A LONG-awaited new mental-health ward is set to open within days – after years of delays and fierce criticism of services available to some of Jersey’s most vulnerable residents.
Sixteen en-suite rooms will open to patients at the redeveloped Clinique Pinel in St Saviour on 28 June following a £7.3 million project.
The so-called “place of safety” Article 36 suite for patients detained under mental-health law is due to open at the end of July.
The facility also includes an intensive care area as well as a seclusion room.
The new centre will replace the heavily criticised Orchard House, which currently houses 15 patients and has been the home of Jersey’s mental-health wards since 2007.
A scathing 2019 Scrutiny report criticised “unwelcoming” mental-health facilities and described Orchard House as “dilapidated” and “uninviting”, with rooms that “felt like prison cells”.
The then-Health Minister Richard Renouf made the decision to move to a more modern facility at Clinique Pinel – a move that was originally scheduled for the end of 2020 but was repeatedly delayed.
The new ward is named Orchard Ward, and shares a building with Cedar Ward – which houses mental-health patients over 65.
“The plan is to move everybody in one day from Orchard House,” director of mental health Andy Weir explained.
“That means the seclusion room will become operational, the intensive care area will become operational.
“Then we’ll have a pause and let everybody settle a bit because it is very different.
“So we’ll have a pause of about three to four weeks, we’ve got some joint training planned in mid-July with the police.
“Then we will look to open the Article 36 way at the end of July.”
The refurbished corridors at the new facility can be partitioned according to the service’s needs – allowing, for example, young people aged 16-18 to be separated from adults without losing access to communal areas.
A similar principle applies in the dining room, which can be separated into two parts – as dining can be a particularly difficult time on the ward.
Indoors, the facility holds rooms for patients to relax and socialise as well as take part in activities such as art therapy.
Patients also have access to two courtyards – one with gym equipment and one which is due to be used for gardening and vegetable growing.
A kitchen allows patients to work on becoming more independent and has in the past proven popular with patients.
Mr Weir described the intensive care area as “a real improvement from Orchard House”.
Seclusion rooms and the Article 36 suite allow staff to oversee the most vulnerable patients at all times.
Most patients stay on the regular ward, however, Mr Weir explained that in the past year the seclusion room was used between five to ten times. Those who use the seclusion room don’t normally stay for more than 24-hours. “If someone needed a room like this for a long time, we would refer them to a secure service in the UK,” he added.
Rooms are en-suite and have chalkboards on the walls, which Patricia Winchester, the head of the charity My Voice – which represents mental-health patients in Jersey – described as popular with patients.
Mr Weir was optimistic about staffing, describing how eight or nine staff members would be on duty on each shift.
“It’s quite a big team. It’s certainly bigger than I’m used to and we’re lucky that we have been able to recruit some more senior nurses,” he said.
But some positions remain open and the department is reliant on agency workers, he added.
