Focus on Mental Illness has also questioned why senior staff in the Health Department have left in recent weeks during what they call a ‘time of unprecedented crisis’.
The head of the Island’s mental-health service, Dr Miguel Garcia-Alcaraz, stepped down from his role last month but continues to work as a senior clinician for the Health Department. And Rob Sainsbury, the former group managing director for Health and Community Services, left his post to become the acting director-general for the Children, Young People, Education and Skills Department.
In a statement, Focus on Mental Illness said: ‘A decent mental-illness service for Islanders is long overdue. For too long we have waited for promised improvements, only to find that the situation has, instead, deteriorated. Trust and confidence in the stewardship of the Island’s mental-health service is seriously problematic. People affected by severe mental illness deserve better and we will continue our efforts to raise these issues to make sure this happens.’
The charity added: ‘For months now Focus on Mental Illness has been raising service users’ concerns about the leadership, safety and quality of the government’s mental-illness service. Time and time again we have been told that things are getting better and money is being spent on improvement. This is contrary to what we know and what service users, families and carers say about their experience.’
It has also questioned ‘what is going on at the Health Department?’.
‘Why is it that managers have stepped aside or stepped down, leaving significant leadership gaps in the service at a time of unprecedented crisis?’ the charity asked, adding: ‘Who is actually in charge of services on a day-to-day basis and accountable for improving services? Who is making the leadership decisions? Does the Health Department really have a grip on the issues facing mental-health services at this time? The performance to date speaks for itself.’
Focus on Mental Illness also recently urged the government to work with a service user group, Focus Up, members of which previously said that Jersey’s mental-health service had ‘chronic issues’ and that Orchard House was ‘not fit for purpose’.
Senator Steve Pallett said recently that the government needed to prioritise finding a solution to an ‘unacceptable’ six-month delay to the completion of a new dedicated acute mental-health facility at Clinique Pinel. Last month it was also revealed that 66 out of the 314 posts in the adult-mental-health service were currently vacant – something Senator Pallett said could leave the unit in ‘crisis’ if they could not meet a rise in demand over winter.
