Bid to tackle "high number" of mental health patients who lose housing when detained

Monday 18 March 2024

Mental health services are looking for solutions to help the "high number" of patients who lose their homes when they are detained under the Mental Health Law.

Mental Health Director Andy Weir recently told the HCS Advisory Board that, when a patient is detained, income support stops paying for their social housing.

But work is underway to address the issue, with the Mental Health Partnership Board considering "the creation of no fixed abode" as a specific area of focus.

Mr Weir explained: "The Mental Health Partnership Board commenced its work in February and is already looking into these issues.

"We will receive a first update on this at a meeting of the Mental Health Partnership Board later in March.”

Pictured: Andy Weir, Director of Mental Health, said that work is underway to tackle the issue.

In December, 17 of the 40 available mental health beds in Jersey were occupied by people who didn’t need to be in hospital and couldn’t go out. 

Mr Weir explained: “There were two reasons for that. One of those, and a large amount of it, is because people with dementia who come into the dementia assessment unit and then we can’t find a community placement for them, often due to complex needs, and that takes some time."

He added: “The second issue is in relation to mainstream housing. We have quite a high number of people that come into mental health services and lose their housing at the point at which that happens.

"There are a couple of reasons for that, and one of those relates to the benefits system and how the benefit is paid. If you are detained and admitted to hospital here, then your housing benefit ceases. So they lose their accommodation.” 

Mr Weir outlined how the Mental Health Partnership Board had set four objectives for mental health services, with creating a specific piece of work around "housing and the creation of no fixed abode" as one of them.