The signing of the agreement reflects how the three organisations are working together to produce better outcomes for those who require assistance from addiction services.
Ngā Kete Mātauranga Pounamu Charitable Trust chief executive Tracey Wright-Tawha said it was a "wonderful relationship with police, who could refer in real-time to our service and we can provide one-on-one counselling".
"We can provide experiential learning activities, we can even do detox application work and help people ... by having them on-site as residential clients."
Ngā Kete Mātauranga Pounamu Charitable Trust has been operating the Tūmanako Oranga Wellness Centre since November and is helping 30 active clients.
Out of their three crisis units, "two are being filled on a weekly basis".
New Zealand Police Southland Area Commander Inspector Mike Bowman said, "It's been a bit of a no-man’s land for those people who don’t meet the threshold so now we've got some opportunities to think differently around how we can help them."
Insp Bowman leads a team of police officers who do "referral handovers where if somebody who perhaps has been just picked up by the police", are encouraged to get some counselling support and access the services of the Tūmanako Oranga Wellness Centre.
"The memorandum of understanding has enabled our partnership to help people who are lost in the community, lost in between agencies.
It’s a great initiative and we’ve seen the results so far."
Ms Wright-Tawha reiterated that the intention behind the memorandum of understanding was how the agencies would work together, being mindful of the boundaries of each other's roles, of their professional conduct at all times and that they were "greater together".
"We must have an ongoing dialogue so we work on a no-surprise basis and really strengthen and layer in all the principles of aroha, around working with one another and it's a measure of pride for us as an agency," Mrs Wright-Tawha said.
"We are a mandated national government organisation working with the Crown and the police.
"We walk that fine line between chaos and order and we want to be a part of that solution for our community as well."
Te Whatu Ora is the funding body behind the operation of the Tūmanako Oranga Wellness Centre.
- By Nina Tapu
