Referrals made to the island’s emergency mental health service increased by more than 50% during 2020.

The data was revealed in a written reply to the House of Keys from Health Minister David Ashford, in answer to Douglas South MHK Claire Christian (pictured below).

Mrs Christian’s question to Mr Ashford was: ’How many patients who called the crisis team received home treatment and hospital admission in 2018, 2019, and 2020?’

The Crisis Response and Home Treatment Team (CRHTT) provide a crisis response service for people who are experiencing significant deterioration in their mental health and/or an increase in their psychological distress which requires an urgent response to facilitate a resolution of crisis.

It provides multi-disciplinary assessments and, if appropriate, offers home treatment as an alternative to hospital admission.

Mr Ashford’s response was that in 2018, 1,074 referrals had been made, 1,144 in 2019 and 1,721 in 2020.

More than a quarter of cases had received services from the home treatment team in excess of two days.

Referrals from CRHTT to the Psychiatric Inpatient Service were 81 in 2018, 75 in 2019 and 78 in 2020.

Police data recently revealed that during the period March 3 to March 21, there had been 11 calls made to the 999 control room threatening to end their life, with one person who attempted to commit suicide.

Sixteen calls overall were made to the control room in the same period which related to mental health issues.