Mental health a priority: Vanessa Weenink, MP for Banks Peninsula
Improved services for mental distress calls are on the way.
Four new mental health co-response teams will soon be established to work alongside the police in responding to 111 mental health-related distress calls.
This follows the Government’s $28 million investment in Budget 2025 to roll out 10 co-response teams across the country and expand crisis helpline capacity.
Minister for Mental Health Matt Doocey has confirmed that the first four teams will be launched in Canterbury, Auckland, Bay of Plenty, and Counties Manukau this year. Although each site will begin operating on different dates, all four teams are expected to be running by 30 June 2026.
Every year, around 73,000 mental health-related 111 calls are made. While the police play a vital role in keeping communities safe, they are not mental health specialists. The new approach ensures people receive the dignified support from trained professionals when they need it most.
The Government has also introduced several measures to improve emergency responses, including:
- A 60-minute maximum handover time from the police to emergency department staff for people arriving in distress,
- A requirement that anyone detained under the Mental Health Act in a Police custody suite be transferred to a health facility within 30 minutes.
Co-response teams bring together mental health clinicians and frontline Police to jointly respond to urgent mental health related calls. This model provides immediate on the spot support and faster access to appropriate services.
The concept was originally piloted under the previous National Government in 2017, but the programme was discontinued in 2018 under Labour. The new rollout restores and expands a proven approach focused on safer, more effective emergency mental health care.
