This article discusses mental-health crises and the police role in responding to them. It follows Mindframe principles: it does not describe methods, it does not provide identifying details about individuals in crisis, and it concentrates on systems, supports and reform. Mei Calloway has been reporting on this beat for several years, and this 2026 update tracks where the major reforms now sit.
The Victorian Government’s mental-health policing reform program — sitting inside the broader response to the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System — is shifting the model so that mental-health crises requiring co-attendance are led by paramedics and clinicians, with police supporting where safety requires it. The change is incremental, the implementation is uneven across the state, and the reform sits alongside continuing coronial scrutiny of deaths after police interaction.
Why this reform exists
For decades, Victoria Police has been one of the largest de-facto mental-health responders in the state. Members attend a high volume of welfare checks, suicidal-ideation reports and crises every year. The published evidence — from the Royal Commission’s final report, from successive coronial findings, and from international research — points to two things consistently. Police are not the right primary responder for most mental-health crises. And the people most likely to be harmed by a poorly matched response are people in their most vulnerable moments.
The Royal Commission’s recommendation 10 set the direction. Responses to mental-health crises requiring the attendance of both ambulance and police should be paramedic-led, with mental-health clinician support, and police involvement should be calibrated to actual safety risk rather than treated as the default.
The co-response model in practice
Three operational components are doing most of the work:
- Telehealth clinical support. A 24-hour clinical advisory service is available to police and paramedics responding to mental-health calls. The clinician on the line provides real-time advice, helps assess risk and coordinates onward care.
- In-person co-responders. In high-volume areas and time periods, mental-health clinicians ride alongside paramedics and (in some configurations) police members to provide on-scene clinical assessment and connect people to community-based care without an emergency department admission.
- Triple-zero secondary triage. Triple Zero callers in mental-health crisis who do not need a police or ambulance dispatch are diverted to clinical pathways, including specialist phone services. The diversion has measurably reduced police callouts in metropolitan areas where it has been most fully deployed.
Paramedic powers and training
Under Victoria’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Act, registered paramedics employed by an ambulance service can take a person into care and control if the paramedic is satisfied the person appears to have a mental illness and care is necessary to prevent imminent and serious harm. That power, combined with new training delivered jointly to paramedics and police, allows safer transfer of clinical decision-making out of police hands and into clinical hands at the right moment.
None of this means police step away from welfare matters. Where there is genuine threat to life — to the person in crisis, to a member of the public, or to first responders themselves — police remain the right responders. The reform is about matching the response to the situation rather than defaulting to a uniformed presence in every case.
Residential alternatives: the Lorne model
One strand of the broader reform program has been the establishment of community-based residential care options for people in crisis who do not need an acute hospital admission but cannot safely go home. The Lorne residential mental-health service is one of a small group of services testing a model where short-stay, peer-supported, clinically-overseen care can substitute for an emergency-department-and-discharge cycle.
The detail of the model — short stays, peer workers alongside clinical staff, a deliberately home-like setting — is drawn from international evidence. For Victorians, the practical question is scale. The current footprint of these services is small relative to the volume of crisis presentations, and expansion is one of the live policy debates inside the reform program.
Coronial scrutiny of deaths after police interaction
The Coroners Court of Victoria continues to investigate deaths that occur after interaction with police, including deaths involving people in mental-health crisis. Recent coronial findings — published in full on the Court’s website — have addressed the adequacy of training, the use of force, the availability of clinical alternatives, and the operational decisions made on scene.
Our newsroom does not summarise individual coronial findings here for two reasons. First, individual cases involve grieving families and the published findings should be the primary text for any reader who wants to engage with them. Second, the coroner’s role is to make findings about specific deaths and recommendations to prevent future deaths; abstracting from that work risks losing the precision the Court applies. We point readers to the Coroners Court of Victoria’s published findings for specifics.
What can be said in general terms is that successive coronial findings have driven elements of the reform program. The shift toward paramedic-led co-response, the expansion of clinical advisory lines, and the introduction of Mental Health and Wellbeing Local services are responses, in part, to evidence accumulated in coronial cases over years.
What changed through 2025–26
Three developments stand out:
- Continued rollout of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Locals — community-based services that provide a non-emergency-department option for people who need help.
- Continued expansion of the secondary triage service for triple-zero calls, with more callers diverted to clinical pathways before any emergency-services dispatch.
- Updated co-response training delivered jointly to police and paramedics, with content focused on de-escalation, suicide-safer practices and risk assessment.
What members of the public should know
If you are worried about a family member in crisis, the right first step is rarely a triple-zero call unless there is immediate danger to life. The direct mental-health contacts available 24 hours a day include Lifeline (13 11 14), Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636), Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467) and the Suicide Line Victoria (1300 651 251). For young people, Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800) and headspace are appropriate first contacts. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Victorians, 13YARN (13 92 76) is a culturally-safe service.
For families navigating the system on behalf of someone they love, Tandem Carers (1800 314 325) provides specialist support to mental-health carers. The Mental Health Complaints Commissioner accepts complaints about public mental-health services.
If there is immediate risk to life, dial triple zero. The reform program does not change that.
What our newsroom is watching
Three indicators will tell us whether the reform is delivering through 2026 and beyond:
- The proportion of mental-health-related triple-zero calls resolved through clinical pathways without police dispatch.
- Coronial findings that reference the new co-response model and assess whether it is operating as intended.
- The geographic spread of community-based residential alternatives — the Lorne model and its successors — beyond the small initial footprint.
This is one of the slower reform stories in Victorian policing, but it is one of the most consequential. We will continue to report it carefully, and we will continue to follow Mindframe guidance in how we do so.
If reading this article has been difficult, please reach out. Lifeline is on 13 11 14, available 24 hours a day. Beyond Blue is on 1300 22 4636. The Suicide Call Back Service is on 1300 659 467. 13YARN is on 13 92 76. You are not alone, and help is available.
