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A new mental health support centre could become a permanent public service, with Guernsey's health bosses investigating the best option to offer support to those who can’t access specialist services.
The Committee for Health & Social Care will need extra cash from this years’ service development budget to make it happen.
It first launched a drop-in clinic – dubbed a “crisis support centre” - over the Christmas period in 2021 to assist anyone experiencing stress or distress.
A review by the Director of Public Health spawned the idea of a centre, which was approved as a high-level priority in the island's Government Work Plan that year.
Despite the fact there were low visitor numbers during the pilot run, Health says it “continues to recognise that there are individuals who don’t meet the clinical threshold for our Specialist Mental Health Services but still need support”.
It added the clinic was never designed to “replace any existing mental health service but was additional for anyone who felt they needed additional support but who might not ordinarily either seek it or meet the clinical threshold for more acute support services”.
Guernsey Mind, a local mental health charity, welcomed its launch saying the Bailiwick needed to “increase and diversify” following an increase in the number of clients since the first covid lockdown in 2020.
The Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy Steering Group, which was reconvened by HSC last autumn after being paused due to the pandemic, is continuing to “examine options”.
The idea was noted in Policy & Resources’ latest Government Work Plan paper, which will be discussed in the States from Tuesday 18 July.
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