Mental health crisis dragging police off the beat

The Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie, will reveal police are being taken off the streets for hours every day to supervise people with mental health problems waiting in emergency departments in the state’s hospitals. This does, at times, leave some towns and suburbs unpoliced overnight for hours.

Mr Wilkie will call on the State Government to call an emergency summit to find ways to immediately ease the mental health crisis in Tasmania.

“The State Government has had long enough to fix this crisis which is most acute at the Royal Hobart Hospital,” Mr Wilke said. “We need immediate action. We know people with mental health problems are spending days stranded in the emergency department, ambulances are ramped around the block, and now we find out police are being dragged off the street to act as de facto mental health workers.”

According to the Police Association of Tasmania, pairs of police officers are spending up to four hours in the state’s emergency departments once or twice a day supervising people waiting for admission for mental health reasons.

In a mental health call out, if there is even a threat of violence, two police officers must attend and take the person into protective custody and to a medical facility. An MOU between police and the health department restricts the maximum time police must wait with the patient to four hours but this limit is often reached as triage will admit other patients first.

The Police Association said the mental health crisis was stretching police, especially after hours when towns and suburbs could be left unpoliced for up to four hours when officers were tied up at hospital emergency departments.

The demand on police in Tasmania to deal with people experiencing mental health problems has only grown since it was highlighted in the 2015 State Government Rethink Mental Health Report.

Mr Wilkie said the pressure on police illustrated the wide-reaching impact of the mental health crisis and immediate action was needed.

“Mental health is everybody’s business and we need to get everybody around the table at an emergency summit to sort this crisis out,” Mr Wilkie said. “Mental health must be properly resourced in Tasmania.”

“Nor is it in the patients’ best interest that the first and protracted response to their mental health episode are the police. First and foremost is that these people are unwell and in urgent need of medical help.”

Authorised by Andrew Wilkie MP 188 Collins St Hobart
Independent Member for Denison, Andrew Wilkie