Patients absconding from mental health care (FOI)

Request

Please can you supply the information to the following questions:

A

How many people, who are detained under the mental health law, have absconded from care at Orchard house in 2015, 2016 and 2017? If this goes beyond Freedom of Information (FOI) regulations please supply the information for 2017 only.

B

How many people, who are detained under the mental health law, have absconded from care at Orchard house in 2018?

C

How much police time has been used to search for people detained under the mental health law who have absconded from Orchard house in 2015, 2016, and 2017? If this goes beyond FOI regulations please supply the information for 2017 only.

D

How much police time has been used to search for people detained under the mental health law who have absconded from Orchard house in 2018?

E

How much police time has been used to search for people detained under the mental health law who have absconded from care facilities other than Orchard House in 2015, 2016 and 2017? If this goes beyond FOI regulations please supply the information for 2017 only.

F

How much police time has been used to search for people detained under the mental health law who have absconded from care facilities other than Orchard House in 2018?

G

What mental health facilities are in place to manage violent and disruptive patients currently?

H

What training do staff have in mental health facilities to restrain difficult, violent and disruptive patients?

I

Will there be mental health facilities in the new planned mental health development at Overdale to manage violent and disruptive patients?

J

How many situations have there been where people suffering from mental health issues have put themselves or others at risk in a public place in 2015, 2016, and 2017? If this goes beyond FOI regulations please supply the information for 2017 only.

K

How many situations have there been where people suffering from mental health have put themselves or others at risk in a public place in 2018?

L

Can you describe what these instances have involved eg setting fire, use of weapon?

M

What training do police officers have to deal with people suffering from mental health issues?

Response

A to B

All absconding from Orchard House is recorded, however, without inspecting individual client records, it is not possible to determine whether patients were informally admitted under Article 4 or detained under Article 6 or 7 of the Mental Health (Jersey) Law. Therefore the table below includes absconding by both detained and informal patients.

Patients admitted under Article 4 are free to leave the ward but are recorded as absconding if they did not inform staff beforehand.

Figures fewer than 5 (<5) will not be released in order to protect the identity of individuals under Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 (the Law).

C to F

Those reported to the States of Jersey Police are listed below. Times given are the total time from report to being located. More than one officer may have been involved. Officers may not have been searching for the whole time. Total police time used upon each case is not held.

Precise dates have not been provided in order to protect the identity of individuals under Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011. 

G

Orchard House has a designated low stimulus unit which can be used for managing individuals whose mental health presentation can be challenging to others.

H

Health and Social Services staff use Maybo Conflict Resolution Training.

I

There are occasions when someone who is mentally ill will behave in a way that can be frightening to themselves or fellow patients and challenging for staff. The new facilities at Overdale will be purpose built and designed to enhance the safety of people when their illness causes them to respond with behaviours that challenge others.

J to L

This information is not held by the States of Jersey Police. Incidents are recorded by offence, not by Mental Health involvement.

M

Police officer and staff training:

During their initial training, all officers have inputs on the Mental Health Law, plus inputs from external speakers from the Adult Mental Health Service. Representatives and charities such as MIND Jersey give an oversight of types of mental illness; signs, symptoms, behaviour and so on.

All officers also undertake SPELL Training package (run by Autism Jersey). This is also offered to other civilian staff such as Desk Top Services and is a half-day package which focuses on effective communication and understanding of people on the autistic spectrum.

All new officers undertake the Suicide Awareness Training package, this training is open to other staff for multi-agency sessions.

Continuous Professional Development (CPD) sessions are also run. Last year CPD sessions were focused on safeguarding matters; one of which was a session on Capacity (in advance of the new Capacity and Self-Determination Law). This session was run by professionals in Capacity and Mental Health.

There were also a number of sessions run last year by AMHS to introduce the new Street Triage process.

Exemption applied

Article 25 Personal information

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005.

(2) Information is absolutely exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005; and

(b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.