A six-month pilot scheme, which concluded at the end of March, saw Guernsey Police and the St John Emergency Ambulance Service working with qualified mental health professionals to support responses to mental health call-outs in peak times outside of working hours.
This is summarised in the latest mental health and wellbeing report. Marc Leadbeater, chairman of the technical team behind the report, said the idea of the initiative was partly driven by the concerns of law enforcement at the number of mental health cases they were dealing with.
The idea was also one of the recommendations of a review of mental health provision by David Gedze carried out several years ago.
The recent pilot followed a trial at the Emergency Department, said Deputy Leadbeater, which saw volunteers and mental health nurses stationed at the ED in case there was a need for someone to receive support.
This was provided late at night at weekends. ‘There wasn’t a great deal of take-up on that, so what we’ve done now is we’ve actually looked at outreach support.’
Emergency calls received by the Joint Emergency Services Control Centre would be responded to by the police or the ambulance service and one of the nurses, with the police being called in if necessary.
‘We have professionals across the organisation who are trained, so it makes total sense to co-respond with people who can give the mental health crisis support actually on the scene, rather than the police trying to look after people until we can get professionals out to them,’ said Deputy Leadbeater.
‘The initial early feedback has been quite positive.
‘There’s an evaluation going on at the moment and there’ll be an options appraisal put together for the technical team to either recommend a continuation of this pilot or maybe adjust it slightly.’
Under the mental health law police officers have the power to move someone to a place of safety for 72 hours, if they feel it is in the person’s best interests, where they can be examined by a doctor and interviewed by a social worker.
Figures in the report showed that in 2024 the total number of these cases was 452, down from 489 in 2023.
Mental health drugs increase
The number of people taking common mental health drugs rose by nearly 150 last year, while the number of prescriptions written increased by just under 2,000, the new mental health and wellbeing report shows.
In 2023 there were 89,890 prescriptions written for drugs including citalopram hydrobromide and hydrochloride and sertraline hydrochloride, with those drugs alone accounting for a total of 52,012 prescriptions.
The total compares to 97,964 prescriptions written the year before for a total of 6,766 ‘likely’ patients.
Last year the number of ‘likely patients’ was 6,914.
‘It is important to note that some of these drugs can be used for non-mental health related conditions,’ said the report.
‘This figure will be recorded on an annual basis to detect any trends in use.’
Crevichon ward cannabis-associated admissions
While the number of cannabis-associated admissions to Crevichon ward at the PEH fell last year, the number was still significantly higher than it was before medicinal cannabis started being prescribed.
Crevichon is the ward for people who are experiencing severe symptoms of mental ill health.
Figures in the latest mental health and wellbeing report showed that there were 20 admissions associated with cannabis use last year, down from 27 in 2023.
But in 2019, the number of these admissions was five.
The number of prescriptions issued for legal cannabis in December last year was 1,573.
‘It is currently not quantified to what extent admissions are due to individuals using their own prescribed medicinal cannabis, diverted medicinal cannabis or from other illicit supply,’ said the report, adding that it did not record people who had received positive benefits from the use of cannabis.
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