On a mizzly Friday in January over 40 social care staff from across Lincolnshire got together for the first time in a training centre in Sleaford to share thoughts, swop notes and seek inspiration for their continuing work supporting people with mental health needs across this largely rural county.
The sense of isolation and need for assurance of their value that came out from staff was striking, as well as the eagerness to hear of and learn from colleagues’ experiences, for example in school-based services, and the dilemmas faced in, for example, thresholds of unusual behaviours that might lead a child to be referred to specialist mental health services.
Staff are working from within an organisation that is changing with the times towards becoming a Foundation Trust, and some of the implications of this were discussed with Chris Slavin, Chief Executive of Lincolnshire Partnership Trust who had been invited to open the day. Some present were concerned that the social care perspective risked being further eroded within what would be a market-driven and potentially medically-dominated structure.
Not all of these fears were allayed, as, although the CE gave assurances that social care staff were as valued as those with medical training, examples were given of advertisements for current job vacancies where social care training would be of benefit (e.g. care coordinator) but where no specification had been included that the postholder should have this background or training.
Keeping up the faith in social inclusion
An inspiring presentation from Professor Peter Gilbert followed this session. Peter, who is also a member of SPN’s Executive Committee, reminded people that social inclusion is on the agenda, and highlighted the relationship with primary care as being key to the way forward for social care. He gave the example of GP-attached social workers, and described the way in which inter-connecting specialisms can inform one another through engagement and debate.
Peter urged Lincolnshire Trust and those working for the Trust to seek ways to support practice-based research, and reminded people of the resource represented by Ian Mathews who had organised the day and has a research base at Lincoln University.
In a culture which risks becoming one of distrust and isolation, Peter talked of the need for communities of meaning, and how essential these are in supporting emotional and psychological wellbeing. Such communities might be based on aspects of identity, and he spoke of alternatives to mainstream mental health services that are often used by members of minority ethnic or cultural communities, for example in Bradford, partly because statutory services can be seen as contaminating and thus their use can lead to discrimination within the community. The models that are used in many services make no sense to people from non-Western cultures, and we urgently need to prioritise working with the whole person, including hopes, fears and aspirations, and that person’s past, if we are truly understand and support that person to move towards wholeness (SPN Paper on Spirituality)
SPN upfront
Raza was next to fire up the audience with a lively description of who SPN is, how and why we started; who we are; and what we are up to. He included touching on our work on recovery, which was to form the basis of the afternoon workshop we had been asked to lead.
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