When PSA delegate and mental health worker Greg Davies agreed to be interviewed by RNZ about Police plans to stop attending most mental health calls he didn’t know what to expect.
Greg, who works in Blenheim in the on-call Mental Health Crisis team, is concerned about Police plans to wind back their response to mental health callouts.
“I really think that if Police go ahead with their mental health plans we will be overwhelmed,” Greg says.
“It’s very likely these changes will put patients, their families, the public and health professionals at risk,” Greg says.
He was so concerned about the Police plans he emailed the PSA’s National Sector Lead for Health Ashok Shankar to ask how the PSA was planning to respond.
“In response Ashok called me and asked if I was prepared to speak out on National Radio.”
“I was a bit anxious. I wanted to make sure I did a good job and not let people down or breach any confidentially.”
However, knowing he could speak as a PSA delegate gave him the confidence to be interviewed by RNZ’s Nine to Noon host Kathryn Ryan. Prior to the interview he informed hospital management of what he was doing and received no push back before or after the interview.
Greg’s interview went to air on Monday 16 September as part of a 30-minute package about the issue, which also featured an interview with Police Commissioner Andrew Coster.
Greg, who has been a PSA delegate “on and off for 30 years” was well placed to comment on the issue. A trained nurse, he has worked in mental health for about 35 years. Since 1993, he has worked at Blenheim’s Wairau Hospital, having initially gone there in a 10-week secondment.
Currently he works Tuesday to Friday supporting people with mental health conditions, such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or severe depression. From 8am on Friday until 8am Monday he is rostered on as part of an On Call Mental Health Crisis team. This means he is on call one in every four weekends as well as one or two nights a week.
The team responds to call outs to assess people presenting with mental health issues and if necessary, helps police transport them safely to a mental health unit. This can require a two-hour each way drive to the mental health unit at Nelson Hospital.
The round trip plus assessing the patient, keeping them calm and helping to admit them to the unit can take up to eight hours for each patient.
It’s tough and challenging work and some days are better than others. What keeps Greg going is that he enjoys the satisfaction of co-ordinating responses with other professionals and working with his fellow team members, who work well together under pressure.
“I’ve been doing this a long time and I’ve developed long term working relationships with many of my clients through good days and bad days,” Greg says
“If you have a couple of good days with clients and achieve some success with them, I think this isn’t so bad.”
Positive feedback also helps. “People have said some nice things. After the interview people said such extremely nice things it brought me to tears,” Greg says.
