September Newsletter
It’s a real treat to introduce this month’s newsletter. The sense of new beginnings as well as completions is all here -Section 64 bids, meetings with movers and shakers, the new website for PMHCWN (www.pmhcwn.org.uk naturally) our upcoming study days, life after the Mental Health Act and some thoughtful pieces relevant to all our futures.
I am discovering that the secret of being able to say goodbye happily (it’s a bit of a life theme: my nomadic childhood inspired me to run staff workshops on ‘Saying Goodbye’) is to be able to speak out and own the achievements – focus on what we have done together rather than what there is still to do.
SPN with its philosophy of ‘both / and’ has reached out to diverse people – you – and has shown that it is improving practice, influencing policy and developing the knowledge base of social perspectives in mental health. We’ve come of age; we got it right; just think what we can do now! So, thank you all for the opportunity, experience and fun and GOOD LUCK – Judy
Judy Foster, Co Chair Extraordinary
We owe Judy a huge debt for her work for SPN. She was one of the small group of committed people who conceived the idea of a network to promote the social model of mental health. And having the idea, she followed it through and has given immense support to the organisation. Chairing meetings has been the least of her contributions. She is always full of ideas and energy and above all enthusiasm.
Judy spent the major part of her career in Hammersmith and Fulham Social Services department in practice, management and staff development. At CCETSW (the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work) she worked on the development and implementation of NVQs across the country, on partnership working with service users and carers and on mentoring skills. Her time as national officer for mental health training in Topss England sowed the seeds for the launch of SPN. Developing occupational standards in mental health, creating the STR worker and belonging to the Department of Health's Care Group Workforce Team convinced her that social care needed both to assert its particular contribution to mental health services and to join forces with others to maintain and develop best practice. She is now completing a doctorate in social work at the Tavistock Clinic.
Happily, her expertise will not be lost to SPN. She is joining the Steering Group of the Parental Mental Health and Child Welfare Network and will be invaluable there.
Good luck and thank you Judy
Terry Bamford
All change in the SPN Executive Committee
Alleyn Wilson takes over from Judy and joins Stewart Hendry as Co Chair of the SPN Executive Committee until the next AGM when a new Co Chair will be formally elected. Dawn Walker, one of the founder members of SPN, who brought her concern for the mental health needs of the younger black community to the forefront of SPN's work, has resigned to train as a counsellor, and we thank her for her past support and wish her well in her studies.
We are very pleased to welcome Layo Afuape as a co-opted member. Layo is currently the Southwark (Mental Health Older Adults - MHOA) Service Manager for community services. She is a practice assessor and an approved social worker, and the Lead for safeguarding adults in the South London and Maudsley Foundation NHS Trust and the Social Work lead for her directorate.
Whose Recovery is it Anyway?
SPN/SCIE/SOGIAG Joint Study Day on Recovery and Diversity
Tuesday, 16th October 2007 at Friends Meeting House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 from 9.30am until 4.30pm
Chair: Melba Wilson, Chief Executive of CSIP, London Development Centre and Acting Head of the Delivering Race Equality Programme.
Keynote Presentations:
* Peter Lehmann, international survivor activist
* Premila Trivedi (SLAM) - A personal survivor account
* Sam Wintrip (Polari) - Recovery is not always the answer - a parallel with HIV/AIDS
Confirmed Workshops:
* Guilaine Kinouani (Fanon Project/Southside Partnership) - Community engagement projects for African Caribbean men
* "Te Waka Oranga Hinengaro" - Maori mental health training video and discussion facilitated by Tanya Kennard-Campbell - Intercultural perspectives and Maori Mental Health Services
* Howard Delmonte and Jo Beecham (PACE) - LGB issues in Recovery
* Jolie Goodman - Women's mental health and recovery
* Jerry Tew (University of Birmingham and SPN) - Recovery Research
Confirmed afternoon discussion panellists:
* Dr Dinesh Bhugra, Institute of Psychiatry
* Alison Faulkner, Survivor Researcher
* Sarah Carr, Researcher, Social Care Institute for Excellence
Entertainment:
* Rob Gee - ex psychiatric nurse
Section 64 Bids
For the first time SPN has submitted bids for grant funding under section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968), S64 has power to make grants to voluntary organizations in England whose activities support the Department of Health's policy priorities.
We put in 3 applications. The first was for a national Womens Mental Health Network. At present some CSIP Regions have set up networks but the overall picture is very patchy. The bid would establish a web based network and as a second stage would lead to the creation of circles of support for women in acute wards in the UK.
The second bid was titled Creating Caring Communities . It envisages piloting a checklist of initiatives aimed at reducing social exclusion working in partnership with third sector organisations .
The third bid ‘Keeping Mum’ seeks to establish a web based network for new parents to counter perinatal mental ill-health. Again it offers the potential for developing local support groups as an offshoot of the network.
The number of bids for section 64 far exceeds the resources available. There is a two stage process and we will know later this month if we have got to the next stage of the process when detailed bids have to be submitted.
We are however hopeful that at least one of the bids will get to the next stage so keep your fingers crossed for SPN.
TB
Meetings with Movers and Shakers
August used to be a quiet month without any meetings in large public sector organisations but no longer. In the past week SPN has met with Steve Shrubb of the Mental Health Trust Network and with David Behan who has the forbidding title of Director General of Social Care, Local Government and Care Partnerships at the Department of Health.
Steve Shrubb was formerly a Regional Director in CSIP and is now Director of the Mental Health Network within the NHS Confed . He is trying to live down a tortured Community Care headline which cast him as Prince Charming coming to the rescue of the Cinderella mental health service! The newly established Mental Health Network is not only for mental health trusts but intends to recruit other providers of mental health services from the private and not for profit sectors.
The meeting identified a number of areas of possible collaboration in the future and options to work with some of the sub-groups on childrens services, learning disability , older peoples services and New Ways of Working being established within the Network.
David Behan is overseeing the review of CSIP led by Peter Horn. This will not be completed until the end of the year but there is anxiety among those voluntary groups including SPN which currently get funding support from CSIP/NIMHE. We expressed the view that a central focus on mental health service delivery is still required to ensure that the aspirations of the mental health strategy are translated into change on the ground.
Dignity - What Dignity?
The government's recent extention of it's 'dignity in care' initiative for older people to mental health (read article on DH website) is going to focus on tackling stigma, older people's mental health and acute inpatient care. Read Vicky Nicholls's article.
Older people let down by mental health services
Once upon a time the Department of Health pledged to eliminate ageism in the NHS. The reality remains that ageism operates as a form of rationing -sometimes overt (no reminders of mammogram checks after 70) sometimes covert by clinical judgements about the necessity of treatment for individuals,
And the prevalence of mental ill health in older age while noted in numerous reports remains as a Cinderella sector – under resourced and largely unnoticed – until the next report comes along.
Last month saw the publication of the final report of the UK Inquiry into Mental Health and WellBeing in Later Life – a major independent inquiry supported by Age Concern. Read more
Dual Diagnosis and Street Homelessness
Shelter has just published "Service without Substance", a short briefing paper highlighting the problems that street homeless people with mental health needs who also use drugs/alcohol face when trying to access appropriate mental health, housing and support services.
Shelter are also keen to learn of any good practice that exists in this area. What would help practitioners, providers and front line workers to make services more accessible? If you have any examples of existing good practice in service provision for homeless people with a dual diagnosis and/or personality disorder, please contact Sam Byrne, who is taking this work forward in a forthcoming Shelter good practice guide.
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