GIVEN the steep rise in demand for mental health services, a trend witnessed far beyond Jersey’s shores across the UK and most – if not all – of Europe, you might worry that a gathering of those with “skin in the game” could be a rather bleak affair.
As the Island’s new “All Age” Mental Health Strategy was launched, there were frequent reminders of the surging caseload for those working in mental health as a growing proportion of the population, at all stages of their lives, struggle to cope.
But during the course of a positive two-hour meeting at St Helier Town Hall, a series of speakers acknowledged the situation in Jersey (among many other places) and shared details of how it’s being tackled.
Dr Darren Bowring, associate director for mental health and wellbeing, was one of the first to speak, focusing on the situation he’d encountered on joining the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service in 2021.
A grand total of 17 staff had been “overwhelmed with referrals and the Covid pandemic”, he said, a far cry from today’s CAMHS workforce of 88.
The service had 907 referrals last year and has a current caseload of 1,936, Dr Bowring said, driven by soaring instances of autism and ADHD – more than 2,600 in five years.
It may take 71 weeks to get an autism/ ADHD assessment in Jersey, but a graph showed the Island close to the lower end of a wait-list chart covering various places in the British Isles. Some NHS Trusts have had to close their services, mental health director Andy Weir said later, although he acknowledged that this would come as cold comfort to those Islanders in need.
CAMHS now has a range of professionals addressing the wide spectrum of need, including a “home-grown” clinical psychologist recently trained by Southampton University, and has attracted positive feedback, with compliments outnumbering complaints by around three to one across the past three years.
Many of the statistics were alarming to hear. As the focus switched onto adult mental health, attendees heard that there’d been 203 incidents of violence and aggression towards staff working in the inpatient service in 2025. A quarter of admissions were cannabis-related, on an Island where – we were later told – 4% of the population are prescribed medicinal cannabis (compared with the equivalent UK figure of below 1%).
Changes to staffing, record-keeping and the sites where services operate from were outlined, with one manager heralding progress away from the “awful” experience of those who had to outline their situation on multiple occasions to different practitioners.
Developments within the Alcohol and Drugs service, at HMP La Moye and within peer support and the hub for recovery were shared, while Chief Inspector Craig Jackson outlined how streamlined procedures were helping officers cope with the rising number of call-outs related to mental health by spending significantly less time on each incident.
The programme was interspersed with personal perspectives from some of those who provided input to the development of the strategy, including Youthful Minds and the Jersey Youth Assembly.
There were also thoughtful contributions from the ministerial duo behind the strategy. Health Minister Tom Binet lamented that there was still work to do about ending the stigma around those with mental health challenges, while Children’s Minister Richard Vibert gave a personal account of his own struggles, beginning when he was a teenager.
Mr Weir also addressed the issue of stigma. “If we ask people again in five years and they tell us stigma is still a thing then collectively as an Island we will have got it wrong.
There was also acknowledged of the importance of preventative work in trying to reduce demand, or at least flatten the upward curve witnessed in recent years.
The evening wasn’t a polished and stage-managed affair. During a Q&A session, a patient with paranoid schizophrenia shared a harrowing account of being ignored across long periods by staff who were looking at their phones and talking in different languages.
Some of the challenges were almost too big to think about. One example was in relation to the established model of schools and education – how will the system cope with the growing numbers of neurodiverse children who aren’t comfortable in the school environment, say they are given too much work and don’t like exams?
The billion-dollar question had been lurking at the back of the room; how will it all be paid for, one speaker asked.
Mr Weir said his focus was on what was in front of him, but acknowledged there were some “hard political questions” awaiting the next government in relation to work on a new funding model for healthcare to cope with the demands relating to mental health, including the projected doubling of dementia cases within an ageing population.
One wondered whether Deputy Binet might offer his thoughts at this point, but the Health Minister – yet to confirm whether he will stand for re-election this June – opted to keep his powder dry.
The overall message was positive… “we’ve got this” seemed to be the gist of it, even if “this” is something that’s very complex, hugely challenging and likely to be the focus of hard questions long into the future.
All Age Mental Health Strategy
The latest edition of the government’s strategy for improving islanders’ mental health and wellbeing was launched amid a backdrop of rising demand for services and unmet need.
Encompassing the period 2026-2030, the All Age Mental Health Strategy is focused on prevention and early intervention, as well as achieving more effective responses to crisis situations and improvements in rehabilitation services to aid recovery.
Preparatory work for the strategy, which covers a person’s entire lifespan from birth to the end of their life, included surveys and focus groups that identified some of the challenges that exist.
Four priority areas were spelled out:
- Prevention, early intervention and building resilience.
- Integrated pathways and quality interventions.
- Crisis and urgent care response.
- Recovery, rehabilitation and transitions.
Health Minister Tom Binet and Children’s Minister Richard Vibert said: “Over the next five years, we will continue to build a community where mental health and wellbeing are understood as everyone’s business, where services are joined up, and where no one is left behind.
“The government cannot achieve these changes alone, we must collaborate with our partners and Islanders, to champion and improve care and support for all.”
