The Challenges of the Big Society

Conference debates challenges and opportunities for mental health

A conference chaired by PowerUp! co-ordinator Raza Griffiths looked at the challenges and opportunities facing the user and carer movement and allies in the current mental health landscape.

Entitled What do we do now? – mental health, user leadership and communities, the conference, organised by social enterprise Social Spider explored initiatives in co-production, peer support, setting up and running service user-led projects and how to exert more influence over mainstream services at a time of cuts.

Conference debates challenges and opportunities for mental health

A conference chaired by PowerUp! co-ordinator Raza Griffiths looked at the challenges and opportunities facing the user and carer movement and allies in the current mental health landscape.

Some interesting projects

focusing on social entrepreneurship, health promotion through use of text messaging, education, recovery and developing peer support gave food for thought for the wider debates around the Big Society.

Rachel Perkins, in her retrospective opening speech, referred to the rolling back of state power over service users with the closure of the old asylums, and said this had liberated service users to begin to define their mental distress in their own terms and to begin seeking better ways of dealing with it outside the prescriptive options offered by the State.

Rolling Back of State Power

But delegates and speakers wrestled with whether we should be evangelists, cynics or pragmatists about the rolling back of state power in the Big Society agenda, and questioned how to use it to lead them to a Second Liberation. The point was made time and again that the debate on the Big Society was taking place to a background of deep cuts to state run mental health provision as well as to the voluntary sector – including arts groups that could help develop social capital and all the other things contained within the broader remit of personalisation. To say nothing of welfare benefits on which many service users and carers depended.

In the eloquent words of delegate Dominic Walker, who had found help in a BME day centre following a racist inspired incident which had led to his mental ill health, “We need to create spaces where people experiencing mental distress can chew their chicken bone and feel safe and accepted”.

To try and secure that elusive chicken bone and give service users, carers and allies greater control over the drastic changes happening, delegates and speakers made the following suggestions:

Develop networks to share best practice around what is working with the many innovative user led projects around

Develop service user leadership and also do community development work around mental health so that service users can reclaim mental health and feel empowered to develop their own services and support (with respect to these first two points, the Government’s £3M funding for developing new ULOs is a small but welcome offering (link to article “£3M to develop user led organisations”)

• Develop a united voice for service users, carers and others to influence the evolving agenda and try and stop cuts to good services through developing a more detailed business case

• Develop more effective dialogue with commissioners and services through better evidencing need, understanding what their priorities are so they come to see your organisation as a key ally. Even if not given direct control of services this will help your organisation’s chances to become influential

• Emphasise that even right-on Big Society initiatives like volunteering do require some co-ordination and resource to get off the ground. This cannot be neglected

• The impact of Welfare Reform needs to be addressed if we are to fully involve the service user and carer communities, otherwise they may be too demoralised to participate

• The need to remove eligibility criteria as well as iron out delays and bureaucracy in getting a Budget, thereby enabling service users to more effectively shape the ‘market’ to their desired needs through Personal Budgets, in line with the original vision. Re the former, the Dilnot Commission due to report in July 2011 may make some recommendations

• Continue to document the effect of cuts. SPN is collecting stories of the impact of cuts in mental health and related areas from anyone affected and would like to hear from you. Please email Raza

• Use the legal stick when appropriate – as was done by families of disabled people who stopped Birmingham Council denying social care to all but those with critical needs

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