Emotional testimony doesn't save mental health services

COMMENT: 'Link Centres' will close, despite review

Emotional testimony wasn’t enough to save North Devon’s Link Centres from closure, but service user Sonia Gould demonstrated a bravery that now needs to be matched by action.

County councillors have relooked at a decision by Devon’s cabinet to close the Link Service, which has centres in Barnstaple, Bideford and Ilfracombe.

The rationale for the closure is, essentially, that the NHS is now creating a mental health service provision that replaces the Link Service.

The new structure might look and feel different, but the county council sees no sense in spending the best part of half a million pounds year on a service offered by another organisation.

There’s obvious logic in that, particularly as councils have to watch every penny.

But, as any school teacher knows, a pupil – or in this case a huge organisation like a health service – can score top grades for effort but mediocre ones for attainment.

And this was the nub of the argument from some members of the adult health and social care scrutiny committee – ‘we hear you have laudable plans for a new service, but can you tell us EXACTLY how the North Devon Link Service users will be transferred from the existing provision to the new one?’

How that question is answered depends on who you speak to, although a health spokesperson did acknowledge their communication efforts may have led to some “confusion”.

Anyway, back to Sonia.

Most people will have had days when they’d rather not get out of bed, especially when they have to speak to a room of unfamiliar people in an unfamiliar setting to explain why a service that is quite literally their lifeline shouldn’t be closed.

But Sonia’s battle to face such a day was nothing short of Herculean; this wasn’t climbing the proverbial Ben Nevis, but rather scaling Everest.

Fighting back tears, Sonia outlined her daily struggles to keep going, and she valiantly persisted until it simply became too much.

Thankfully, council officers wrote down further comments from her, and relayed these on her behalf.

Through a council spokesperson, Sonia articulated the overwhelming struggles she faces, referencing self-harm.

She explained the fundamental importance of the Link Service to her, and how it stops her situation from escalating.

She will no doubt have made all those connected to the Link Service immensely proud, and hopefully she recognises her achievement in pushing for the centres to remain open.

Sonia’s distress didn’t fall on deaf ears. Devon’s chief executive, Donna Manson, rightly pointed out that you can’t hear someone like Sonia explain what she’s going through and not do anything about it, adding that she would work with her health counterparts to look into her case to try and ensure her needs are met as the new service begins.

Similarly, Cllr James McInnes (Conservative, Hatherleigh and Chagford), portfolio holder for adult social care and health, acknowledged the “anguish of service users”.

“They think I don’t care, but I do,” he said.

He explained how the new service replacing the Link Service would be “very individually focussed” and so should provide the type of support people need.

That’s what now needs to happen. Sonia didn’t let anyone down, and now the system needs to make sure it doesn’t let her down in turn.

Campaigners were obviously hoping to achieve their goal of keeping the centres open, but Sonia’s testimony hopefully means a different goal has been secured.

Namely that the promise of a so-called ‘warm handover’ from old to new will happen, especially now that those involved in managing this transition understand the impact that getting it wrong could have.

And that’s down to a Link Centre service user in North Devon who bravely spoke up. Sonia.