Prescription of antidepressants in last 10 years

A. Prescribing rates for HRT and SSRIs (antidepressants) for women aged 40–65 in Jersey for the past 10 years. 

B. Details of any public health campaigns in Jersey relating to menopause or midlife women’s health in the last 20 years, including budgets and outcomes if available. 

C. Has menopause has been included in the Jersey Care Model or other official health frameworks. 

D. Suicide rates in Jersey broken down by age and gender for the last 15 years. 

E. Hospital admissions or referrals for stress, anxiety, or depression, broken down by age and gender for the last 10 years. 

Response 

A 

Health and Care Jersey (HCJ) do not hold records for prescriptions by GPs or private clinics, where the majority of these prescriptions would be issued, and therefore, it is not possible to provide data on prescribing rates for hormone replacement therapy or antidepressants across Jersey. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.  

A Freedom of Information response of July 2024 detailed the number of prescriptions dispensed for specified medications, including antidepressants, both from the Hospital pharmacy and those dispensed through community pharmacies under the Health Insurance Fund. No demographic breakdown is available. As noted, many of the medicines specified are not exclusively used in the treatment of mental health conditions, but are also used for other indications, including epilepsy, pain and sleep disorders. The diagnosis / indication for treatment is not detailed against the prescription, and no central record is available to report the number of prescriptions dispensed specifically to treat mental health conditions.  ​

gov.je/government/freedomofinformation/pages/f​oi.aspx?ReportID=7627

Antidepressant prescribing rates are also included in the Mental Health Profile, which is available at the following link:  

Mental Health Profile 2024.pdf 

The prescription data used to compile the Mental Health Profile is not linked to patient details, so it isn’t possible to identify prescribing rates for specific demographic groups.  

B 

There are no public health campaigns with a specific focus on menopause / midlife women’s health. The cervical screening and breast cancer screening campaigns are both relevant to women in midlife but are not exclusive. 

C 

There has not been any specific provision for menopause in the Jersey Care Model or any other official health framework. 

D 

Suicide rates are available in the Mental Health Profile referenced and linked above, and are reported in Public Health’s annual mortality report. Inquests for deaths which may be suicide can take some time to be concluded, and as such, reporting in arrears for deaths by suicide is standard practice. Data for 2024 and 2025 will be included in future iterations of the report. The latest report is linked below: 

Jersey Mortality Report 2024 

Further detail is provided in the Suicide Prevention Strategy, which includes a breakdown by age groups and gender statistics.  

​​A Strategy for Suicide Prevention in Jersey.pdf 

Data covering the period 1999 to 2021 have also been published to www.gov.je​ in a Freedom of Information response of September 2024: 

gov.je/government/freedomofinformation/pages/foi.aspx?ReportID=7771

As information is available elsewhere, Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.  

E 

Annual figures recorded for public inpatient admissions to Jersey General Hospital, from 2015 to 2024, are detailed in the attached table. The data indicate the number of distinct admissions, rather than the number of individuals requiring care. Individuals may have multiple admissions within a single year, and / or across the timeframe.  

Cases meeting the criteria for inclusion have been identified by the diagnosis codes assigned to the episode of care in the Electronic Patient Record, where an anxiety or depressive disorder has been recorded as the primary diagnosis. Primary diagnosis coding indicates the main condition treated or investigated throughout the episode of care. 

Clinical Coding of a person’s admission is carried out after discharge from hospital and figures are derived from reporting by discharge date. As such, those individuals who were admitted prior to 1 January 2015 and discharged after this date will be included. For the same reason, those admitted prior to 31 December 2024 and discharged after this date will not be included in the numbers. Coding is yet to be completed for all admissions for the time period, and consequently, figures may be subject to change as Clinical Coding of cases continues. 

Where numbers are small, disclosure control has been applied to protect the privacy of individuals and numbers fewer than five are represented as '<5'. Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.  

[LINK Table: Annual admissions 2015 to 2024] 

Freedom of Information 747410939 - Attachment.pdf​

The demographic breakdown of these admissions across the 10-year period are detailed in the tables below, separately by age group and gender. Due to small numbers, HCJ is unable to provide an annual breakdown of the figures by age group or gender, as individuals may be identifiable. Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied to protect the privacy of individuals.   

​Admissions by age group

Admissions by gender

There has been one admission where stress has been recorded as the main condition treated across the timeframe. No further detail will be provided as this would breach the personal information of the individual concerned. Therefore, Article 25 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied. 

Annual figures for mental health-related attendances at the Emergency Department for the period 2012 to 2024 are also available in the Mental Health Profile, as referenced and linked above, as are data on referrals to Jersey Talking Therapies (JTT) from 2018 to 2024, and referrals to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) from 2019 to 2024. Article 23 has been applied in respect of information available elsewhere.  

Articles applied 

Article 3 -  Meaning of “information held by a public authority” 

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if – 

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or 

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority. 

Article 23 - Information accessible to applicant by other means 

(1)     Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge. 

(2)     A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information. 

Article 25 - Personal information 

(1)     Information is absolutely exempt information if it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2005. 

(2)     Information is absolutely exempt information if – 

(a)     it constitutes personal data of which the applicant is not the data subject as defined in the Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018; and (b) its supply to a member of the public would contravene any of the data protection principles, as defined in that Law.