A mental health crisis intervention service in Derry is under threat of closure as its current funding package is due to run out.
The Community Crisis Intervention Service (CCIS) has been on the brink of closure on several occasions and faces the same dilemma once again if alternative funding is not found.
CCIS aims to meet a gap in provision of support at a point of acute crisis and is open in the late hours when individuals are most vulnerable to suicide attempts.
Local families bereaved through suicide, along with activists and organisations, campaigned for a service of this kind for many years.
On Thursday, Derry City & Strabane District Council agreed to write to Health Minister Mike Nesbitt to highlight the importance of CCIS and the need for “sustainable funding” to allow it to continue.
A presentation was delivered from Sharon Hearty, director of policy and development, Mal Byrne, director of mental health and addictions services, and Tiernan Thornton, Community Crisis Intervention Service manager.
They explained that CCIS was introduced as a pilot intervention service and has been operational since 2018.
The initial pilot was funded by the council and piloted by Extern following the work of a multiagency group which ran from 2016 to 2018.
It was conceived to “reduce vulnerability” across the council area.
An Ulster University evaluation of CCIS was conducted in 2020 and confirmed the need for the service.
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Operation of the service continued with funding in 2021 from the Department of Health’s Mental Health Support Fund (MHSF) and administered by Community Foundation.
Since the award of funding via MHSF in 2021 until the end of March this year, there have been 2,859 crisis de-escalations.
But the relevant fund has closed and as yet there is no indication of replacement funding from next April.
Sinn Fein councillor Sandra Duffy said this was a community-led initiative and that that model needs to be preserved.
She added: “We are in the midst of a mental health crisis and services like this can’t be lost or diminished.”
SDLP councillor Brian Tierney also said the council did “an awful lot of work” from 2016 to 2018 to establish an intervention service that would “protect people”.
He added: “The fact that this service time and time and time again has to come back to look for support from council is absolutely disgusting, in my mind.
“The need for this organisation is very easily identified and it has only further strengthened its case. The fact there were 2,859 de-escalations is an absolute miracle.”
The cost of the service is said to be a fraction of the estimated economic cost of suicide and self-harm in Northern Ireland, which was estimated in 2017/18 by the Department of Health at £1,553,653 per suicide.
Since 2021, the annual funding for the expanded CCIS service was £200,000 per year, according to the presentation.
Mr Tierney said those figures are worth considering but “you cannot put a cost on a life”.
The CCIS delegation said it alleviates pressure on key agencies such as the PSNI, Ambulance Service and Foyle Search & Rescue.
Reduced funding from December until the end of March will only support the CCIS’s out-of-hours service.
People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin said the statistics are “alarming” and show the “necessity of this service”.
He agreed it is unfair for funding at CCIS to be “constantly under threat” and wants to see a sustainable funding model for the service.
In response, the Department of Health stated: “The minister will continue to press the case for sustained additional funding for the health service.”