Victoria Police taken off the beat to sit with mental health patients

Thousands of Victoria Police officers are spending hours sitting with mental health patients waiting to receive care as the state’s mental health callouts soar.

Hundreds of police spent almost their entire shift accompanying mental health patients in 2022. Picture: Brendan Beckett

Thousands of cops are being taken off the beat every year to sit with mental health patients as they wait to be offloaded to hospitals.

Alarming new data released to the parliament on Monday shows hundreds of police spent almost their entire shift accompanying patients in 2022.

They were among police called to 10,310 incidents last year where Victoria Police officers were forced to wait hours in emergency departments with people experiencing a mental health crisis.

In some cases, police spent more than 6.5 hours — nearly the full duration of their shift — waiting for patients to receive care.

Since 2018, the number of incidents where police waited longer than 6.5 hours for a patient to be admitted has tripled from 120 five years ago to 332 last year.

The total number of mental health call-outs responded to by police has increased by more than 500 cases since 2018.

But last year’s figures represented a decrease on 2020 and 2021, when police experienced a surge in mental health call-outs throughout Covid.

In the first three months of this year alone, cops have already been called to 2406 cases where patients required a mental health transfer.

Wayne Gatt is disappointed the government has sought to delay legislation that would overhaul how mental health incidents are responded to. Picture: David Crosling

Under the current Mental Health Act, police can only apprehend a person “to prevent serious and imminent harm to the person or to another person”.

Police are required to accompany that person to a hospital or health service and wait with them until they can be seen by a registered medical professional at a hospital.

The person can’t be left with paramedics, but the Royal Commission into Victoria’s mental health system recommended mental health responses should be health-led, which the government has agreed to.

Police Association of Victoria secretary Wayne Gatt said he was disappointed the government had sought to delay legislation that would overhaul how mental health incidents are responded to.

“That legislation would have, from later this year, enabled police to transfer a patient into the care of others, such as ambulance paramedics in circumstances where they were not posing a risk to the community,” he said.

“By introducing an amendment bill that now effectively delays this reform indefinitely, there will be a missed opportunity that could, at the very least, have made the experience of those in mental health crisis markedly better and, at best, potentially save lives.”

Victoria Police officers were called to more than 10,000 mental health incidents last year. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Mr Gatt said in about 60 per cent of cases, the only role police play in the process is to transport a patient which takes them away from other essential work.

“Government should not be delaying a move away from a system that sees people in mental health crisis, who have committed no crime, or that do not present any risk whatsoever, continue to be subjected to the frightening indignity of being transported to hospital in a divvy van,” he said.

Opposition police spokesman Brad Battin said Victorians were paying for government incompetence.

“Victoria Police has 800 vacancies on the police roster, and thousands of hours offline sitting in hospitals. It is little wonder why youth offending and serious crime continues to rise,” he said.

“At a time we need more police on the beat, Daniel Andrews has his head in the sand and will not provide the resources needed to keep the community safe.”

A government spokeswoman said Victoria Police play an important role in responding to reports of people experiencing mental health emergencies.

“This is to protect the safety of the individual, our paramedics and the entire Victorian community,” she said.

Mental Health Minister Gabrielle Williams said transitioning toward a health based response took time.

“Obviously a health based response is what we are aiming towards,” she said.

“We obviously are in a period of time at the moment where we’ve got an enormous strain on our health system ... we need to work very closely with our first responders, whether that be Ambulance Victoria and ensuring that they’re ready to make that transition.”

But she said in some cases, where a mental health patient poses a risk to the community, police will still be called in.