For event organisers and venues
If you’re an event organiser or venue owner, manager or staff, care spaces can help you keep your guests safer.
Care spaces fill a gap that exists in between other event services like medics, security, and crew, who may not have the knowledge or time to care for guests who are in distress. Care spaces are becoming more common at events, and many event-goers expect care spaces to be provided.
Care spaces can increase overall safety at an event by normalising asking for help, setting expectations for how people behave, and showing event-goers that they are cared for.
People are more likely to seek help at an event if there is a care space. Asking for help when you’re feeling vulnerable can be very difficult. We all need help sometimes, and care spaces can take away the shame in asking for it.
"Festivals are often a challenging and intense time for people emotionally/mentally for a vast variety of reasons, and a great deal of consideration is needed for spaces and team members to look after individuals who are struggling. We have seen floods of support and appreciation for the care space from attendees and crew who have used their service."
- David Tait, Twisted Frequency organiser
Harm at events
Most event organisers know how to reduce risk of physical harm to attendees. Care spaces can help address mental harm that can occur.
The three main types of harm that may happen at an event:
Mental distress
Sexual harm and physical assault
Harms from drug and alcohol use
There may be intersections of any two, or all of these types of harm.
There can also be risk from:
Relationship breakdowns
Personal traumas surfacing
Dehydration
Overstimulation
Multi-day festivals carry other risks, including:
Sleep deprivation
Heat exhaustion
Lack of food
People losing their friends or losing their tent
These are just some of the types of harms that can occur during any event. We suggest reviewing your existing risk assessments to account for these and updating your mitigation plans with the care space in mind.
Do you need a care space at your event?
We believe that every event can benefit from having a care space. Some events may have higher or lower risk than others.
To help you determine if a care space is right for your event, ask yourself:
Are alcohol or drugs likely to be consumed?
What type of crowd are you likely to attract? Consider what type of music will be playing and who the artist/s are likely to pull, how experienced your audience are with attending events, what you have seen previously at similar events or at your own past events.
How big is your event and how well do you know your audience? The general rule is the bigger the event, the bigger the risk. How well does everyone know each other? Are they strangers or a tight-knit community?
Is it possible or even likely people may become distressed at your event?
What other support systems do you have in place? Often psychological first aid will fall to the medics when a care space is not available. Sometimes security or crew members are called upon to deal with challenging situations too. Do you consider this an appropriate use of these resources at your event?
Consider that under the Health and Safety at Work Act (2015) event organisers are responsible for the mental wellbeing, as well as the physical health of their attendees. Section 22 of this Act also highlights the need to consider what the most appropriate measures that exist at the time are to eliminate different types of risks.
Your responsibilities as a host
As an event organiser, venue owner, or manager, you have a responsibility to help keep your guests or event-goers safe. You may have legal requirements, such as those that are part of alcohol licensing requirements. These are important to consider when thinking about how you will work with a care space at your event or venue.
Health NZ’s Host Responsibility Guide outlines your obligations.
In the context of alcohol licensing and Health and Safety, events have a set of predetermined host responsibilities required under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 to minimise the harm caused by the excessive or inappropriate consumption of alcohol. These responsibilities outline the measures the premises will undertake to ensure patrons feel welcomed, safe and comfortable.
Host responsibilities can serve as a framework supplemented by a care system. A care space should not substitute the venue's responsibilities but rather enhance them by incorporating peer support mechanisms and a duty of care that also acknowledges the complex risks that are not alcohol-related.
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Under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act (2012), event organisers, venue managers and bar staff have a responsibility to minimise harm caused by excessive drinking.
The Act explicitly states you cannot have intoxicated people on your premises, but section 252 subsection 3a also states that an intoxicated person can be taken to a ‘place of safety’ on the premises instead, which helps avoid putting the person in any danger that may come from evicting them.
If you’re looking to provide a ‘place of safety’ for people intoxicated on alcohol, you’ll need to think about whether this will be separate from the care space.
A guest in a care space can voluntarily come and go, while a 'place fo safety' is a one-way system only - event-goers can be cared for there while they sober up, but cannot return to the party. For this reason, it will often be necessary to separate the two.
Many care spaces state a primary purpose of administering mental health first aid. People who are drunk may be loud or disruptive, which could interfere with the care space’s ability to provide support for people who are in mental distress.
However, some events or venues may be restricted by space limitations, and you may need to have the care space manage some people who are intoxicated.
Talk with care space staff about how to manage this and how to minimise disruption to their work. Work with care space staff to define how you want your care space to support your alcohol licence, other services involved in the process, and any procedures you have designed around it. Listen to any feedback or concerns that care spaces may have.
Head to the 'Working together' page for more on how you can work with care spaces.
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Consider how the care space fits into your health and safety plan. Make sure you include the care space in these discussions and listen to their feedback around what they can and cannot manage. Care space staff may ask to see your existing health and safety plans.
When writing your health & safety plan as it relates to care spaces, think about:
What types of harm will be addressed by the care space
Where can the care space be best located so as to make it accessible, but not a sensory overload for guests
How should the care space respond to emergencies happening within the space or on the wider event grounds
How will you facilitate the care space communicating with other event services, such as security or medics
Where does the care space fit into your organisational structure and who will be their points of contact for escalation
Contact us
If you’re an event organiser or venue manager looking for more information on including care spaces at your event or venue, please get in touch with us.