The slow setting sun pierces the driver's side of an unmarked police car as it patrols the streets of Logan, south of Brisbane.
Sargeant Megan Ward sits behind the wheel next to mental health clinician Simon Daniels when the radio sounds their first job of the day.
The incident involves a disturbance between two young brothers.
"They've got flags for mental health ... one has taken off," Sergeant Ward says to Mr Daniels as she diverts the car towards the scene.
Mr Daniels and Sergeant Ward are the team behind Logan's Mental Health Co-Responder Program — a model that sees a mental health clinician partnered with a police officer to respond to incidents in the community where mental health is believed to be a factor.
In the midst of a global pandemic, more than half of all calls received in the last 12 months were mental health related.
The huge demand for help means the pair are often inundated with several requests at the same time.
'Dedicated to the cause'
Since its induction in 2019, the program has experienced major success.
It runs out of the Domestic and Family Violence (DFV) and Vulnerable Persons Unit (VPU) in Logan at the Beenleigh station.
The officer in charge of the unit, Detective Senior Sergeant Paul Fletcher, said the program initially operated on a part-time basis until it began to see major results.
Now it operates seven days a week.
"It's a very complex area to work within so you need to be very dedicated to the cause," he said.
"Our officers get out there and they actually enjoy what they do and they've seen the results of their hard work, as well by helping the members of our community."
Sitting in the gutter
In the same shift, Sergeant Ward and Mr Daniels attend yet another call-out to a different area of Logan.
The pair arrive to a man sitting in the shadows on a footpath in a pitch black street, lit only by the headlights of a waiting ambulance.
Mr Daniels sits down on the footpath beside a man in the midst of a mental health crisis, sparked by a domestic violence incident.
He and Sergeant Ward often spend much of their shift sitting in a gutter, talking to people about life's challenges.
"Sometimes people are a little reluctant to speak to us at the beginning," he said.
"We just start having a bit of a chat and explain that the whole idea why we're there is to try and stop them going to hospital if possible.
"For us, we're getting much earlier access to people with mental health issues than maybe those that are already in that acute crisis stage.
"Normally [before the Mental Health Co-Responder Program], we wouldn't get to see them until they've been taken off to the emergency department."
Hearing 'their life stories'
Mr Daniels said seeing people in their home environment gave authorities much more clues about the root cause of societal issues.
"We're actually seeing them on the scene where they're struggling and that can give you so much more information," he said.
"To see their living environment, who else is around, that paints a much bigger picture that normally we don't get to see.
"Often we can also have family members, friends giving us some collateral information directly, rather than relying on information from the patient who can be fairly significantly unwell at the time."
Sergeant Ward said much of the co-responder program was about building trust in patients with police.
"So us being in uniform and then talking and really listening to them.
"I'm there to help and I always try to explain to them that's what we're there for, so we get them to open up and tell us their life stories."
'A labour of love'
Sergeant Ward has served as a police officer in the Logan area for more than two decades and even worked as a negotiator from 2002.
"But to most people in Logan City, we're just 'Simon and Megan'," she said.
She recalled the moment she was approached by a colleague and asked if she would be interested in joining to the co-responder program.
"I was because I've always had — I don't want to say an affinity — but I can always get people to talk," she said.
"I just thought this is the perfect way to utilise my skills that I've learnt and to educate other police officers.
"It's not going to work for everybody [working in Logan] but I think we all have to learn to communicate better.
Mental health impact 'amplified'
Every year more than 1 million Australians reach out to Lifeline for support.
Earlier this month on August 4, more than 3,345 people called in just a single day – the highest day in Lifeline's history.
Mr Daniels said he believed there was a mental health pandemic, not just a COVID-19 pandemic.
Sergeant Ward said they were seeing a lot more younger people, aged between nine and 15 in mental health crisis.
Detective Senior Sergeant Fletcher said to have the co-responder model mobilised during the pandemic had been incredibly beneficial.
"The pandemic has definitely highlighted the issues of mental health in our community, it's amplified a lot of those because a lot of stresses have come from lockdowns and restrictions," he said.
"It's been really good to have the correspondent working in this critical time and I think we're going to continue to see a lot of the adverse effects from that for a long time to come."
A 'stress reliever' on the health system
The program has been a "stress reliever" on the system with Addiction and Mental Health Services nursing director Sandra Powell saying there had seen a reduction in emergency department presentations since it was established.
"Between April 2019 and February 2021 there were 3,809 call outs — more than half of these for people with suicidal ideation plans or intent," Ms Powell said.
"Between 70 to 75 per cent of these call-outs were diverted away from hospital emergency departments.
"The QPS co-responder program, which commenced in April 2019, has seen more than 2,000 people.
"Of these, 1,200 people, who would have been subject to an Emergency Examination Authority and assessment in an emergency department, were diverted away from hospital.
"This is the same assessment and treatments provided in a hospital, but they occur in the patient's environment.
"The response from individuals, carers and families who this service has supported is extremely appreciative.
"It has given them an immediate, more discreet service appropriate to their needs, where possible, utilising their own resources in crisis management and developing appropriate treatment plans."
Images used in this story were taken prior to the introduction of Queensland's mandatory mask directive.
