The Alliance For Mental Health, which comprises the major stakeholders in mental health care services, today said a national strategy is needed for a new approach to mental health care.

The A4MH, formed in order to lobby for much-needed improvement in standards in mental health care, was referring to the recent death of a mental health patient after he escaped from Mount Carmel Hospital.

Unexpected deaths are also traumatic for health care workers, the alliance said. In light of this, the A4MH would like to reiterate the need for a national strategy that does not simply focus on replacing the psychiatric hospital, but instead focuses on replacing the current approach towards mental health care, with a holistic plan for mental health care which places community care and crisis services in priority and channels adequate funding towards their development.

While it is understandable that tragic events lead to investigations about what might have gone wrong, the A4MH believes that the aim of a suitable national mental health service should be to maximize prevention of mental illness, increase access to care within schools, homes and community centres, and to eventually limit the need to resort to hospitalization.

The A4MH also considers it pertinent to clarify that unfortunately, premature deaths remain a terrible reality of severe mental illness and that ongoing efforts should be made to minimise the risks of such deaths by focusing on changing the system as a whole.

The A4MH recognises that hospitals contain a concentration of ill people and that the goal of the response to the recent tragedies should be to understand how the overall system can continue to improve and become safer, but not to scapegoat any individual for the failings of an archaic setup.