GMWS have issued a statement reiterating their call for the publication of the 2019 Mental health Audit and the 2020 Mental Health Board Report.

A statement from GMWS follows below:

The GMWS feels obliged to once again call for the publication of the 2019 Mental Health Audit and the 2020 Mental Health Board Report.  GBC stated on 24th September that Minister Sacramento had said these reports would finally be published. Nearly three weeks have passed and still nothing. The Government´s reluctance to publish these documents only serves to exacerbate distrust in the system. It is obvious that they would have been published a long time ago, if they had portrayed mental health provision in a good light. The sustained secrecy on the matter strongly suggests that this is not the case. 

The 10th October marked Mental Health Day and the GMWS is aware that as a result of COVID 19, some people are feeling more abandoned than ever. The GMWS is in close contact with service users and is very aware of the failings of the system:  difficulty in accessing help in the first place, lack of a holistic approach to health care, lack of long term personalised plans for service users, lack of support in the community...to name but a few aspects. It is essential for there to be public recognition of these failings so that as a community we can then see what progress is actually being made to redress the problems. 

At the moment, service users and their families all too often feel that they are alone as they struggle to access the help they need. It is an unsustainable state of affairs which must be confronted and the necessary concerted efforts made to provide the mental health support system that people need.