Police withdraw mental health warnings, workers fear violence

The government said Monday’s first phase was carefully planned to “ramp up the workforce” to fill the void left by police, who have begun to gradually withdraw in recent weeks and are also trialling a new way of prioritizing non-emergency calls.

Health NZ has given staff three new mechanisms, called standard operating procedures, that will apply from Monday.

These include what medical staff are doing in response to police being less likely to transport people in distress (e.g. from a family’s home to a clinic, or from a small hospital to a large hospital with better treatment facilities) and spending less time handing over to staff in emergency situations. narrowing down when departments and officers respond to calls from a mental health or addiction facility.

The first phase of the changes covers interactions with volunteer patients deemed to be “substantially low risk”, Health NZ told RNZ.

Other changes for people in compulsory detention, who may be more agitated or violent, are scheduled to come into effect from March, having been delayed for two months.

“Police have advised that they will always intervene where there is an immediate risk to life or safety or where a crime has occurred,” the procedures said. The statement was included.

Health New Zealand When a project to analyze mental health and other calls to the police ran into privacy and ethical issues, he was blocked from obtaining all the information he wanted to use for his plans.

Public Service Association healthcare leader Ashok Shankar said they were not confident the procedures would manage the extra risks and frontline workers had little input.

He added that the association received a copy on October 15, asked Health NZ for a postponement, but was told the procedures were only temporary.

“They have only been distributed to our members in the last week. “And we had no involvement… from what we heard from our members, none of them were involved.”

He said the procedures did not take into account the different risks between large urban hospitals and small rural hospitals and the different roles such as security guards and nurses.

Health NZ’s chief security officer added in an email on Friday: “an important update on some of the streamlined processes the police have put in place to support the first phase of change. Information about this was released late yesterday.

The government talked about police wasting valuable time on handovers or transportation.

The new guidance on transportation said healthcare workers should only seek police assistance “when there is an urgent need for transportation and there is an immediate risk to the safety of the patient, staff or others”; and the situation becomes a “high risk or emergency situation” after all other options have been explored first.

Police say other agencies need to step into the gap. But the ambulance association said its public would be at greater risk and needed stab-proof vests.

The procedures emphasized that medical staff should call 111 if there was a “person-to-person physical attack” or “the risk and possibility of a person-to-person attack is imminent.”

The highest priority 111 calls were not part of the police pilot’s reprioritization of less urgent calls.

RNZ has copies of the three standard operating procedures discussed below.

public transportation

Police are imposing a higher threshold for transporting people in mental health cases starting Monday.

“Please ensure that all other options have been exhausted before considering police assistance in non-emergency situations,” the procedure said.

Options included calling an ambulance or “assistance from security if appropriate.” Police will only be allowed to conduct mental health transports if accompanied by a mental health professional.

The standard aims to ensure safe, timely and coordinated transfers while ensuring the safety of staff, “including in situations where police are unable to provide or refuse assistance”, it said. It was intended to provide a national and common understanding of when the police should be called if there was a sufficiently great risk.

“There are some non-emergency situations where the police will intervene, but not immediately.”

handover

Police plan to spend less time handing over to healthcare workers. According to procedure, they will depart as soon as the triage nurse checks whether there are any security alerts regarding the person.

“Police will conduct a safety assessment and liaise with emergency staff or security before leaving to assess whether the patient poses a risk to themselves or others.”

If there are safety concerns, officers will refer the matter to the district command center for further control.

Police will call mental health workers to discuss the situation before bringing someone into emergency for assessment, including looking at alternative options “if appropriate”.

“If the police have any concerns about aggression or safety and/or the patient does not want to remain (in the emergency department), this will not be considered a voluntary surrender of the patient.”

Health NZ told hospital staff to check their systems for “alerts” about people brought in by police before they left.

Hospital security may also be involved.

Participation

Police plan to not respond to calls from a mental health hospital so frequently.

“Before calls for police assistance are made and the individual concerned becomes an inpatient or is brought to a mental health inpatient unit for admission, all other healthcare processes and procedures will be considered and followed where specified,” the procedure states.

Other processes may include behavioral efforts, medical or drug intervention, or securing the facility or involvement of the person in the incident.

Instructs an emergency police call if violence occurs or staff are unable to control the situation.

Please ensure that all other options above have been exhausted before considering police assistance in non-emergency situations.”

Surveillance

The agency said Health NZ has established a national operational working group consisting of staff from mental health, emergency services and safety teams to adapt new practices and procedures.

“Our focus is on ensuring people get the right care at the right time, while protecting the safety of staff and the integrity of our services,” Murray Patton, interim national clinical chief for mental health and addiction, told RNZ.

“Each district is working with their affected teams to ensure they can implement these changes to meet local needs and liaising with local police.

“We will be closely monitoring how the first phase of the change progresses to ensure our planning for subsequent phases is appropriate.”

-RNZ

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