MENTAL health patients could be at risk because nurses are not trained properly, a retired States psychiatrist has warned.
Dr Gil Blackwood believes that the only way to improve Jersey’s mental health services is to change its management. He has also revealed that patients with mental health problems are absconding easily from wards at St Saviour’s Hospital and the General Hospital.
Yesterday he met the Health, Social Security and Housing Scrutiny panel to discuss his experiences of the mental health service. A psychiatrist for 26 years, he worked with adults suffering from long-term mental health problems before retiring, at 60, last March.
Asked by panel member Deputy Geoff Southern about what was needed for a better service, Dr Blackwood (pictured) replied: ‘To change the management — and get better managers who would value training staff.’ He added: ‘Jersey lags very much behind other services.’
