Shetland has the highest suicide rate in the UK

[Fiona C]

After grappling with the NHS to try and get services for my daughter and failed, I have tried to find out how much money is spent on mental Health In Shetland. Failed to get an answer from Nick Kenton, but just found out from Scottish Executive report

www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/health/papers-06/hep06-21.pdf

£143 per resident poplulation is spent on mental health, which is 7.7% of the total expenditure on all health services for 2005/06. This is a fall of 0.4% from 2004/5.

[JustMe]

After grappling with the NHS to try and get services for my daughter and failed, I have tried to find out how much money is spent on mental Health In Shetland. Failed to get an answer from Nick Kenton, but just found out from Scottish Executive report

www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/health/papers-06/hep06-21.pdf

£143 per resident poplulation is spent on mental health, which is 7.7% of the total expenditure on all health services for 2005/06. This is a fall of 0.4% from 2004/5.

 

Well without wading through all 50+ pages of the report I had a look at the statistics given and it seems to me that the expenditure is much in line with other health boards. Sadly the real data needed to make a judgement on NHS Shetland's expenditure was not shown as Highland, Orkney and the Western Isles did not submit their figures.

 

Without details of your case I have to assume that you could be anywhere between having been totally let down by NHS Shetland and being a silly mother worrying about nothing. There is a complaints proceedure shown here. http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/n6w/scotland/family_parent/health_scotland/nhs_complaints_scotland.htm

or you could try the local Citizens Advice Bureaux, Steve Jack (director of patient services) at NHS Shetland or Tavish Scott M.S.P.

 

I would just like to point out to you that a failure to provide services need not be connected to the NHS budget. Something may just have gone badly wrong and asking questions about the budget may in fact hide the truth.

 

And just to end I would like to say that even if you are a "silly mother worrying about nothing" then the fact that you continue to worry is a failure on the part of NHS Shetland.

[BigMouth]

The best way to get answers from public bodies is to use the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

 

An authority is not able to charge you for the work it does to answer an FOI request; it may only make a charge for communicating that information to you, e.g. photocopying and postage costs. If the information you seek is in the authority's Publication Scheme (a list of the types of documents it will routinely make available) they may charge the market rate for providing you with that information, e.g. the standard charge for a copy of an annual report.

[Fiona C]

I have been treated as a silly mother, as well as being at the opposite end of the spectrum, with little in between. I have tried all the avenues for complaint that you suggest, and still got nowhere. Had to provide private treatment and she is making a good recovery. Cognitive behaviour therapy came to a lot more than £143.

[JustMe]

I have been treated as a silly mother, as well as being at the opposite end of the spectrum, with little in between. I have tried all the avenues for complaint that you suggest, and still got nowhere. Had to provide private treatment and she is making a good recovery. Cognitive behaviour therapy came to a lot more than £143.

 

The words "good recovery" are music to my ears. There was a cognitive therapist based at the Lerwick Health Centre for a while.....but also a while ago. I am not convinced that it works for everyone but it certainly is one option that should be explored.

 

If you have tried all the other options then take your complaint to one of the groups that are meant to help people with mind problems. Worth trying to help others in the future. Mind or the Depression Alliance for example.

[Fiona C]

Thanks for your suggestions.

It was interesting to contrast the money spent on mental health with the amount that was being spent on a medium secure unit on the mainland, by NHS Shetland. It was reported that Shetland were contributing £810,000 to this unit. When I enquired about this, at a time when Shetland had no resident psychiatrists; I was told that they had no choice in the matter.

[paulb]

according to the news shetland has twice mainland scotlands death rate. why. is this another one of the anomilies of small communities(its the perfered excuse for no action by the council/health board). how can we deal with it its now the main cause of death in males 14-34.

 

(***MOD Edit - Merged with existing thread***)

[Ghostrider]

^^ I'm considerably less than sure that "we" should be dealing with it, or have any right to try.

 

I'm all for respecting an individual's right of choice, and the most sacred of those rights, IMHO, is the right of each individual to do with and to their own body, and their own life exactly as they see fit.

 

Certainly, if someone is mentally destabilised and that alone has led to them considering suicide, then there needs to be support and help available to them.

 

Where the whole thing falls flat on its face as far as I'm concerned, is the assumption in many quarters that if someone is contemplating suicide, that they "must" be by default mentally unstable. That to me is the ultimate in disrespect, who does any one individual, or group of individuals, however large or small, think that they are, that gives them the right to say that another individual cannot be of sound mind and have made a reasoned, considered decision to commit suicide for their own reasons. We're all different, some folks cling to life in panic mode to the last possible gasp, some of the rest of us are quite happy to say, "hey, it was okay while it lasted, but the show's over, today's a good day to die".... When I get to that point I certainly don't want to be insulted by other folk assuring me I'm mentally unstable, and preventing me from carrying out my wishes. By all means help those who will appreciate the help once the underlying mental instability is addressed, but find some way of identifying anyone in that category from the rest of us, who decided many years ago that there could come a time that suicide would be the only logical and realistic option if nature or some other cause hadn't gotten you beforehand.

[khitajrah]

Certainly, if someone is mentally destabilised and that alone has led to them considering suicide, then there needs to be support and help available to them.

 

How are we, as friends, family and community, supposed to give support and help to people who have been mentally destabilised when the resources have been exhausted? We can't leave everything to the hands of the NHS as clearly it's not working.

 

[edited for grammar}

[paulb]

there is no resident doctor. the best we get is a locum a few weeks a year. the mental health team lilke most of the nhs is underfunded at patient level while they keep recruting admin staff. the only place for mental health patients is in aberdeen. now this seems to raise the issue about why there is no facility here in the island. placing acute patients on a medical ward can not be good for either the person undergoing the crisis or the other medical patients. you should expect properly trained mental health nurses to provide the care. not rgn's who have only a few weeks of training in mental health issues.

 

as one of the main causes of death it should be treated as a priority.

 

i know the ward staff in all the wards in shetland feel that the level of services for mental health patients is very poor.

[Ghostrider]

Certainly, if someone is mentally destabilised and that alone has led to them considering suicide, then there needs to be support and help available to them.

 

How are we, as friends, family and community, supposed to give support and help to people who have been mentally destabilised when the resources have been exhausted? We can't leave everything to the hands of the NHS as clearly it's not working.

 

[edited for grammar}

 

I don't feel remotely qualified to offer an opinion on that, as I have absolutely zero experience or knowledge of what resources are or aren't currently available for those who do genuinely need them.

 

My beef is that, until and unless the "official" line changes from the current and long standing attitude of, if someone so much as mentions suicide as an option, the assumption is automatically made that they by default have proven themselves to be mentally unstable and must be "helped", not a lot will ever work very well. It promotes a "them and us" situation, whereby a portion of the population simply distance themselves from all involvement with mental instability issues of any and all kinds, which does no-one any good in the long run, and is counterproductive to helping those who are genuinely mentally destabilised and need all the help and support they can get.

 

It comes down to attitude and respect, those who believe suicide is a perfectly rational sane and logical route to take if an individual chooses to, as well as being an unfortunate symptom of mental instability, are not going to touch the subject in any way if they know fine well that they're going to be considered mentally unstable by virtue of their opinions on the subject.

 

There needs to be a fundamental change in attitude right from the top, an admission that suicide comes in two forms, that which is the right of a sane individual to pursue, if they see fit, and that which is created by the mental instability of an individual. With such an admission, those who believe suicide is their right to pursue as and when and if they see fit, without interference, and without the whole "powers that be" garish and extremely distasteful charade that follows it, might just start coming on side and offer their help and support to those with genuine mental instability issues who need it. As well as an attitude change at the top, an education program would need to follow it to inform the non-thinking, brain dead, TV watching, sleazy tabloid reading, couch potato masses, as they only ingest and believe what comes off the little square screen or the latest sensationalised, biased garbage in their rag of choice.

 

At the moment there's an awful lot of misinformed people out there, many of whom no doubt believe they are trying to help, but inevitably with present attitudes, a proportion of that effort and resources are being wasted as they're misdirected towards the portion who don't want them, don't need them, and won't appreciate having had them pushed their way, as they will feel they have had their rights as an individual disprespected. There's also people out there, who due to the misinformation believed by many other who have simply closed the door to any and all mental stability issues, as they have no wish to be branded mentally unstable themselves because of their own personal opinions. That situation is denying to those who do need, the benefit of any resources those people might choose to provide otherwise. Add to that, it seems from what previous posters have said, we have a NHS that is falling a long way short of their obligations and committments on the issue, and is in dire need of a heavy size 10 steel toecap applied with maximum effort right up where the sun don't ever shine, and it's no wonder all that apparently exists is ineffectual chaos.

 

Get everyone playing for the same team for goodness sake, if attitudes in places of influence would admit that suicide is both a normal and sane act as well as a mental instability created act, and respect the opinions and choices of each supposedly sane individual on the subject, it would go a long way towards promoting a far healthier, and by default, helpful attitude within the population. It would also help identify those genuinely mentally unstable and in need of all the support possible, and it would ensure both the maximum support was available and the maximum amount of it directed where it was wanted, will do good and be appreciated. The NHS took upon itself over 50 years ago to provide a certain standard of health care to all of the population, as required, if they're failing in that they need to be called to account, harass the local Health Board, the MSP, the MP. They're the people who are ultimately the "boss" of NHS plc, and of course they'll try and get away with providing as little as possible by way of service until demended to do otherwise, its human nature.

[dtothet]

i think its pretty obvious what we're seeing here is a new form of depression that is generated from a lack of trees.

[bobby]

I knew one Shetlander who's committed suicide, young male alcoholic and gay.

[justlookin]

As it has been thoroughly covered in ghost riders post, it is the persons choice to do whatever they wish with "their" own life.

 

The fact that the rate is high in shetland is surely not a surprise. Its dark depressive and the mentality up here towards life doesn't exactly give you much hope.

 

I can't beleive its illegal to take your own life. "Your!" own life. I know the government need the taxes but thats ridiculous.

 

On a plus side, all the problems in this world are down to too many people.

Silver lining and all that.

[Guest Anonymous]

What a load of rectum waffle spews forth from your mouth just lookin ,

We get just as much light on an annual basis as anywhere else in the world and a lot of folk enjoy the dark winters for many different reasons .

1.) Its easier to get a good nights sleep

2.) You dont feel so guilty to spend all evening watching telly and geerally being a couch potatoe

3.) you can sneak around easier

4.) If you are at the Siene net its a much shorter working day and that also applies to fish farmers and crofters.

 

And what the hell is wrong with our mentality !!?

I am pleased with mine most of the time but who doesn't get a bit moomin'sd off now and again.

And also Shetland has a vast number of highly talented people from all walks of life.

I dont follow statistics as they are very easily distorted.

If its so depressive up here the rational thing to do is move somewhere else first.