The Mental Health & Social Care Trust would claim that it’s name reflects its disposition – that it is a ‘caring organisation’. In recent months, CMHC has experienced a number of instances of what I considers ‘not caring’ on the part of the Care Trust. The way that the Camden contingent was treated by the Service User Involvement Strategy Group led us all to refuse to attend the last meeting of that group and increase our concerns about the way that the Care Trust conducts its business and in particular the way that it treats and values ‘involved service users’. If anyone has experience of this ‘uncaring’ on the part of the Care Trust then we would like to hear about it and report it. THE CUTS & THE BEST VALUE REVIEW It now seems likely that the original level of cuts in Social Services Funding for the next financial year will be halved – down from £350 000 to £175 000. We would like to pay tribute to the service users who have been involved in achieving this change. However, the cuts in funding are not linked to the Best Value Review. That is about the shape of services in the future. How can Camden best use the money that it spends? Two of the questions that arise are: Is Camden providing the right kind of day services, in the right places for the right people? Can Camden change the existing day services to better meet the needs of service users within the current spending plans? If you have a view then feed it in. It is important that all the different opinions are heard. One way of doing that for service users will be through the CBUG round of consultations and open meetings.
NEW TRUSTEES At the reconvened Special General Meeting held at ‘The Hoo’ on the afternoon of Wednesday, 18th February 2004, Desmond Marshall and Jonty Rox-Dodson were appointed as Trustees of Camden Mental Health Consortium. This means that CMHC now has four Honorary Officers and seven Management Committee Members. WELCOME Joan Greaves is the interim Commissioning Manager for Mental Health within Camden PCT until Katrina Anderson’s full-time replacement takes up his post in March. However, after that date Joan will remain with Camden PCT in the role of overseeing the Best Value Review. We are happy to welcome Joan (she comes back to Camden as a former Ward Sister at St Luke’s Hospital) and we look forward to working with her. CARE TRUST BOARD MEETINGS The next meeting of the Mental Health & Social Care Trust Board will be held on Thursday, 11th March from 5.00 pm in the Conference Centre at St Pancras Hospital. Trust Board Meetings are open to the public and we would encourage as many people as possible to attend. The Board has agreed that a member from Camden and a member from Islington of the Care Trust’s Patient Forum may have observer status at Board Meetings (meaning that they may speak but they cannot vote on issues). Papers for the Board meetings may be obtained from the Board Secretary, Kate Wilkins, on 020 7445 8427 or by e-mail kate.wilkins@candi.nhs.uk and Kate should also be approached if people wish to notify any questions. SUICIDE SCRUTINY PANEL As we reported in last month’s Bugle, Camden’s Overview and Scrutiny Commission is currently looking as suicide in the Borough. The panel will be looking at individual experiences of people who have attempted suicide or self-harming on Thursday, 23 March. Anyone who wishes to give evidence should contact Graham MAGEE, Scrutiny Policy Officer on 020 7974 3248 or by e-mail: graham.magee@camden.gov.uk. We are hoping that it will be possible for people to give evidence in private should they wish to do so.
The February meeting of the North Camden User Forum brought Joe Barun, Welfare Rights Officer from ‘The Hoo’ to talk on the topic about Welfare Benefits. This is one of the topics which we deal with every year, and it always brings out a good audience. This year was no different and some interesting questions arose, in particular about the Government’s new scheme to pay benefits directly into all claimants’ bank accounts and the difficulty for some people who don’t have a bank account of opening one. Mary O’Leary and her colleagues from the PALS service will be the speakers at the North Camden User Forum on Tuesday, 2rd March. As we go to press the February South Camden User Forum in which Dr Sushrut Jadhav will talk ‘Brown Doctors: White Patients’ is about to be held.
For the first part of 2004, the Camden Borough User Group is going to have its hands full with its work on the Best Value Review of Camden’s Mental Health Day Provision. Not only will the group be collecting users’ views, but it will also be providing the user input to the three Working Groups: Day Services; Community Mental Health Teams; Day Hospitals. Recent Council Executive decisions have meant that the time scale has been changed again. It is now expected that the group will collect and report views by the end of June. It will begin its work in March and there will be a small public launch of the process at ‘The Hoo’ on the afternoon of Wednesday, 3rd March. ‘The Hoo’ is quite a small venue so we would ask anyone who wishes to attend to contact CMHC either by telephone on 020 7419 4196 or by e-mail: administrator@cmhc.org.uk Alongside its new work on the Best Value Review, CBUG is still in the process of monitoring the Mind in Camden Patients’ Advocacy Project at The Royal Free Hospital and the North Camden Crisis Response & Resolution Service.
The last edition of The Camden Bugle (Issue 77) paid tribute to Camden’s former Director of Social Services, Jane Held. It acknowledged the work that Jane had done and the interest that she always took in mental health. It recognised that there was some mystery surrounding her departure. It regretted that she lad left and was a further serious loss to Camden Social Services. Councillor Penny Abraham is Camden Council’s Executive Member for Health & Social Services. She has been a Member of Camden Mental Health Consortium for a number of years and is a former Trustee. Penny has always been completely open about the fact that she uses the mental health services. Here she talks about the departure of Jane Held and her own decision to relinquish the role of Executive Member in May of this year. CMHC is happy to recognise the enormous contribution that Penny has made to mental health in Camden and would still hope that she might not go.
Aidan Moloney is the Co-ordinator of Camden & Islington Providers’ Forum (CIPF). The Camden Bugle includes regular monthly contributions from Aidan telling people what is happening in the voluntary sector. Aidan can be contacted by post at Camden & Islington Providers’ Forum, Legard Works, Legard Road, London, N5 1DE; by ‘phone on 020 7226 2022, and by e-mail: cipf.office@virgin.net Regrettably, several of CIPF’s Camden members recently received notification from Camden Social Services of imminent cuts to their service grants. From the feedback I have so far received there are two key issues. The first concerns the process of notification which itself appears to be unclear and confused. The second is the detrimental effect on service users as a result of the cuts on the delivery of services across the borough. At a time when Camden is focusing on suicide prevention as a priority (Camden is the worst ranking borough for suicide rates in England, and one of the highest in London), is it wise to cut the budgets of many organisations, which have a proven record of operating effectively and delivering quality preventative services? It seems obvious that such a move can only serve to undermine these services and be detrimental to local delivery. The letter sent in February, referred to implementing efficiency savings in the voluntary sector whilst maintaining service levels and standards, and targeted organisations receiving grants in excess of £100,000 from Camden’s Social Services Department. This appears first to be a rather arbitrary demarcation and does not seem to take into account the organisations’ actual performance. This is both in terms of the quality of service delivery and also their management efficiency and standards of financial accountability, which are often more rigorous than those found in the private and public sectors. This notification of potential cuts comes at a very late stage giving service providers little time to plan for budget reductions, which in turn detracts from the real business of supporting the needs of service users. This is particularly important at a time when the Council is also looking to change the eligibility criteria for accessing mental health services under the Fair Access to Community Services programme (FACS), causing a high level of concern and anxiety amongst service users. Finally, there is much on the agenda locally to address mental health needs amongst our residents. Many of the current documents, for example, the Primary Care Mental Health Strategy, Suicide Prevention Strategy, and the Draft Black and Minority Ethnic Mental Health Strategy, refer to working with voluntary sector organisations to deliver services tailored to clients’ needs. Cutting services budgets is not the appropriate way to achieve these aims or to foster effective mental health promotion. CARE TRUST’s SERVICE USER CONSULTATION FORUM The Care Trust’s User Advisory Group has metamorphosed into two new groups: the Implementation Group which as its title suggests is concerned with the implementation of the Care Trust’s Service User Involvement Strategy; and the Service User Consultation Forum which allows any user of the Care Trust’s services to come along and raise issues that they think need to be discussed. The Implementation Group is composed of twelve selected service users and we are advised that the selection process has been completed and that six people from Camden and six people from Islington have been selected to form this Group. It will meet for the first time on Friday, 12th March. It will be interesting to see the plans for implementation of the Service User Involvement Strategy now that there is no Service User Involvement Co-ordinator. The Service User Consultation Forum will meet six times each year and met for the first time on Friday, 23 January, when it discussed a number of issues including its own Terms of Reference. It begins to look as if the Consultation Forum will be much like the former and much-missed User Advisory Group but without the payments. There are clearly some questions arising from this. One of the new innovations – and largely due to the campaigning zeal of CMHC’s David Hayes – is that the Consultation Forum will now have British Sign Language Interpreters for those service users who are deaf or hard of hearing. This is a welcome development towards the inclusion of a group of service users which is often forgotten. The next Consultation Forum will be held from 1.00 – 4.00 pm in The Groves Lounge, South Wing, St Pancras Hospital on Friday, 26th March. All users of the Care Trust’e services are invited to attend.
Robert Jones, the Social Care & Inclusion Development Manager, provides a review of the month’s events within Camden & Islington Mental Health & Social Care Trust. Robert can be contacted at Care Trust Headquarters, 2nd-floor, East Wing, St Pancras Hospital, London NW1 0PE, by telephone on 020 7530 8554 or by e-mail robert.jones@candi.nhs.uk ANGIE HALL IS LEAVING! News of the month is that Angie Hall, Service User Involvement Co-ordinator has another job. Two years after joining the Care Trust Angie is off to take on a new challenge. Angie’s impact on service user involvement in Camden and Islington is unquestionable. The list of her achievements is long indeed. Angie leaves in mid-March and will be missed by many. The Care Trust wishes Angie continued success. After Angie’s departure service users with issues to raise should contact Robert Jones. Service User Implementation Group The Care Trust held interviews for the new Service User Implementation Group on 10th & 11th February. There were 12 successful applicants, (Six from each Borough.) The first meeting of the Implementation Group is scheduled for 12th March. The Care Trust would like to thank all Service Users who have expressed an interest in this new Group, and all those who have been responsible for its development. The Education & Employment Project at Hanley Road Vanessa Cooke is the new Project Manager of the Care Trust’s Education and Employment Project which is based at 75 Hanley Road. This new and exciting project provides education, training and employment opportunities for local Service Users. Referrals can be made via either Care Trust Staff or by Self-Referral. The project will also be developing work placements on site. Vanessa wants to ensure that the Hanley Road site is a resource for Service Users, and there is a large meeting / training room on site that Service Users are encouraged to use. For further details Vanessa can be contacted on 020 7281 6221 or vanessa.cooke@candi.nhs.uk Carers Conference Update The Carers Event on 3rd February was well attended and offered time for socialising and fun. Carers were able to meet and share information. They could find out more about what local organisations provide though their stalls. Carers were also introduced to the ‘Carers Assessment,’ and the Carers Directory. The day went very well and included singing, drumming and a variety of massage sessions. The Care Trust thanks all Carers who attended the day, and looks forward to future events! User Focused Monitoring Training The Centre for Outcomes Research and Effectiveness (CORE) ran training over 3 half days with the Care Trust to introduce the next phase of User Focused Monitoring (UFM) within Care Trust Services. The services to be monitored are Residential and Rehabilitation Services and also Camden Community Mental Health Teams. Contact Elena Di Lorenzo (UFM Co-ordinator) at CORE on 020 7679 1787. Pathways to Recovery Conference: 10th May 2004 The Care Trust has been successful in getting money from the Health Action Zones in Islington and in Camden to run a major conference to promote the way of working that supports people in Recovery. This approach builds on the strength that people have within themselves to overcome mental illness. Sometimes this is not just about stopping symptoms but is about living a life that is meaningful and fulfilling for them. More information will follow. Challenging Stigma The Care Trust will be working with a theatre group to run workshops that challenge stigma and discrimination against people with mental health problems. The money is from Health Action Zone/ Neighbourhood Renewal funds in both Islington and in Camden. It will be used to work with service users to tell stories and present them as plays. These plays will be interactive and will help the audience to confront their own prejudices. Anyone interested in telling their story, writing, acting or helping in any way contact Robert Jones or Hári Sewell on 020 7530 6303. CAMDEN COUNCIL’s MENTAL HEALTH LIAISON GROUP The next Mental Health Liaison Group will be held on , 28th April 2004 from 6.00 – 8.00 pm at Mind in Camden Day Centre, Barnes House, 13 -15 Camden Road, London NW 1 (near Sainsbury’s, Camden Town). One of the topics for this meeting will be advocacy.
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