The audit of the in-patient experience at the Waterlow Unit, St Luke’s Hospital and The Huntley Centre (all available on the CMHC website at www.cmhc.org.uk) identify a number of problems that patients have experienced. Not surprisingly, the same problems occur in the different settings and these would seem to be regularly associated with an in-patient admission. It is probable that the information is fuller than usual because the interviewers and the interviewees shared the experience of being service users with all that entails. The reports have a value of their own, but they will only have a real value if the points of difficulty are addressed and resolved. Already, a repeat audit is being undertaken at The Waterlow Unit and this will be an indicator of how much effect the previous report had. Unless there is an attempt to use the information in the reports to improve things then they are simply a sterile, if interesting, exercise. They deserve to be more than that. There is a suggestion that these audits should be carried out on a regular basis. If they have no effect, there would be little point in that. If they are effective then there needs to be an independent body to undertake them and remove any possible criticism about the lack of independence. If they are to be undertaken regularly then there is a need for a body of service users trained, supported and rewarded for the task. And there will need to be the money to pay for all this.
At a time when there seem to be fewer and fewer civil rights that the citizen can exercise, the mental health lobby led by the Mental Health Alliance is using the old one of a march and rally to protest against the measures contained in the Draft Mental Health Bill. The march will take place on Saturday, 14 September from about noon and will have the theme ‘Rights not Compulsion’ in response to a draft bill which if it became law would turn that slogan on its head. The march will be safe and the Mental Health Alliance is providing stewards. The march will pass Downing Street and the Department of Health. It will move off at about 1.00 pm and follow a one and a half mile route, finishing about 2.30 pm. It has special significance since although it is march convened by service users, the opposition to the Bill is so great and wide that it will have psychiatrists, social workers, nurses and others marching alongside their patients/clients in opposition to these oppressive measures. Following the March there will be a rally in Geraldine Mary Harmsworh Park in Kennington with speeches and music. This is an opportunity for service users and others to demand their rights. JOIN CBUG In November 2001 after a great deal of preliminary work, the Camden Borough User Group was launched. It was a new initiative about involving service users in project and in ways that they thought appropriate and giving them charge of these projects. CMHC was delighted to be the home for it. The intention was to take the time to develop a group of people who were trained and supported to undertake the tasks and to provide them with the necessary tools. CBUG has been in existence for nearly nine months and has already developed a Code of Conduct for its meetings and begun to undertake some tasks of its own design. It has some committed members, but it needs more. This is the time to join and to take the opportunity to have a significant input into the local mental health services.
WELCOME Hari Sewell has joined the Care Trust in the new post of Director of Social Care. One part of Hari’s role will be the oversight of user involvement within the Trust and he will take over the lead for the Trust’s Service User Involvement Strategy. Nicky Coombes will be rejoining CMHC at the beginning of September to oversee the Camden Borough User Group developments. ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The 2002 AGM was held on a warm close night, but this did not stop many people attending, although there were rather fewer members than we normally see and some old faces were missing this year. The Mayor of Camden and Glenda Jackson MP were both there and spoke. This year’s meeting took a much more interactive form and there was much input form the audience. It looked much more like an example of user involvement then the more traditional meeting. Caren Watson was elected from the floor to resume her place on the Management Committee. The undoubted highlight was Rogan Wolfe from the Westminster Mental Health Project talking about user involvement and what it means and reading poems. It was good to hear how it is done elsewhere. The meeting was adjourned for the Annual Accounts and appointment of financial examiners for the current financial year. Thanks go to George Platts and North Camden Mental Health Service for providing the venue and the food. We hope to do it all again next year, although the meeting will be scheduled for later in the year to ensure that the accounts will be available. At the AGM, Linda Polan brought up the question of helping out in the CMHC office, particularly at the time The Camden Bugle is produced. Linda has formed her band of Linda’s Buglers and writes: ‘Linda’s Buglers are CMHC members who give between 2 and 4 hours once a month when they come into the office to staple The Camden Bugle and put it into envelopes to be taken to the post (Buglers don’t go to the Post Office – we have other people to do that for us!) The task is easy and we don’t allow it to be boring; we chat if we feel like it and have break times when we send out for whatever we need – paid for by the Consortium to thank us for our help. The more Buglers there are, the fewer times any one person will need to do it. If you fancy being a Bugler, ‘phone in your name (020 7419 4196) and I will telephone you occasionally to ask you if you will come and Bugle the following week.’ ANNUAL GENERAL MEETINGS The Tavistock Centre will be holding its Annual Public Meeting in Seminar Rooms 2/3 of The Tavistock Centre on Monday, 9 September from 6.00 pm. There will be a presentation on ‘The Trust and ir links with primary care: strengthening the partnership’. New Directions Camden will hold its AGM at The Crossfield Centre from 6.00 pm on Thursday, 19 September. That day will also be an Open Day to view NDC’s services at The Crossfield and Jamestown Centres. CMHC SOUTH CAMDEN USER FORUM This month’s SCUF saw the first CBUG presentation from Noel and Robert. They have been working on this interesting way of presenting the Camden Borough User Group and trying to recruit to it. It was interesting to hear that there may soon be an IBUG in Islington. Hari Sewell told the meeting about his new role as Director of Social Care. Although he sees himself as a member of the executive management team, he will hold the professional lead for Social Work and will lead on service-user involvement. We expect to be having a lot of contact with Hari in the coming months. There are two more meetings left before the end of this year. Tuesday, 29 October and Tuesday, 26 November. We are hoping that the subject for one of these meetings will be PALS – Patient Advice & Liaison Service. There will be no meeting in December because it would occur in the Christmas holiday. CMHC NORTH CAMDEN USER FORUM The August NCUF listened to George Platts, Acting Locality Director for North Camden, talk about the Draft Mental Health Bill and all the consequences which will flow should it be enacted. Most people were resistant to the proposed change whilst recognising that there were some good parts in it. Tuesday, 3rd September will bring along Dr Kwame McKenzie to talk about ‘Racism & Mental Health’. This topic fits in with the recent Sainsbury Centre Report ‘Circles of Fear’. There will be further NCUF meetings on Tuesdays, 1st October, 5 November and 3 December. The topics have yet to be arranged. CBUG Wednesday, 21 August, was the second and last of the CBUG Open Meetings. In future all CBUG meetings will be open to any service-user who wishes to attend and agrees to abide by the CBUG Rules. One of the purposes of this move is to try and increase the number of people actually involved. There will be two meetings a year at which CBUG reviews its progress and this year, the next of these will be the December meeting on Wednesday, 18 December at Hampstead Town Hall. The first part of the meeting was used to launch the User Focussed Monitoring reports on The Waterlow Unit, St Luke’s Hospital and The Huntley Centre. The purpose was to audit the in-patient experience and we expect to hold a meeting later in the year to actually look at the conclusions. A limited number of paper copies of these reports may be obtained from CMHC or they may be downloaded from the internet by going to the CMHC website at www. cmhc.org.uk The theme of the meeting was ‘In-patient Acute Care’ and heard from Lis Jones, Co-director of Nursing at the Care Trust, about some of the national and local initiatives that are being taken to try and make the admission process less traumatic for people. This links in with the new developments of home treatment services. The meeting heard of the actual experiences of service users and this was very telling about how admission to hospital affects people. The Modern Matrons at The Huntley Centre and St Luke’s Hospital spoke about their role in trying to improve the environment of hospital wards. The Royal Free Tower developments were explained by George Platts and Roger Evans from North Camden Mental Health Service. One of the intentions of the meeting was to hear and consider Risk Assessment and Danger. The Agenda proved too packed for this to be done.
Patrick Dalton explains his recent resignation from the position of Treasurer of NDC. TIME TO GO When I first joined the Board of NDC, I did so because I thought it was important that the views of Service Users should be taken into account. After four years of having my concerns about NDC's unrealistic financial behaviour largely ignored, I am leaving to speak my mind. NDC is currently facing a financial deficit which twelve months ago I guaranteed would occur. Although the Board has agreed to make changes next year, I believe NDC will now have recurring and larger deficits in future. In the short term cuts could be made in the budget, but that will not solve the problem. The problem is that NDC has paid wages it cannot afford to some of its staff. There is no doubt that the staff concerned deserve such payment but NDC cannot afford it. The NDC payroll is like a credit card bill, even if excessive expenditure is stopped now, the remaining balance will continue to increase. It is true that NDC has Reserves, but they are not all expendable. Approximately £20,000 must be set aside against the need to shut down the organisation in the event of loss of the contract. The remaining £30 - 40,000 will not last long. Anything could go wrong, and it now seems a strong possibility that NDC will face a budget cut within the next few years due to reduction in the income. The wages bill must be reduced if NDC is to survive. Undoubtedly, this is a very unpleasant prospect. I doubt now that it can be done through the usual process of staff moving on and employing lower-paid replacements. I believe that NDC will run out of money before this happens. Only firm and immediate action will solve the problem. If the Board of NDC does not convince the Commissioners that they will live within their income, the present course of action might lead to the loss of the Day Centre Contract, which is the very reason why NDC exists. Having used Day Care Services for six years, I understand how disturbing it can be when controversy engulfs a Day Centre. Such places are for many of us the only area of stability in an otherwise difficult and troubled life. NDC has always made much of User Involvement and Democracy. It is a great pity that when a former Service User with the appropriate experience gives advice, it is rejected.
Stuart McMullen, Assistant Locality Director in North Camden, writes monthly about developments on the Camden side of the Care Trust. It has been a very quiet month for services in Camden with lots of staff away on holiday and fewer people overall using services. The number of beds available on the acute wards has fallen recently as has the number of referrals to the community teams, although the number of Mental Health Act assessments has not fallen. The Community Mental Health teams are currently recruiting to various posts and there are two notable appointments in the Kings Cross Team: Julie Fox has started as Deputy Team manager and in September a new Consultant Psychiatrist; Dr. Gina Waters will come into post. In North Camden we see the beginning of refurbishment work on the in-patient wards at The Royal Free. Bedrooms and corridors are being refurbished and ward staff are working hard to ensure that there is only minimum disruption to services. Work is likely to take up to five weeks. Also this month there has been a number of venues in which the draft Mental Health Bill has been discussed. The new bill is currently being consulted on and the government are asking for comments by 16th September. One of the biggest challenges with this is for all the people potentially affected by the proposed changes to have their chance to comment on the implications of such a complex and substantial document. The Department of Health have produced a consultation document which summarises the bill which is available at the following website: www.doh.gov.uk/mentalhealth/draftbill2002/index.htm The bill itself will have implications for all users of services but of course the affects will be different for the various parties involved. The government have tried to reform the current legislation in response to concerns about public safety. Anyone who works with the current laws knows that there are areas which are not satisfactory and need to be reformed, but the question is: do the current proposals help to improve these powerful laws? ANGIE & JACKIE’S UPDATE Angela Hall, the Islington Service User Co-ordinator within the Care Trust writes her monthly column. She can be contacted by post at 60 Bath Street, London, EC1V 9DP; by telephone on 020 7530 2744 or by e-mail angela.hall@cichs-tr.nthames.nhs.uk This month Jackie Drury, Assistant Locality Director in South Islington, and with special responsibility for Islington service user involvement collaborates on the piece. Recruitment Training There has been a huge demand from service users requesting recruitment and selection training to participate in interview panels within the Care Trust. Jackie has been discussing the matter with our Human Resources Dept, but until they are on board, we have decided to run two training afternoons, one in Camden and one in Islington. We anticipate that these will happen in October to meet immediate requests. St Luke’s Service User Initiative I have been having regular meetings with service users and staff at St Luke’s Hospital who are looking into the possibility of starting a new St Luke’s Patients’ Council. The initiative is progressing nicely and the group have decided to hold an open afternoon on Wednesday 18th September in the OT dept resource room at St Luke’s from 2 – 4 pm. Refreshments will be provided and anyone interested in this development is most welcome to attend. This will very much be an informal gathering to explore and discuss the formation and expectations of a Patients’ Council. If anyone is interested in attending or would like to find out more, please call me. The Service User Supervision Group From 26th September 2002 the Service User Supervision Group will be moving from Bath Street Health Centre to Hanley Road between 10.00 am and 10.50 am every Thursday. The Group is available for any service user who is actively involved in Care Trust business to attend. CARE TRUST ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The Camden & Islington Mental Health and Social Care Trust will be holding its AGM at Islington Town Hall, Upper Street, LONDON N1 from 5.30 pm on Thursday, 26 September. This meeting is open to the public and will offer presentations and take questions. The meeting will be preceded at 2.00 pm in the same place by the Trust Board’s monthly meeting, which is also open to the public and provides an opportunity to hear what the Trust is doing and ask questions.
Not unexpectedly, the Camden & Islington Mental Health & Social Care Trust took exception to the lead article in the June issue (58) of The Camden Bugle – ‘More Choice – Fewer Beds’ The Camden Bugle has received this letter from the Chief Executive and colleagues at the Care Trust and is printing it at their request.
Giving space to this reply from the Care Trust is not to be taken as indicating in any sense our agreement with the arguments. What we would agree with is the decision to improve the conditions for inpatients. There is no dispute on that point. We do not, however, believe that a reduction in the number of beds is the acceptable trade-off for this. There are also technical questions about the nature and effect of the private finance initiative at The Royal Free Hospital Nurses’ Tower. It is perhaps opportune to point out that the provisions of the Draft Mental Health Bill are likely to require more rather than fewer beds. CAMDEN COUNCIL’s MENTAL HEALTH LIAISON GROUP The Mental Health Liaison Group will meet at Hampstead Town Hall from 6.00 – 8.30 pm on Tuesday, 10 September to discuss the Draft Mental Health Bill and to make suggestions for a response from the MHLG before the close of consultation on Monday, 16 September.
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