Contents

Acknowledgement

Introduction

Preface

The Interviewees

Internal Structure

The Staff

Conclusion

Appendix 1. -

The Questionnaire

Appendix 2. -

Questionnaire Data

Introduction

In January 2001, five people were employed to participate in a research project. The purpose of this was to establish the likely demand there might be for a Crisis House for people living with mental distress in the London Borough of Camden. The Crisis House would be to provide short-term accommodation and care for clients, as an alternative to them being admitted to hospital.

All five researchers have had personal experience of mental ill-health. All of us have, at one time or another, been in hospital as a result. We were employed by Camden Mental Health Consortium and managed by Scott Stevens of CMHC, and Katrina Anderson, Senior Development Officer for Mental Health at Camden Social Services.

This project was planned in three stages:

Stage 1 –

Meetings were held in order that we might get to know each other and to familiarise ourselves with the work that needed to be done. Our initial research examined existing Crisis House Services both within London and outside.

With this information we designed a questionnaire (refer to Appendix 1) consisting of five pages and forty questions. It was divided into three sections:

1. About the interviewee;
2. About the House structure;

About the staff.

Stage 2 –

The interviews were conducted at the following locations:

FE-SO at MIND in Camden - Drop-In Service

Highgate Centre - Day Centre

Tottenham Mews Resource Centre - Drop-In Service

St James's House - Training Centre

Drayton Park - Crisis House

Fordwych House - Day Hospital

Holy Cross Crypt - Drop-In Service

Nicol Ward - Royal Free Hospital

Cardigan Ward - St Luke’s Hospital

ARP - Alcohol Recovery Project

Helen Boyle Ward - Royal Free Hospital

Felix Brown - Day Hospital

The Crossfield Centre - Day Centre

We also held interviews at the CMHC offices in Belsize Park. It was found that interviews took on average, twenty to forty minutes and received an enthusiastic response. All those interviewed were paid £10 for their participation.

Stage 3 –

We decided to present the information in terms of percentages although our sample is not large enough to be used for statistical purposes.

Microsoft Access was used to analyse the data. We should like to thank Alastair Mitton who set up the database and gave us telephone support while we amended it and entered the data. Each team member was allocated a section of the report to write.

For reasons of confidentiality, quotations are used but have not been attributed to any named individual. For all of us, this work has been a rewarding experience. We have enjoyed working together and would like to offer our thanks to Katrina Anderson and Scott Stevens, who gave managerial support throughout the project. We would also like to thank the workers at the centres, hospitals, and services who displayed our publicity, and made us welcome when we came to conduct interviews.

We hope that this report may make some contribution to the welfare of those in distress through mental ill-health. We thank all those who participated and made this report possible.