Scant police training for mental health callouts
Frontline officers attend an average of 98 mental health-related events, including suicide threats or attempts, every 24 hours.
And the brother of a man murdered by a psychiatric patient says the eight hours of training police recruits get in dealing with mental health callouts is not nearly enough.
In 2007, Graeme Moyle’s brother, Colin Moyle, was bludgeoned with a spade in suburban Auckland before being set alight by former flatmate Matthew Ahlquist.
Ahlquist was later found not guilty of murder on the grounds of insanity.
Police are dealing with an avalanche of mental-health callouts but recruits only get eight hours dedicated training on how to cope with the influx of sometimes volatile and dangerous people in crisis.
Mental health victim advocate Graeme Moyle said officers were under-trained to be dealing with people who were often ‘‘just flipping out’’ and not committing any crime. The problem had become a huge drain on police resources. They should not be first responders.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Health mental health crisis assessment teams worked business hours, leaving police to pick up the slack, he said.
Police national prevention manager Superintendent Eric Tibbott said the rise in the number of people threatening suicide and self-harm was a global phenomenon explained by a raft of competing theories.
Since February, the daily number of callouts in New Zealand had risen from 94 to 98. ‘‘It’s a very complicated social issue with no easy answer,’’ he said.
In February, Stuff revealed that while suicide callouts had increased about 9 per cent a year, a new police report showed that 111 calls for the next tier of mental distress had jumped 77 per cent between 2009 and 2016.
The Police College has recently been criticised for being too soft on recruits, while earlier this month the Government confirmed funding had been axed for a ground-breaking $8 million coresponse service that would have seen a mental health worker attend all crisis calls, along with police and ambulance staff.
Recruits get a total of eight hours dedicated mental health training during their 16 weeks at police college. This includes a two-hour interactive session, two hours on Mental Health Act legislation and police policy, as well as two further 2-hour sessions on practical application of legislation and policy, and experiential scenario-based learning.
In the five weeks after graduating, officers complete three mental health e-learning modules.
Tibbott said police worked closely with mental health crisis teams and health facilities to provide the best possible response for those in distress.
National Party police spokesman Chris Bishop said mental health was the sixth biggest driver of demand on police time, with officers spending around 280 hours a day responding to such callouts across the country.
‘‘Police do a good job dealing with these incidents but they’re not mental health professionals and an eight-hour training session is not going to give them the specialist skills and expertise.
‘‘That’s why the $8m co-response pilot would have made a real difference."
Police Minister Stuart Nash said officers were not expected to be mental health experts but to provide a first response in emergency situations.
Police were dealing with more and more mental health cases and resources were increasingly stretched because staff numbers had been run down under the previous Government.
The department was also grappling with a shortage of mental health and addiction services due to shortfalls in health funding.
‘‘It’s a very complicated social issue with no easy answer.’’
Superintendent Eric Tibbott