Local policy
Mental Health Needs Assessment. This local mental health asssessment is important because much of the subsequent commissioning strategy will rest upon it. The level of service user involvement was interesting as it was so brief that most of us actually missed it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t include reference to many of the recommendations in our report although we are assured by the commissioner that they will be included in the subsequent commissioning strategy.
Despite these and other shortcomings regarding the breadth of consultation, there are still recommendations of direct interest to us. These include a 24 Hour Crisis service, a new priority given to LGBT services and the overhaul of CPA/WRAP. There is some discussion about direct payments but unfortunately not enough understanding of individualised budgets and their potential relationship to BME and other minority group needs.
.
Working Groups
The Recovery Steering Group
This group is chaired by Vincent Badu and is the senior Recovery oriented working group within the Partnership Trust.
Local area working groups have little authority in this area unless their work is consistent with this groups principles or in fact directly approved by it. Our advice to service users is not to get too involved with local initiatives that do not work in conjunction with this group. Here are the latest minutes of the Recovery Steering Group:
recovery-steering-group-minutes.doc
.
Consultations
The national document:
‘Finding a shared vision of how people’s mental health problems should be understood’
is a CSIP consultation document. It contains laudable aims that fit with our own recommendations regarding CPA and individual planning. A bit wordy but worth the read – click below to download
.
Alphabet Soup Definitions for acronyms and abbreviations within the community and voluntary sector
Direct payments for people with mental health problems: A guide to action
Statistics on mental health in the UK – Mental Health Foundation
Factsheets and booklets published by Mind
Factsheets and booklets published by the Royal College of Psychiatrists
From segregation to inclusion: Commissioning guidance on day services This guidance is designed to assist commissioners of mental health services in the refocusing of day services adults with mental health problems into community resources that promote social inclusion and promote the role of work and gaining skills in line with current policy and legislation
Mental health A – Z – Mental Health Foundation
Mental Health Research Network
Other Internet resources
The Ten Essential Shared Capabilities for Mental Health Practice
Working in Partnership. Developing and maintaining constructive working relationships with service users, carers, families, colleagues, lay people and wider community networks. Working positively with any tensions created by conflicts of interest or aspiration that may arise between the partners in care.Respecting Diversity. Working in partnership with service users, carers, families and colleagues to provide care and interventions that not only make a positive difference but also do so in ways that respect and value diversity including age, race, culture, disability, gender, spirituality and sexuality.Practising Ethically. Recognising the rights and aspirations of service users and their families, acknowledging power differentials and minimising them whenever possible. Providing treatment and care that is accountable to service users and carers within the boundaries prescribed by national (professional), legal and local codes of ethical practice.Challenging Inequality. Addressing the causes and consequences of stigma, discrimination, social inequality and exclusion on service users, carers and mental health services. Creating, developing or maintaining valued social roles for people in the communities they come from.Promoting Recovery. Working in partnership to provide care and treatment that enables service users and carers to tackle mental health problems with hope and optimism and to work towards a valued lifestyle within and beyond the limits of any mental health problem.Identifying People’s Needs and Strengths. Working in partnership to gather information to agree health and social care needs in the context of the preferred lifestyle and aspirations of service users their families, carers and friends.Providing Service User Centred Care. Negotiating achievable and meaningful goals; primarily from the perspective of service users and their families. Influencing and seeking the means to achieve these goals and clarifying the responsibilities of the people who will provide any help that is needed, including systematically evaluating outcomes and achievements.Making a Difference. Facilitating access to and delivering the best quality, evidence-based, values based health and social care interventions to meet the needs and aspirations of service users and their families and carers.Promoting Safety and Positive Risk Taking. Empowering the person to decide the level of risk they are prepared to take with their health and safety. This includes working with the tension between promoting safety and positive risk taking, including assessing and dealing with possible risks for serviceusers, carers, family members, and the wider public.Personal Development and Learning. Keeping up-to-date with changes in practice and participating in life-long learning, personal and professional development for one’s self and colleagues through supervision, appraisal and reflective practice.
