Mental health crisis response

The MHF wrote to the Minister of Police and Minister for Mental Health on 13 May 2025 to tell them we received 16,059 signatures of support for this petition, from a range of concerned New Zealanders.

Together with our signees, we ask:

1. For Hon. Mark Mitchell as the Minister of Police to stop the Police’s hasty withdrawal from mental health responses until a fully-funded and operational alternative service is in place nationwide.
   
   
2. For Hon. Matt Doocey as the Minister for Mental Health to show the public a fully developed and costed health plan to support the short- and long-term Police transition away from mental health responses, created in consultation with the people most affected and with adequate funding allocated in Budget 2025.
   
   
3. The Government to roll out and test their replacement crisis response service before the Police step away, to ensure New Zealanders will continue to receive the mental health support they need, and deserve, throughout this transition.

The MHF fully supports the proposal to move towards a health-led response to mental health events, it’s good for vulnerable people and it’s good for Police. However,we estimate it will take at least five years of health workforce building until Police can fully scale back their role. The MHF is particularly concerned about the Police announcement with firm dates for transition starting in 2024 but with no corresponding health actions. 

The MHF urges Police not to make changes to its operating model before an effective alternative is in place, and we urge the government to ensure the overall transition process is exceptionally well planned and coordinated, fully transparent to the public and the mental health sector and implemented on a gradual scale, otherwise vulnerable people and their families will fall through the cracks of a disjointed health response.

The MHF wrote to the Minister of Health and Minister of Police recommending alternative approaches to community mental and suicidal crisis across Aotearoa to replace police responding to these situations alone. We believe Health NZ/Hauora Aotearoa and the Māori Health Authority are well placed to support the localities to create community-led responses crises which suit their specific needs. These responses should be community based, peer-led and co-designed by tāngata whaiora and tāngata Māori.

The Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand opposes the inclusion of provisions that seek to increase punitive measures in response to offences against first responders and corrections officers (clauses 21-24). While we wholly support increasing protections for those providing essential, frontline care, people in acute mental health or substance-related distress cannot be reliably judged as having intent to injure or harm while in an altered state. Evidence shows that increased penalties do not reduce harm to responders or tāngata whaiora. Punishment is not the answer - a preventative and whole-of-system approach to reducing violence against first responders is what works. This requires sustained investment in timely, community-based support to prevent crises from escalating, alongside the urgent development of a nationally cohesive, networked crisis response system  We are concerned about the inevitable disproportionate harm to the most vulnerable in our community, and also to Māori, who already experience inequitable outcomes in areas of mental health and criminal justice.  The small minority of people who act aggressively during a mental health or substance-related crisis can, and often do, recover with appropriate support. We are against trapping people in a system that can compound existing harm, and support a therapeutic, rehabilitative approach.