Independent report comes as pleasant surprise to deputy
THE deputy who has spent the last few years asking questions about Guernsey’s mental health services will be joining the strategy group set up following a report into the island’s provision.
Lester Queripel said he was pleasantly surprised by the newly-published report by specialist David Gedze.
It was his questions that led Health & Social Care into publishing the summary of a report first prepared by Mr Gedze in 2018 and in his follow-up report he was able to look at what progress had been made.
In the light of the 13 new recommendations made, Deputy Queripel said that he would now leave things as they are.
‘It seems to me now that there’s no need for me to progress anything. No need for me to call for another review.’
He is going to be a member of the new mental health strategy group being set up as part of the recommendations and is excited to be getting involved.
His plan is to push the value of sport and the arts in promoting good mental health.
‘It’s crucial to everyone’s well being,’ he said.
‘Sport and the arts build bridges between people. It gives people confidence, it’s great for their self-esteem. You make new friends, you get tremendous satisfaction when things go right and you get tremendous fulfilment. All of those things are vital to people’s mental health and well being.’
The issue of staff shortages was an element of the report that Deputy Queripel said was not a surprise since in the last set of HSC’s answers to questions he had posed he was told that there were 66 vacancies in mental health services.
Among the recommendations was for the development of partnerships with private and their sector organisations ‘to create an integrated mental health pathway’ and Deputy Queripel echoed the importance of cooperation.
‘Charities and volunteers in this island never cease to amaze me with the things that they take on, but it’s a case of working together,’ he said.
One aspect of the report that surprised Deputy Queripel was that it did not mention the claims of abuse and a lack of professionalism from staff that he had received from 26 islanders.
The report mentioned how some people had reported a lack of compassion from agency staff. ‘A lack of compassion is a world away from abuse in my mind,’ said the deputy.
He spoke to 13 people who had been interviewed by Mr Gedze for his report and he said they had mentioned their experiences to him, but he had clearly decided not to refer to these issues.
However, in the opening pages of the report Mr Gedze said he would not be looking at specific cases. ‘This review did not look into individual issues but identified themes,’ he wrote.
Anyone who believed they had received abuse was able to report it to an official customer care complaints line, said Deputy Queripel.
While people who had spoken to him claimed that they had done so but nothing had happened, he said he had been assured that all complaints were pursued.
‘I was satisfied at the time that customer care were doing their jobs and following up on complaints.’
There was also the option for an aggrieved person to contact a deputy if they felt their complaint had not been dealt with.
