The Mental Health Foundation says reports the police are cancelling, or not responding to, half of all mental health callouts is disturbing and illustrates the sheer scale of the country's mental health crisis. "As a result, around half of all mental health callouts were cancelled by police communications centres without us attending them due to even higher priority emergency events." But Mental Health Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson said the report is an indictment of the country's mental health system. "This isn't new, but we've been underestimating the size of our mental health crisis. Counties Manukau Health's mental health and addiction services general manager Charles Tutagalevao confirmed there had been a sudden rise in admissions to its Tiaho Mai mental health unit in September.

Source: Stuff November 19, 2021 21:02 UTC