Geraldton Police first region in mental health co response trial

Geraldton police officers can spend up to three hours in hospital dealing with mental health-related call outs, but the city’s top cop believes a new trial starting next week will help free up resources and cut overall response times to other jobs by a third.

As revealed by the Geraldton Guardian in June, Geraldton Police will be part of a two-year trial, with mental health clinicians joining forces with police to help people with psychiatric incidents.

The joint initiative with the Department of Health will start next Wednesday, with select officers to be trained by, and work with a clinician who can be called upon to assist police on relevant call-outs.

Police Minister Paul Papalia was in Geraldton on Monday to reveal details of the regional-first trial, along with Assistant Police Commissioner Jo McCabe and Geraldton MP Lara Dalton.

“The aim is to have fewer people entering the justice system as a result of a mental health incident,” Mr Papalia said.

“It doesn’t help people who’ve called for help, being locked up.”

The Police Mental Health Co-Response program was the first of its kind in Australia when it started in Perth in 2016.

After expanding to four districts in the metro area, a review found it had been “immensely successful”.

“We are managing to de-escalate encounters with people who are often in crisis, and we are able to avoid them further engaging with the justice system,” Mr Papalia said.

Sixteen officers will undertake four days of specialist training with the mental health clinician. They will be put on shifts in groups of two, and along with the clinician, set aside to only respond to mental health calls. Currently police have only one day of mental health training. In addition, an Aboriginal health worker will also be assigned to the mental health team on each shift.

“They bring not only the mental health element of their skills, but also cultural awareness,” Mr Papalia said.

Geraldton officer-in-charge Sen. Sgt Chris Martin believed this new approach would have widespread benefits, and help free officers to respond to other jobs quicker. He predicted the new program would reduce current response times by a third.

“Make no mistake, mental health incidents are a daily occurrence for us.” Sen. Sgt Martin said.