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go: [ Carers Council - HOME / What's New? ] |
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What's New?
Lloyds TSB Foundations for England and Wales have given the Carers Council a one-off grant towards the cost of 4 extra pages in our newsletter. These extra pages are for the READERS of the newsletter. Therefore we welcome ALL CONTRIBUTIONS - Poetry, photographs, letters, personal experiences.........whatever YOU the readers of our newsletter want to see. Please send to us at the office or via email. ********************************************* Goodbye from Sherree................ As many members of the Carers' Council know, I have spent the past 6 years dividing my personal time between Nottingham and Leicester............now I am finally moving to Leicester permanently (in time for the start of the rugby season!) and start a new job there in September after my holiday. My last day in the office will be Friday 31 August. After 4 years with the Carers' Council I shall miss you all, the committee and especially Mary, but I promise to keep in touch and will let everyone know whether I have a grandaughter or a grandson in October! Best wishes Sherree *********************************************************** LATEST INFORMATION SHARING POLICY FOR CONSULTATION You may recall that we have been involved in a group working with the Notts Healthcare Trust to develop an Information Sharing policy. Our involvement stems from our Confidentiality Conference in 2004 (Yes, that long!). The latest version of the policy has already been seen by senior service managers and it is now sent out to the wider health and social care community, particularly carers, for comments. We know that confidentiality is a major issue for carers, so it’s important that as many carers as possible have a say in the document before it goes to the Trust Board for approval. The policy is intended mainly to give mental healthcare professionals guidance on the situations they come across in dealing with carers, but it should also help carers. In particular we would like to know how well you think this deals with any situations you have had; whether there are situations not covered by the policy; and how good the guidance is for carers. If you want to have a look at the policy and pass your comments back to us, you will find the policy draft at the bottom of this page, or you can ring Sherree on 0115 912 8019 and she will send you a copy. Please have a look and tell us what you think. Peter Robinson 20 February 2007 Dr Mike Harris Acting Chief Executive Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust The Resource Duncan Macmillan House Porchester Road Nottingham NG3 6AA 17th January 2007 Dear Dr Harris CARERS COUNCIL – ALLIES IN ADULT MENTAL HEALTH RESPONSE TO NOTTS HEALTHCARE TRUST CONSULTATION ON DAY SERVICES The Carers Council are not opposed to the thinking behind the plans by the Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust to re-configure day services. We welcome the move towards more inclusive services which are part of people’s lives and not the sole source of support. However whilst a lot of time and effort has gone into developing the proposals, some key concerns of service users and carers have not been addressed which is why there has been so much resistance to them. Meeting Social Inclusion targets is not the most important consideration in changing services. Changing a buildings based service into a Domains based service may not represent the best value for money since service users need elements of all these domains as part of their support. Also the Social Inclusion agenda requires more services and therefore more space in buildings at least in the short term, not just the reconfiguration of existing services into new models. For this reason we would ask the Trust to reconsider their plans. In doing so we would like you to consider the following points: Those service users who access day services do so for a number of reasons:
This is particularly true of those who have suffered mental illness for many years and are more vulnerable than those who are able to function in the community. The latter are in the minority. The concept of “recovery” is becoming more debated but in most cases recovery, when it takes place, happens over many years and in the case of those who are very vulnerable, it is a lifetime process. Intensive support processes using the kinds of environments provided at SPAN and Broad Street are vitally important to these people. Community support in reality means that where service users have carers, they provide most of the support, and they also support their relative in their access of buildings–based services like SPAN. This service also gives carers some respite support. Wherever a service is provided, it has to provide the elements above to meet service user needs, and it has to be of consistent quality, provided by staff who understand the needs of service users, and of sufficient flexibility to meet those needs as service user’s circumstances, and the nature of the illness, change. A particular service specification can only be delivered by staff with the skills, experience and attitudes to meet service user needs, and through the support of carers. The nature of mental illness is different for every person and care cannot be delivered effectively using generic approaches. Staff skills, attitudes and perceptiveness have to be matched to the needs of the service user so it is not possible in an effective service to treat staff as a pool of labour that can be used anywhere with anybody. The Trust proposes to re-configure services in a way which requires staff to adopt a multi-flexible approach across linked teams, which is anticipated to require less staff. This will have the effect of diluting the support being given and undoing the benefits of established relationships with service users and carers, and will severely reduce the effectiveness of care. We do not expect the Trust to be able to provide an ideal service. We do expect a service that meets people’s needs. We accept that the evidence base, the social inclusion agenda, and our own experience, indicates that satisfactory outcomes for service users generally cannot be met just by buildings-based services with limited outcomes. There has to be support provided within their own community which provides the service user with the opportunity to develop their quality of life and take part in those aspects of community and society life which are meaningful to them. Those service users with enduring illnesses that have been suffered over many years, have a higher degree of dependency than those who have been treated within the better quality medication and services that have been developed over the last 5-10 years. Their needs may be better met by a Trust service which is more buildings based. The main arguments for making the changes proposed by the Trust are based on the need to develop services which are socially inclusive (which we support), and the economics of management of estates (which seem uppermost in the Trust financial strategy). We deplore the decisions that seem to have been made to close the SPAN base, and change the function of other buildings without considering how existing service users needs, which are diverse, are best provided within a social inclusion and patient led agenda. The Trust is also following the imperatives of government which require reduced costs of state supported services (i.e. to get more service users off benefits and into work) which we do not support until existing state benefits systems are sensitive to the needs of those who suffer mental illness. We support a developed role for the wider community (not just the Trust service community), including the voluntary and independent sector, since this will help to support the reduction of the stigma of mental illness and provide more service user sensitive services. However the Trust has not proposed a mechanism for this engagement, or to ensure that community services can support service users who will be displaced into re-configured services which are not meaningful to them, or will disengage from using the new services because they feel more vulnerable. By not addressing this, the Trust is itself guilty of social exclusion. We deplore the inadequate information which has been provided by the Trust to the public which does not allow meaningful consultation under the terms of Section 11 of the Social Care Act 2001. Our own organisation has not been consulted on the mechanisms by which carers can be fully engaged in the consultation process. Carers have been left out in the cold, whereas service users are now being engaged but purely because of the public outcry over the Trust’s failure to properly consult. We have asked our members for their views and those who have responded do not agree with the approach taken by the Trust. They support the principles expressed in this letter. Improvement and re-configuration in services has to take place in a partnership between the service provider managers, with the workers who provide the services, with the voluntary and independent sector, with the local authority, and with service users and their carers. Without meaningful consultation (discussion before service models are developed in depth and before interim decisions about changes in services are made) the new service will not be as effective as it needs to be since it will not be meeting the needs of service users and carers. It is clear to us, and the community, that consultation has not taken place and decisions have been made which pre-empt the views of service users, carers and staff affected. We hold the Trust to account for listening to our views, and the individual views of carers and acting on them in a way which shows evidence that our concerns have been considered, or the reasons for not doing so have been made clear. In rethinking the approach to this reconfiguration, we would ask the Trust to consider the following questions. Implied in these questions are the principles of best practice:
Peter Robinson Chair Carers Council-Allies in Adult mental Health COMMUNITY SERVICES CARE PATHWAYS ARE TO BE INTRODUCED INTO COMMUNITY SERVICES, CRITICAL TO THEIR DEVELOPMENT IS THE INVOLVEMENT OF BOTH SERVICE USERS AND CARERS AT THE EARLIEST POSSIBLE STAGE AND THROUGHOUT THEIR DEVELOPMENT FIND OUT ABOUT CARE PATHWAYS, HOW THEY WORK & HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO BE INVOLVED IN THEIR DEVELOPMENT You may or may not be aware that on the last Friday of each month there will be a drop in session for service users and carers at the Involvement Centre. We are hoping that service users and carers will use the drop in session to get to know each other and find out about opportunities for involvement. It has also been suggested that we could invite different teams from around the Trust and partnership organisations to attend and give presentations on the kind of work they do. This will give service users and carers a greater understanding of how the Trust and partnership organisations operate. Liam O'Neill Involvement Project Worker Involvement Team Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust The Resource, Duncan Macmillan House, Porchester Road, Mapperley, NG3 6AA Tel: 0115 993 4545 ext. 30198 Mobile: 07768 85 85 73 Fax: 0115 993 4546 / 30246 Carers Forum uk To join Carers Forum uk go to Just before Christmas 2005 I emailed some of you asking what you thought of the idea of a carer’s forum on the internet. Those who have had time to respond said they thought it was a good idea and about time. Over the Christmas period I have had a look in to how to start up a group. It is now up and running a ready to start, ready when you are! How it works First you need a yahoo ID. If you are already registered with yahoo you may use the ID you already have and sign in when you click on the above link. If you do not have a yahoo ID you can register by clicking on the above link, under the sign in there is an option to create an ID. It is free to join, once you have set up your account with yahoo you are then able to register with the group. You will need a user name and password, the user name is usually an alias (not your real name) When filling in your user profile also choose the alternative email option using your own email address. (This will save you having to search for messages) Once everything is set up any emails sent through the forum will go to all who have joined the group. You then have a choice of either responding to the emails that take your interest or not. Benefits of a Carers Forum 1) Creating a communication and discussion network across the country. 2) A central point for support 3) Disseminating information to a wider audience: i.e your own local events/government legislation etc 4) Sharing idea's Be Patient The group only started Christmas 2005 being a new group it may take a while to be fully functional. The more people who are aware of the group the more quickly it will get off the ground so spread the word, tell who ever you think might be interested or could find it helpful. Cheers Pam Pinder Carers Development Worker Plymouth PCT
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