Mental health service users ‘feel let down’
GUERNSEY’S health authorities need to provide more information about the provision of mental health care in order to allay fears that the service is not working in the interests of its users.
That is the view of Deputy Lester Queripel, who has lodged 30 formal questions to Health & Social Care president Al Brouard.
He said the written questions were prompted by concerns expressed to Deputy Queripel by islanders who felt the service had let them down in various ways.
‘Some service users are afraid to speak up,’ he said.
‘More than one has told me that if they complain, they are then persecuted. I have no proof of that but if I ask these questions, then we will have the answers on record.’
The questions are wide ranging, from staff turnover, vacancies and the monitoring of service quality to persecution of the public for raising concerns.
‘I was hearing reports from service users about the provision of mental health care even before the pandemic,’ Deputy Queripel said, ‘but it got progressively worse during lockdown. This is not the first time I’ve asked questions on this issue. I’ve been asking for several months but I have not been satisfied with the answers, so all I can do is put the questions to HSC and try to get the answers that will allay people’s fears.’
Earlier this summer, HSC revealed that referrals for mental health care averaged five per day in Guernsey, across its six main service areas.
Consultant psychiatrist Dominic Bishop has reported that some islanders were hospitalised with breakdowns while self-isolating, but said that the island had avoided a ‘mental health pandemic’.
