 months, and some felt burnt out. 

“We have very limited powers in terms of being able to detain and work with people in those very severe crisis situations,” Garrick said. 

“We are wondering how this workforce is going to be prepared, for such things as entry into quite volatile situations that previously police would have been involved in." 

The United Kingdom has also had problems when it made a similar change, despite having designated areas inside health services for assessment and decision-making. 

“We don’t have anything like that in New Zealand,” Garrick said. 

“They created co-response teams of mental health, Police and ambulance officers – we currently have very little in that area.” 

Health New Zealand Co-Director Funding – Hospitals, Rachel Haggerty, said the service is working with police, the Ministry of Health, Hato Hone St John and Wellington Free Ambulance on an agreed and aligned approach to the changes. 

She said Health New Zealand expects to share more details with staff and stakeholders about changes in the near future. 

In a statement, police said the first phase will go ahead as planned, with police applying a higher threshold for involvement in transporting mental health patients and for attending mental health facilities. 

Police would also streamline the voluntary handover process.