COMMENT:
The result of the Government's inquiry into mental health is a great disappointment. This country has no greater problem than its very high rate of youth suicide. All families that have lost a young member in this way, and all those who fear a young family member may be at risk, would have awaited the results of the inquiry with hope that some new and practical solution would emerge.
They would have read its conclusions this week with a sinking heart. The Report of the Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction is 250 pages of verbiage we already knew. It's recommendations amount to spending more on services for the less serious levels of mental illness and distress.
The frustration of families who have lost disturbed young folk to suicide is often that the person had no supervision when they needed it or were released from supervision too soon. Yet despite hearing from thousands of people in its year-long investigation, the inquiry has decided the country needs an even less coercive approach to the care of the mentally ill than it already has.
It is not clear what that would mean in practice. It is not clear what any of its primary recommendations would mean in practice. It recommends "a national suicide prevention strategy", which is what the Government might have hoped to receive from this inquiry. It recommends the setting up of a permanent Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission to set a target for services to the mentally ill and addicted. Targets are a good idea if needs and services are well defined but they are not well defined by this report.
