Politicians, the police, health authorities and social agencies are in discussions about what jobs police will refuse to attend in the future. Photo: RNZ / Richard Tindiller
The Minister for Mental Health has been told the police will "refuse welfare checks" under their pullback from social harm callouts.
Matt Doocey was also told police would "refuse 'inappropriate' requests of assistance" from people authorised to ask for help, such as senior psych nurses.
This is from briefings in July by Health NZ, after they met police to talk about the changes they will make to mental health callout responses, starting in November.
Doocey told RNZ late on Wednesday that police would always respond to mental health events where there was immediate risk to life and safety.
RNZ had asked Doocey if he sought more details about what constituted an "inappropriate" request for help.
He responded that the transition would ensure people were getting the right care at the right time.
"Because for too long, those seeking crisis support have often been met by a uniformed officer, which can cause further distress," he said in a statement.
RNZ also asked police on Wednesday to explain what an "inappropriate" request for help would be.
The two-page Doocey briefing also revealed a new project was running, for the Ministry of Health to listen in on 111 calls, then match the caller's information to other datasets it has.
The police told the government 10 months ago that rising social harm callouts were taking them away from crime fighting, and the situation had to change.
The Doocey briefing used stronger language than police's public statements, which said they had been "over-responding to welfare checks where there is no risk of criminality or to life or safety", but needed to talk more to partner agencies before making any final decisions on how to cut back.
The Doocey briefing said just three words about welfare checks or refusing them. Doocey did not elaborate on that.
On Monday, police who had been called to do a welfare check on a woman in a Rotorua suburb arrived to find her dead. A man was charged with murder.
Earlier this week, RNZ revealed police had begun trailing a new risk-harm framework to prioritise 111 and 105 calls.
Doocey has to report back to Cabinet in November on the transition to less social harm callouts weighing on police, through the design of a multi-agency response; this is the same month when the first of a four-phase police change to mental health callouts begins. This work was on track, the minister said.
"A careful and measured approach is being taken to ensure the transition is planned and managed safely," Doocey said.
But Labour's mental health spokesperson Ingrid Leary questioned that: "They're building the plane while they're flying it, and that leaves big questions over safety," she said.
Health NZ had told Doocey it would begin to plan how to handle the changes once police gave it a timeline. The timings were announced in late August.
"This will have an impact on Health NZ's staffing and management of ED assessments," officials said in the weekly briefing in July, newly released under the OIA.
However, it was clearly "unsustainable" how police sometimes had to wait for hours in the Emergency Department.
"The plan to refuse requests from duly authorised officers [eg nurses] is more complex," they added.
The Mental Health Act already gave police discretion, so they did not have to help, "however, in many cases, from a safety perspective, police are needed, particularly to take people for assessment".
In November, police will start by raising the threshold at which they respond or transport people to ED, and reduce how long they remain in ED down to a maximum of an in January, then to just 15 minutes in July next year.
Doocey also has to brief Cabinet in November on "any other interventions that would support people not to call police in mental distress".
Leary said: "To think that EDs, without extra funding and with frontline cuts will be able to deal with this extra pressure, is laughable.".
As for the 111 data project, the health ministry told Doocey it had expected to begin listening to the 111 mental health calls in August, and complete that work by September.
"The project will listen to [mental health 111] calls and analyses [sic] the issues raised to understand why people call 111 and then match their information to other available."
It had been delayed in July by privacy and ethical implications.
RNZ has asked for more details about the data project.
Doocey said he has been told ethics and privacy were considered. "This project does not record any identifying data - the purpose is not to capture personal information, just the reasons people called," he said.
Its aim was to help health authorities and police co-design and cost the multi-agency response on social harm, which is to roll out over the next five years.
