Suicide calls to police average 67 a day
Mental health callouts are a fifth of their work but new police cadets get just eight hours training, reports Stephanie Ockhuysen.
Police are responding to suicide attempts and threats 67 times a day but new cadets enter the force with just eight hours of mental health training.
Last financial year, 685 people took their own lives but the New Zealand Police’s 2018/19 annual report shows officers were called out 24,662 times to people attempting or threatening to – an average of 67 a day and a 10 per cent increase from the previous year.
With a mental health system struggling to keep up with demand, 111 has become the first point of contact when people are struggling, pushing police officers to the frontline of a mental health crisis.
On top of suicide callouts, police also received 32,994 other mental health calls for events such as psychosis or people in distress.
These types of calls take up an average of 275 hours of police frontline staff time every day and is 20 per cent of their total workload.
President of the NZ Police Association, the union representing police employees, Chris Cahill says the figures of suicide callouts are ‘‘pretty disturbing’’.
‘‘There is so much competition for police resources and we’ve argued that what’s required is more investment in mental health services.’’
With mental health taking up 20 per cent of police work, family harm taking up 50 per cent, it doesn’t leave time for much else, Cahill says.
Cadets receive eight hours of mental health training during the 16-week course at police college. This includes two hours of interactive sessions, two hours of study on the Mental Health Act and Police policy, and two two-hour sessions on practical applications of the legislation and policy and experiential scenariobased learning.
In the five weeks after graduation, they are required to complete three mental health e-learning modules.
‘‘These people don’t belong in police cells, it’s a health issue. It’s difficult and would be better if medically trained professionals could attend.’’ Psychologists agree.
Victoria University clinical psychologist Dr Dougal Sutherland takes his hat off to police for responding the way they do but says they’re not the ones who should be attending.
Ultimately, it should be dealt to with a health response rather than a legal response, he says.
‘‘Resources are so stretched and tight that people end up calling the police because who the hell else are you going to call?’’
Sutherland says the crisis number isn’t readily available or easy to remember whereas everyone knows 111.
‘‘The attitudes of staff in mental health services are less than what you’d want and are not always helpful. When somebody loses compassion for their job, that’s a symptom of burnout and you get burnt out if you’re under resourced and under staffed.’’
Sutherland says, in short, New Zealand’s horrific mental health figures stem from decades of underfunding of the mental health service.
The public is now more aware of mental health issues and being encouraged to ask for help, but it hasn’t been matched with a large investment into services, he says.
A short-term solution would be to have mental health clinicians accompany police, Sutherland says.
‘‘A longer-term solution is actually building up services so when people are in high levels of distress there is somewhere they can go where they don’t have to call the police.’’
But, until then, it will be officers turning up in people’s hour of need.
Police set up a mental health team in 2014, and, in 2017, they included mental health for the first time as one of six official drivers of demand.
Manager of mental health and community services at Police National Headquarters, Inspector Rob Sum, says police have a duty of care to keep people safe until they can be assessed by a medical professional.
Sum says the demands on police to deal with mental health calls are increasing by about 9 per cent a year, which is in line with global trends.
‘‘The exact reasons for this increase are complex and are likely to include increasing prevalence of mental health issues in the community.’’
Part of the role of the mental health team at Police National Headquarters is to improve outcomes for people experiencing mental distress, manage the demand and risk associated with mental health-related calls for service, and work in partnership to improve the interagency response to people in mental health crisis.
And, the officers on the ground are noticing a difference, including in the support they receive for the situations they’re put in.
When officers do deal with the ‘‘grittier’’ events, they are referred to counselling, New Plymouth Senior Sergeant Geoff Ryan says.
‘‘When I started it was just ‘harden up and get on with it, that’s your job’. But we are getting a lot better at looking after our people now.’’
But, in the 35 years Ryan has been in the force, he says the job has changed from being about locking up bad guys to keeping the community safe and mental health falls under that.
Ryan says not a day goes by that they’re not called to something related to mental health and a week doesn’t pass without a suicide attempt or threat.