Monthly Newsletter of Camden Mental Health Consortium |
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ISSUE 47 |
JULY 2001 |
It seems that the Police are always ready to justify their decision to shoot, and it is well established that they usually 'shoot to kill' because it is 'too risky to do otherwise'. In the recent shooting of a schizophrenic man in Liverpool, it is difficult to accept the police case. They were with him in the house before the shooting. They knew he was a sick man. Knowing all this, they still decided that the right action was to shoot him and kill him. The best interpretation seems 'incompetence', the worst 'intention'. Neither of these is very reassuring. The relationship between the police and those with mental health problems are often strained. It is not going to give anyone confidence to learn that the police seem trigger happy when dealing with us. AT ALL LEVELS There is one area in which the statutory sector seems to be doing better than the voluntary - involving service users at all levels. It is tokenistic, in the sense that only a small number can be involved in this way. It is a pity that there are not more service users on the management committees, boards or governing bodies of the service that they use. Surely they have something very special to bring to those bodies. Perhaps the fault lies with the fact that those bodies do not seem particularly user friendly - do they offer training, support and expenses? Do they brief the user representatives properly? In 2002, there will be a service user on the Camden & Islington Mental Health Trust Board. Of course that will be tokenistic, but it is probably necessarily so. Some of the Boards of voluntary organisations should be concerned that they have not yet advanced this far. We will welcome the day when a service user chairs the Trust Board, but perhaps before that the voluntary sector will have a service user as Chair.
THANKS CMHC would like to thank Alexander Stafford’s Charity for their donation of £500, the Oppenheimer Charitable Trust for their donation of £250 and the St Pancras Welfare Trust for their donation of £300. These generous donations will enable us to continue and expand some of our work. MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE The CMHC Honorary Officers and Management Committee for the year 2001/02 will be:
Sean Cashin, Ame Dunn-Lewin, John Molloy Tabitha Goode, Hugh Sturrock, Caren Watson There are two new members of the Committee, Caren and Tabitha. We welcome them warmly. There are four members retiring, Sabita Dewdney, Mary Ejieone, Des Marshall and Malti Zaveri, and we are grateful to them for the work that they have done whilst they have served on the Committee. The Management Committee usually meets monthly throughout the year and it will be taking steps to report its proceedings to the wider membership. The first meeting of the new committee will be in August. MOVES In Bugle 46, we reported that Colin Plant was moving to a new job as the interim Assistant Director (Mental Health) at Camden Social Services but we did not know who was going to take on the role as Locality Director. The role of Acting Locality Director for South Camden Mental Health Service has been taken on by Kevin Montieth. The current interim role held by Colin Plant looks set to become a new post of Borough Director for Mental Health. There will be two of these new posts, one for Camden and one for Islington and they seem likely to be advertised later in the year. Cllr Penny Abraham is known for her work as the Chair of the Mental Health Liaison Group and as the Council Observer on the CMHC Management Committee. She has now ceased to do both of these jobs because she is moving on to join the Camden Cabinet as the Executive Member for Social Services. This is a role which takes in much more than mental health but we know that Penny will retain her interest in that subject and will continue to advance the cause within the new structure. Government approval has been given for the first Mental Health & Social Care Trust to be developed in Camden & Islington. The first step in this process is a public consultation. The Camden & Islington Mental Health Trust Board has given approval to the outline business case for the development of a new mental health unit in the proposed nurses’ tower on the Felix Brown site. Alongside this approval was given for the decant of Felix Brown to Fordwych Road, but a great deal of concern was expressed about this proposal which will also require public consultation. MENTAL HEALTH STRATEGY BOARD This is a new body which will attempt to develop a strategy for Camden & Islington. Represented on it are the statutory and voluntary sectors and service users from both Boroughs. CMHC has two representatives – the Chair and Treasurer – on what seems likely to become an important body. It had its first meeting in July and will meet quarterly. At its July meeting it set as a priority the establishment of the Camden Borough User Group which was introduced at the Crisis House Launch in June. The Borough User Group is intended to be the principal Forum for user representation. It will have about twelve members who will be trained, supported and rewarded for the tasks that they undertake. Part of its role will be to take an overview of the user developments and to try and co-ordinate them. It will be particularly concerned with helping smaller organisations to develop and build their capacity. A final decision about the finance for this proposal will be made in September. END OF SUMMER PARTY CMHC will be holding another disco/party to mark the end of the Summer holidays. It will be held at The Irish Centre in Murray Street, NW1 on Friday, 31st August. Hugh will be the DJ and you are welcome to bring along any cds that you would like him to play.
This year as last year and the year before that, we were lucky enough to be able to hold the AGM in The Sir William Wells Atrium at The Royal Free Hospital. Our thanks go to Tony Ewart and North Camden Mental Health Service for their generosity in providing the venue and food for us. As usual, the AGM was well attended and it was a lively meeting. The main business went through without any problems, the accounts were approved; the auditors appointed; and the Annual Report presented. When it came to filling the three vacancies on the Management Committee, there was a shortage of candidates and we found only one new M/C Member through that process. Tabitha (proposed by Arul and seconded by Linda) who has been a volunteer in the CMHC office, now joins its Management Committee. However, we remain with a Management Committee of only ten people. There may be an opportunity at the Christmas Meeting on December 14th to improve this number. The amendments to the constitution were carried and that means that membership of CMHC is open to all age groups. The administrative measure to temporarily suspend the membership of those people who lose contact with the organization for three months was also approved. The members agreed that the two questions on alcohol should be put to the meeting and there was no difficulty with the first: Should alcohol be available at CMHC social events. The meeting was in agreement that this should be the case. There was no agreement at all on whether CMHC should provide the alcohol for its AGM and Christmas Party, with an equal number of votes for and against. This is a question that we will need to revisit in the future. Dr Arthur Crisp heads The Royal College of Psychiatrists Anti-Stigma Campaign – ‘Changing Minds – One In Every Family’. He came to talk about the campaign how far it had proceeded. Regrettably the time available to him was quite short because the meeting had run over on its business. But it was clear from the questions that there is a great interest in this topic and we may ask him or one of his colleagues to come to a future meeting. The food was great and the drink (including the wine) was happily consumed. Another successful AGM was over and at least this year it has been concluded at one go!
In June, the South Camden User Forum had the opportunity to listen to some of the anthological evidence about stigma and to hear some information about trans-cultural psychiatry. The South Camden Crisis Response and Resolution Service has been in operation since the Spring of this year and the South Camden User Forum at 5.30 pm on Tuesday, 31st July, will have an opportunity to discuss how that service is functioning and succeeding. Members of the Crisis Advisory Forum (CAF), which has been set up to monitor the service, will also be available to talk about the job that they are doing. The two new services, which the government established in its ‘Modernising Mental Health Services’, were Crisis Response and Resolution and Assertive Outreach. The latter service has had something of a chequered history in Camden, partly due to the lack of clients and the fact that a research programme has reduced their number by fifty percent. What was a locality-based service has now become one service for the Borough with a base in the same building as the CRR Team. Michael Patchett manages the Assertive Outreach Service and he will be coming to the SCUF on Tuesday, 28 August, to talk about its work.
The Hospital Ward Round is for many patients a difficult and troubling experience. It is their chance to talk with the consultant about their illness and treatment. The idea of a Ward Round Protocol, which lays out just what ward rounds are and how they should operate, seems a fairly minor and reasonable innovation, but it is not without opponents. The June NUCF discussed this and looked at some model protocols. The matter is likely to be developed more fully in terms of the Clinical Governance developments within the Mental Health Trust. The way that mental health problems are portrayed in the media gives rise to a great deal of concern and many people believe that the red-top tabloid press does enormous harm to the cause of mental health by its sensationalised reporting of difficult cases. Dr Jonathan Pimm has worked as a journalist and is now a researcher in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences at The Royal Free Campus of The Royal Free and University College Hospital School of Medicine. He will be coming to the North Camden User Forum at 4.30 pm on Tuesday, 7 August, to talk about ‘The Media & Mental Health’.
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