There has been a period of silence since our last newsletter. The explanation is simple. We have been waiting for official confirmation from the Department of Health of the success of our partnership bid with National Service User Network and Afiya. That has now come through and is worth £188000 a year for 3 years. The bid submission is on the website.
We are now in discussions with the other two organisations to ensure that there is an integrated team approach to the bid. The project will develop service standards for user engagement, will seek to secure their adoption by commissioning and provider bodies (particularly important in the uncharted world of clinical commissioning groups), and will develop service user skills in leadership.
This is a really exciting development for SPN and will draw on the lessons learned through Power Up (final report on the website), the SPN project on direct payments and personal health budgets. Raza Griffiths who led the Power Up work for SPN will be involved in this project helping to ensure continuity.
SPN’ s Executive Committee met last month and also engaged with representatives from other organisations concerned about social models of mental health including NDTi, BASW, SCIE, UCLAN. So what was the outcome?
First we agreed that a new position paper should be produced charting the changes over the past decade since SPN was established and how social perspectives can help develop ways of working which are more effective in promoting recovery and wellbeing ( within and outside formal mental health services).
Second we were all struck by the yawning gap between the holistic approach represented by New Horizons and No Health Without Mental Health and the reality of service user experience where the Work Capability Assessment and desperate employment climate are creating stress and fear.
Third we recognised that a new approach was needed to promote dissemination of ideas. The traditional approach of producing a paper and using study days to disseminate ideas is not going to be effective. We need to modernise the way in which we operate and get up to date with social media – Facebook, Twitter and Linked In- to create informal alliances and linkages to promote our ideas.
So we are looking forward to some exciting developments and will keep you posted on how members can best contribute to the changing face of SPN.
Is the label ‘schizophrenia’ stigmatising people or helping them, a new independent inquiry is set to find out. With many more poor and black and minority ethnic (BME) people labelled ‘schizophrenics’ than other groups, the diagnosis has been controversial for a long time.
An independent Inquiry into the ‘Schizophrenia’ Label has been launched on 16th April 2012 by a group of organisations and individuals concerned about the meaning and usefulness of ‘schizophrenia’ and similar labels such as ‘psychosis’. The Inquiry aims to investigate the impact this label has on people’s lives and to collect evidence from people, including mental health service users and carers, those (including professionals) who use these labels to describe mental health problems in other people, and those who have concerns about the use of such labels. Please visit the website for more information and to submit evidence to the Inquiry. You can submit evidence via the website by completing a questionnaire or writing to us using our testimony form. The evidence collected will be examined by an independent panel made up of service users, academicians and a lawyer. The panel will produce a report based on this evidence which will be forwarded to a range of organisations including NICE, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, other professional and statutory bodies, private and third sector organisations, and the Department of Health. This Inquiry has no financial ties to any organisation and is supported by over 100 individuals and over 20 national and international organisations. Please email if you need any further information.
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