Mental health data (FOI)

Request

I read in tonight's Jersey Evening Post that "The spiralling cost of living is causing more people to seek mental-health services, according to...[the] director of mental health and adult social care Andy Weir".

I would be quite interested to see the data that government has been producing around monitoring mental health trends - especially in relation to any analysis round the link between economic factors facing the island, and how this is being disambiguated from other factors like the War in Ukraine, blurring of work-life balances around changes in workplace culture, seasonal affective disorder... or simply from increased awareness of mental health, aging population leading to more memory related mental health issues, or the WHO observations that mental health issue numbers are on the increase globally for various demographic factors.

I.e. HCS analysis that evidences that local numbers are in excess of such background patterns or which can attribute causal links with the state of the local economy.

Therefore:

Would the Government of Jersey please release copies of the datasets, reports, presentations or emails, that have been produced or presented to Mr Weir, before or since he took up his position of Director of Mental Health and Adult Social Care that show or evidence a trend of more people seeking Jersey mental health services in recent months and/or show any reasons for such a trend?

Would the Government of Jersey please release any analysis or reports that have been conducted/completed since 2020 that show or evidence the 'cost of living' (or other economic factors) as the primary factor in an increased volume of new mental health conditions or exacerbation of an underlying anxiety, stress or other mental health conditions in the Jersey Public.

Separately, would the Health and Community Services department or Strategic Policy Planning and Performance department (whichever produces statistics in this area) release copies any reports or statistical datasets that they hold on:

• numbers of appointments or service volumes for the one to one counselling or peer support services e.g. Adult Community Mental Health Team or PATs etc.
• numbers of distinct individuals accessing these services
• any numbers collected around the referrals for these services on reasons for referral.
• Any easily accessible numbers on volume of anti-depressant drug prescriptions prescribed or dispensed by HCS for patients in their care (I presume that figures from GPs or local pharmacies is not held, but if details are collected and readily accessible these would also be of interest)
• any numbers on the waiting times/lists for a member of the public to see a HCS mental health professional

Ideally at whichever granularity and frequency the data is collected, produced, utilized by government staff or presented to senior management. From Jan 2014 to present for where/when figures have been collected.

Response

Demand

In relation to referrals for Jersey Talking Therapies (JTT) and the Psychological Assessment and Therapy Service (PATS), the data is shown by month below from February 2018 onwards, as this is when the new reporting system was put into place. This clearly shows an increasing trend from mid-2020 onwards. In addition to this, there has been a need for Health and Community Services (HCS) to commission additional counselling and support services in order to meet demand for mental health support at that level. 

Referrals to JTT and Psychological Therapies by month (PDF)

Referrals to our Community Mental Health Teams (excluding specialised services such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), autism, memory services) are shown by month from November 2021 below:

There are no distinct reports that relate to the 'cost of living' in Jersey being a primary factor in an increased volume of mental health conditions (this is not what was said by the Director of Mental Health and Adult Social Care) or as an exacerbation of other underlying anxiety, stress or other mental health conditions (this was what was said by the Director of Mental Health and Adult Social Care). Whilst no formal collection of data has been conducted in relation to this, the increasing presence of socio-economic factors as a presentation issue across all levels of intervention (Primary Mental Health Care and Secondary Mental Health Care) has been the subject of much discussion between key agencies in recent months – including at the new Strategic System Partnership Board for Mental Health - and has been reported in numerous meetings by clinicians as an issue of concern. This is the basis upon which this issue was raised; and of course, this would be consistent with a significant evidence base that exists across a number of jurisdictions (for example, the recent Centre for Mental Health briefing relating to mental health disparities and poverty / income inequality and deprivation). National reports such as these are considered in discussions with the Mental Health Leadership Team.      

Activity

Service activity and performance information is reviewed each month at the Mental Health Senior Leadership Team, and much work is underway to separate out data for service lines and develop a new set of Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) for Mental Health Services. It is currently not easily possible to separate out the activity data by intervention type, other than by team type.

HCS commenced a new data collection system in relation to referrals for Mental Health services from November 2021. Reason for referral is not routinely reported within the current system and, therefore, we are unable to provide this information. As the data requested in relation to reason for referral is not held by HCS Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.  

Contacts for community based Mental Health services by month from May 2021 are shown below

These figures represent all Community Mental Health activity, not just counselling or other support services. Work is currently underway to routinely separate out reporting by service line. To provide this data by team at this time would require the work to be undertaken manually. As this information is not currently held as a central record of data, providing this would exceed the cost limit provisions allowed under Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 and the 12.5 hours limit allowed under regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014.

Information relating to the volume of anti-depressant prescriptions is not available, as our electronic pharmacy system reports on volumes of drugs dispensed rather than volumes of individual prescriptions.  We do not hold information in relation to GP's and pharmacies. As this information is not held, Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.  

Waiting time is reported for each service line every month using the Patient Tracking List system, although work is required each month to validate the data. The current information on waiting times & waiting lists (as at 15th June 2022) is shown below by service type:

*work is underway to review all waiting in excess of 180 days to validate this.

Article Applied

Article 3 - Meaning of "information held by a public authority"

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a) it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b) it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.

Article 16 - A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.