A key mental health program used by police across NSW isn't good enough and should be fixed along with other programs across the state, the government concedes.
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Mental Health Minister Rose Jackson said the NSW Health-led Police, Ambulance and Clinical Early Response (PACER) program had been "worthwhile" but was "not up to the task".
Her comments came after the police watchdog found half of all NSW police-involved deaths or serious injuries involved a person experiencing a mental health crisis.
Some 15 people have died at the hands of police responding to mental health-related incidents in NSW in the past year.
"PACER in its current delivery framework is not up to the task and we acknowledge that and we know that we need to do more," Ms Jackson told a budget estimates hearing on Wednesday.
"We accept that there needs to be a new model."
The $6.1 million initiative stipulates mental health clinicians attend emergencies in the Sydney metropolitan area alongside first responders.
However it has been criticised because clinicians do not attend where people are armed.
The family of Todd McKenzie, who lived with schizophrenia before he was shot three times by police at his home on the NSW mid-north coast in 2019, said it was "abundantly clear" the system is broken.
In a letter to Ms Jackson last week, Mr McKenzie's stepfather said PACER was as "useless as udders on a bull".
"One thing which is abundantly clear is that police are not adequately trained in the area of mental health ... to deal with a mentally unwell person in crisis," he wrote.
In a separate incident, 47-year-old Krista Kach was shot with a police "beanbag" round during an attempted arrest in the Hunter region in September.
Her family said Ms Kach was distressed after being told she would be evicted from her unit, calling the police response a "disturbing and heartbreaking" reaction "to a vulnerable person that had been told that she would soon be homeless".
NSW Police Minister Yasmin Catley has backed the force while it conducts a three-month review into mental health responses.
Ms Jackson said she has been directly collaborating with Ms Catley and NSW Police to work through mental health reforms.
"The way that we respond to acute mental health crisis in NSW needs to change," she said.
"Exploring what that could look like is underway."
She pointed to the success of a mental health acute assessment team operating in western Sydney where crews provide short-term mental health care to stabilise an acute crisis, avoiding the need for hospital admission or police involvement.
The government has not advised whether it will commit to expanding the program's funding.
Ms Jackson told the hearing she was particularly concerned about delivering care to those in rural and regional NSW.
A "significant amount" of the $700 million statewide mental health infrastructure programme would be directed towards mental health care outside major cities.
She cited the new Banksia mental health unit in Tamworth as well as an integrated mental health unit for Maitland Hospital and an acute mental health inpatient unit for Albury Wodonga Regional Hospital.
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Australian Associated Press
