January 2009 Newsletter
“You’ve got to give them hope” says Harvey Milk in the brilliant new film ‘MILK’ documenting the live of the first openly gay man elected in the USA in 1977. Hope was the theme of Barack Obama’s campaign and his book ‘the Audacity of Hope’. And hope is one of the crucial components of recovery. So in these bleak times we need to look for the positives and ensure that we get the best out of changes.
This month we are highlighting two important issues- the development of Personal Health budgets, (the next stage of the personalisation agenda), and the best way to deliver Race Equality and cultural Competence training.
Personal Health Budgets
The Department of Health has now tabled the legislation required to give effect to Personal Health budgets and invited PCTs to bid for pilots. Some warning notes are evident in the DH approach but we need to ensure that the pilots are really able to devise innovative and flexible ways of using NHS monies to deliver better outcomes.
Personalisation
This builds on SPN’s existing work on personalisation. It is such a potential force for good that it will be a continuing theme. We hope to explore the overlaps between personalisation and recovery in our future work.
DRE Programme
Peter Ferns’s critique of the current approach of the Delivering Race Equality programme raises important issues. Melba Wilson will be replying on behalf of DRE and we welcome contributions from SPN members on the topic.
Time to Change
The Time to Change campaign has got under way with a barrage of press and TV advertising. It is the first salvo in a campaign with ambitious objectives of changing the nature of public thinking about mental health. Stephen Fry, Alastair Campbell and Ruby Wax are being used in the advertising as examples of successful and varied careers despite having mental health problems. Read more about the campaign.
Raising Profile of Mental Health
Raising the profile of mental health is important at local as well as national level. Read Raza’s fascinating report on local initiatives tackling employment issues and media coverage.
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