Monthly Newsletter of Camden Mental Health Consortium |
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ISSUE 46 |
JUNE 2001 |
When CMHC was offered the opportunity to undertake the research on the possible crisis house model that users would like to see in Camden, it was recognised that this would be a new innovation. Service users would do the research and they would be trained, supported and rewarded – the idea that CMHC has been promoting for a long time. The outcome of this work could well pave the way forward. The result was better than we could have hoped. A Report which is recognised as being excellent and may yet win an award. The commitment that Camden will develop a Crisis House. We have shown that service users are as capable as anyone else and can produce excellent work. This is something that we are entitled to be proud of and to tell the world about. THE POWER AND THE GLORYBlue/Orange is a play about a young black man’s experience of psychiatry. This National Theatre production, currently at The Duchess Theatre, looks at the relationship between a consultant psychiatrist, a junior doctor and a patient – a black patient. All the stereotypes that service users no so well are played out and the picture will not be unfamiliar to anyone who has been hospitalised and possibly ‘sectioned’. The power of the doctors and the powerlessness of the patient. The possibility of doctors bringing their own preconceptions to the patient’s life. And the need of junior doctors to be told by their bosses. It is a play about psychiatry and power, dense with meaning, but it could be translated into a number of other fields without losing any of its thesis. All-too-often we are concerned with our own world picture to the exclusion of all others.
THANKS CMHC would like to thank the Merces' Company for its donation of £350 towards our work and the Ian Askew Charitable Trust for their donation of £300. CMHC would also like to thank Alison West and the Community Development Fund for their generous donation of £1828.80 and pay tribute to our member, Linda Polan, for her work in obtaining this money for us. MOVES When Tony Ewart is seconded from his post as Locality Director at North Camden Mental Health Services at the end of this month the current Assistant Locality Director (ALD), George Platts and Keith Russell, will share the responsibility for his post. Later in the year Keith will be leaving his post to travel. Colin Plant, the current Locality Director for South Camden Mental Health Service, is moving from his post to take up an interim post as Assistant Director (Mental Health) for Camden Social Services. It is not yet clear who will take on Colin's current role. Alison Greenhalgh has been appointed as the Manager for the new North Camden Crisis Response and Resolution service. Katrina Anderson is not leaving Camden. Although she will be working in Islington, her new post is district-wide and she will not have crossed the border into Islington but will be working there too.
This year’s AGM will be held on Tuesday, 24 July in The Sir William Wells Atrium on the Ground Floor of The Royal Free Hospital. We are again grateful to the North Camden Locality Director, Tony Ewart, and North Camden Mental Health Service for providing the venue and the food. This is the third AGM for which they have done this. The packs of information with the nomination forms for Honorary Officers and the Management Committee have gone out and the nominations need to be returned to the CMHC office in Hampstead Town Hall by the close of business (5.00 pm) on Tuesday, 10 July. If there is more than one nomination for any of the Honorary Officer posts or more than eight nominations for the Management Committee then details of the nominees will be sent to the Members and a secret ballot will be held at the AGM. Only Full Members of CMHC on 26 June 2001 may nominate and second candidates and vote in any election. The AGM will take its usual form of business, guest speaker and then refreshments. The agenda will be sent out once the nominees are confirmed and the position regarding any possible vote is known. The Annual Report will be sent out at the same time and we hope to have the finished accounts, although each year as the income and work of the organisation becomes greater having the scrutinised accounts ready for a Summer Annual General Meeting becomes a more difficult task. Part of the business of the evening will be the moving of two amendments to the constitution:
‘(Full Membership) shall be open to person who are users and former users of mental health services living, working or using services in Camden......’
We are still in communication with The Charity Commission about the possibilities of Trustees being paid for work done when commissioned through CMHC and there is not likely to be any conclusion to this before the AGM.
In February of 2001, five Camden service users were recruited to conduct some research into the model of Crisis House that people would like to see developed in the Borough. They designed a questionnaire, carried out interviews with current service users, analysed the data obtained, and wrote a report. That Report was not only elegant and informative, but is also recognised as a model of good practice. CMHC is so proud of this work that it wanted to see it launched properly and on Tuesday, 19 June, that was done at Hampstead Town Hall. Three of the researchers, Ian, Oriana and Paul, were available to talk about the experience itself and to recognise the value that it had for them. Other people were able to discuss the Camden Crisis House position and where it currently stands. The Director of Social Services for Camden, Jane Held, talked about her Department’s commitment to the project as a priority. The Chief Executive of the Camden & Islington Mental Health Trust, Erville Millar, spoke of that body’s commitment to the development of a Crisis House as an alternative to hospitalisation. While nobody could see it happening immediately the campaign has a momentum that will clearly lead to the establishment of this facility and tribute must go to Cllr Penny Abraham who has been guiding the political process. The afternoon began with the Crisis House Report but went on to listen to some of the pieces of user involvement that already take place. Leo talked about the User Focussed Monitoring of the Flexicare service in which he had played a part and went on to describe some of the work of the New Directions Camden User Forum. There were reports on the Jules Thorn Patients’ Council, the Crisis Advisory Forum Rolston and Andie talked about the User Advisory Group. This set the context to listen to the results of the previous two User Events and what users really want – information, consultation, feedback. Roberta Grayley-Wetherell from Advocacy Really Works discussed the findings and officers from the services replied. The general view was that things had improved and would continue to improve. But not everyone was convinced. The nature of user involvement and how everyone has a part to play was explained by Linda Polan, with her now famous paper ‘Pillows not Policy’. That users may have an input into strategy and policy are fine ideals but they may be more effective in looking at the more basic service level. The future may be the Camden Borough User Group (CBUG).
There is a long and complicated relationship between mental health problems and the courts and this is the area with which forensic psychiatry deal. It is a situation in which patients are usually detained formally in secure conditions and often for long periods of time. Andy Mattin is Director of the North London Forensic Service which deals with forensic patients from Camden and Islington and also other areas of North West London. His principal area of operations is the Regional Secure Unit (RSU) at Chase Farm Hospital but he has responsibility for people who are detained in greater security in Medium Secure Units and the Special Hospitals and people who are no longer detained but are subject to certain conditions imposed by the Courts or the Home Office. Richard Taylor is a Forensic Psychiatrist who works in the community and often has responsibility for people coming out of forensic care and back into their home area. This is difficult work with a group of people who have more than their share of difficulties and also have been detained for a long period of time. They were the speakers at the May SCUF. By the end of the meeting it was clear that we had only skimmed the surface of the work that they do and that there are several more meeting topics on which they may be asked to speak A great deal of forensic psychiatry is to do with assessing risk and this is a difficult and inaccurate procedure. The problem so often is that people err on the side of caution, which may mean a patient being detained for too long or in more secure conditions than is required. This practice has been made more common with the publicity that is attendant upon any serious incident in which someone with mental health problems is involved leading to headlines about ‘loonies’ and ‘psychos’. This stigma that is so much more acute for people detained by these services makes the process of getting well and reintegrating into the community so much more difficult. The June South Camden User Forum on Tuesday, 26 June at 5.30 pm in Jules Thorn Day Centre will bring along Professor Roland Littlewood to talk about STIGMA from his own point-of-view as an anthropologist. This may help people to understand what Stigma is and how it arose. In July, the South Camden Crisis Response and Resolution will come under the spotlight when the South Camden User Forum looks at the team now that it is up, running and seeing patients. There will be an opportunity to listen to details of how the service works .
It has taken a long time for the first research project that CMHC is undertaking in collaboration with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at The Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine to get off the ground. Stigma is a problem for so many users of mental health services and is probably responsible for preventing a lot of other people from accessing those services when they need them. £20 000 was given by Camden Social Services to fund some preliminary research into this subject from the user perspective. It is hoped that this preliminary study will lead to a wider and more detailed piece of research. Chris Bagley is the Research Fellow for this project and he came along to the June NCUF to talk about Stigma and the work that he is proposing to undertake and to hear the views of service users. Chris is particularly interesting to service users because he is one too, and he spent quite a bit of time talking about his own experiences as a service user. It was quite disappointing that the interest shown in this subject previously was not reflected in the number of people who came to this meeting. There was a second chance to hear Chris at the User afternoon on 19 June when he again spoke about his work. There will be plenty of opportunity for people to meet Chris in the coming weeks when he visits some of the Camden centres where people spend their time. The current research project is funded for 18 moths with Chris working part time. Many patients describe their terror at Ward Rounds. This is usually the only opportunity that the patient has to meet their consultant and the only opportunity the consultant has to meet the patient. They are very important events. It has been suggested that it would be a good idea for everyone concerned if there were a standard protocol which applied to all Ward Rounds and was available to all parties. This would mean that everyone concerned would understand what was happening and how things were going to be done during the ward round. Such a protocol already operates in many Trusts including those in Kensington & Chelsea. The July meeting of the NCUF on Tuesday, 3 July at 4.30 in Room 20 of the Psychotherapy Corridor on the 2nd-floor of the RFH Tower Block will have George Platts and Keith Russell, the two Assistant Locality Directors with North Camden Mental Health Service, talking about developing a ward round protocol for use at the RFH and which cold be adapted to the other in-patient sites within the new Mental Health Trust. In August, we are hoping to talk about ‘The Media and Mental Health’.
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