Police – Mental health secondment

A year is a long time, so to I thought I’d start 2025 with a reintroduction. My name is Mark Stallworthy and I am the sergeant-in-charge of the Warkworth Police Station. If my name seems familiar, it is because from 2018 to late 2023, I was also in charge of the Warkworth station. About a year ago, I took a year-long secondment on the North Shore, overseeing the Waitemata Police co-response team.

The co-response team is a police district initiative aimed at addressing what could accurately be called our mental health crisis. Over recent years, police resources have been increasingly involved in preventing harm to, and from, people in mental health crisis, so much so that there came a realisation that our front-line police were increasingly tied up assisting with mental health issues.

From time to time that left us unable to attend to our core duties of crime and crash reduction, community reassurance and the apprehension of offenders.

The co-response team is a small, specialised number of police and mental health workers working in a highly collaborative way, attending confirmed mental health crisis jobs. The result was freeing up our police front line for true police work. Don’t get me wrong, the police front line will always be available for an emergency, even when that is due to someone being in mental health crisis. The difference is that we are now using trained specialists for mental health problems. A ‘horses for courses’ approach.

What was it like? I’ve been 19 years in the police and would describe the past year as probably the most challenging work I’ve done. Ultimately, it was very rewarding, particularly as I became familiar with the process. I won’t lie. Before I took this secondment I was guilty of frustration when dealing with the mental health system. I now absolutely appreciate what dedicated professionals those doctors and nurses working in this field are. I have witnessed the long hours they work and the care they give to often deeply troubled people. Certainly they make full use of the resources available to them and, after seeing a ‘year in the life’ first-hand, I have nothing but respect for the people who choose to work in this area of the health system.

I know that I’ve picked up some useful skills from my time away. I’m really looking forward to catching up with you all and doing my part to make Warkworth the safest town in New Zealand.