New overnight phoneline to help islanders in mental health crisis

Wednesday 27 January 2021

The Government is setting up an overnight mental health emergency helpline to support islanders in crisis.

The new service, which was announced by the Health Minister in the last States Assembly meeting, will be open between 22:00 and 08:00.

At the moment, islanders in need of immediate mental health support have to ring the General Hospital switchboard, before being referred to the Emergency Services.

Health is currently recruiting for people to staff the ‘crisis telephone response service.' It is understood that it could be up and running by the spring.

In the same States Assembly meeting, Health Minister Richard Renouf updated Members on the waiting times for mental health services, including the Listening Lounge, Jersey Talking Therapies and Adult Mental Health Services.

“The Listening Lounge provides two services,” he said. “The first is 50 appointments each week that are available to everyone self-referring.

"The waiting time for that is set at a maximum of 48 hours. Secondly, it provides a counselling service, with an initial assessment to ensure that is appropriate. The current waiting time for that initial assessment is one week.

“With Jersey Talking Therapies, when people self-refer, they have an initial assessment. There are 18 people currently waiting for an assessment and the longest wait is five weeks."

Pictured: Health Minister Richard Renouf said that JTT's high-intensity pathway currently has a 13-month waiting time.

He continued: “JTT provides two levels of support: low and high intensity. The low-intensity pathway has 19 people waiting for support with the longest wait being ten weeks. The higher intensity pathway has 106 people waiting, with the longest wait being 13 months, unfortunately. 

“The average time for a first appointment for a routine referral to Adult Mental Health teams is four weeks. Emergency referrals will be seen within an hour, 24/7. The average waiting time for a first appointment with Older Adult Mental Health is currently ten days for routine referrals. Urgent referrals are seen within 24 hours. 

“The current waiting time for a first appointment with the Memory Assessment Service is six months unless the patient is aged over 65, when the wait is five weeks.”