NZ Police has introduced higher thresholds for mental health callouts, going only to those calls where there is an immediate risk to life and safety.
There will instead be more health-led responses, with the changes phased in between November and September 2025.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said in a statement last week the changes would relieve pressure on police and Health New Zealand had been advised.
"Events that fall short of that threshold will not be attended by police, but rather directed to more appropriate services."
It was important to police that health officials felt safe, so the changes were being phased in.
“It is well documented that mental health demand is increasing and our challenges in meeting this demand are ongoing and impacting our ability to service other needs in our community," Mr Coster said.
Mental health demand accounted for 11% of calls to police emergency communications centres around the country in the year to May.
Mr Coster said that was taking up about 500,000 hours of police frontline time each year.
That was not sustainable and impacted on the ability to deliver core policing services, he said.
Rules would also be tightening around custody suites, which were not appropriate for conducting mental health assessments, he said.
People reported missing from mental health facilities needed to be better managed and higher thresholds of police attendance would apply from April. The police would not be the first to begin searching, he said.
"We are aiming to reduce demand on frontline staff but are conscious the issues are complex so we will continue to talk to partner agencies before making any final decisions," Mr Coster said.
Health NZ chief executive Margie Apa said health agencies wanted to improve access to mental health services in a timely way, and meet the health and safety needs of the workforce, patients and their whānau.
"This is all about getting the balance right . . . One of the factors we will need to consider as part of our transition planning is our ongoing mental health workforce shortages," she said.
There would be times when a health-led response was more desirable, for example to reduce stigma for distressed people being accompanied by police.
Health NZ, the Ministry of Health and police were committed to working together to identify potential issues and resolve them as each phase of the roll out was activated, she said.
Health NZ would work with staff to put a robust operational plan in place.
The changes were part of a wider five-year plan to move to a multi-agency response to 111 calls, with less reliance on a police-led model, Ms Apa said.
