MENTAL-health training will be provided to Hospital staff, the head of adult social care has said, after a patient walked out of a ward without anyone noticing and took his own life.
Andy Weir said that all the recommendations made by a UK-based consultant psychiatrist during the 23-year-old’s inquest – including updating suicide prevention policy and rolling out training to health workers – had been accepted.
He added that he hoped to meet the man’s family to discuss improvements in the service.
A serious-incident review was carried out after the man, who required hospital treatment following a suicide attempt, was able to leave the building without anyone noticing before taking his own life in 2019.
Mr Weir confirmed that work was being undertaken to ensure improvements were made in the provision of mental-health care, both within the Hospital and the wider service.
‘This has been a terrible, tragic death and I cannot begin to imagine the impact that it has had on this man’s family. I want to offer my condolences to them,’ he said.
‘I have written to ask if I can meet them. I would like to speak to them about the recommendations and what we are doing to make improvements.’
As part of her ministerial plan for 2023, Health Minister Karen Wilson has committed to provide an updated suicide prevention policy which will ‘focus on preventing suicide and reducing incidence of self-injury associated with mental distress’.
Mr Weir said: ‘The recommendations have been accepted. Some work has been undertaken in relation to these recommendations and a couple of them have been fully completed while some work is still in train.
‘Obviously, the key to all of this is how care is provided for people with mental-health needs when they need to be in the General Hospital.’
The inquest heard that the man had been assessed as being at ‘low risk’ following admission to the Hospital and it was not considered necessary for him to receive one-to-one supervision.
Mr Weir said: ‘General nurses are highly-skilled professionals but are not mental-health specialists and will need to be supported to provide the mental-health care required or that care will need to be provided by a mental-health professional.’
He added that the policy around whether supervision was required had been reviewed in 2020 and that ‘work has been done this year to totally overhaul that policy’ which is currently going through a consultation phase.
‘As part of our redesign of community and mental-health services we are going to introduce a seven-day-a-week mental-health nurse at the Hospital. This builds on the report and will make sure those nurses in the Hospital have the support they need.’
He said work was being carried out to ensure better staff training to ensure quality of care for patients with mental-health needs. This includes online training courses – which have been made available Islandwide – as well as more intensive training in certain key areas.
‘We have begun that but there is more we need to do in this area. There is an online course and we are encouraging staff to do that. Another piece of work we are doing around this is we are thinking of developing a small group of staff who, if you like, will kind of major in this and give them some really intensive training.’
He added that the training provided would be tailored depending on which area of the Hospital the member of staff worked in.
The way risk assessments are carried out has been overhauled already, Mr Weir said.
‘Risk assessments at the time of this incident were categorised as high, medium or low – modern risk assessments would not do that.
‘Risk changes – a risk level might be low today but not be by tomorrow. We have totally redesigned our risk assessment model.’
Relief coroner Advocate Cyril Whelan said during the inquest that the ‘real heart of the problem’ was in the ‘difference between the two disciplines of mental and physical care’.
He added that the ‘reality is that Portelet Ward is a medical ward; it is not a psychiatric specialist ward and that’s not its function’.
Mr Weir said: ‘The report makes clear recommendations where we need to learn and I am really committed to it. It is so important that we do do things differently where we can and always look to improve.’
