Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust

Gwent Healthcare NHS Trust wants to hear your views on

‘Mental Health Services in Gwent’ 

f you are a service user, carer or advocate the Patients’ Panel would like you to join them at a special meeting to discuss mental health services.   

Date:               Tuesday 11th March 2008

Time:              10am – 3.15pm

Venue:           YMCA, Mendalgief Road, Newport 

Numbers are limited, so if you would like to book a place, please contact Rhian Lewis, Patients’ Panel Co-ordinator by 4th March:     01633 623812 or 01633 623465Or e-mail to:  rhian.lewis@gwent.wales.nhs.uk 

What is the Patients’ Panel?    The Patients Panel is a very active group of about 60 patients, carers and members of the public whose aim is to work with the Trust to improve health services for all patients in Gwent.  There are four main meetings a year and panel members also contribute to many committees and working groups within the Trust and further afield.   In the four years since it was set up, the panel has become a very valued resource for the Trust and has gained a reputation for the positive contribution its members make. 

What is the purpose of this special panel meeting?  This panel meeting has been arranged to provide an opportunity for you to get your voices heard.  Senior members of the Trust will be there to listen and respond to the views expressed.   The Patients’ Panel is also keen to recruit more members who have direct experience of mental health services.  Information will be provided about how to join the panel. 

Format of the day… 

10.00 am       Tea/Coffee 

10.30 am       Welcome & introductions                                                                             

10.40 am       Presentation on the history of Psychiatry in Gwent                                    

11.10 am       What are your burning issues?                                                                         

11.40 am       Tea / Coffee                                                                                                   

12.10 am       Small group discussions (based on the hottest ‘burning issues’)                  

1.15 pm          Lunch                                                                                                                

2.00 pm          Feedback and questions from small groups to staff panel                             

3.00 pm          Closing comments 

3.15 pm          Tea / Coffee 

Please inform us of any support / access requirements that we can assist you with, e.g. ·        Dietary requirements·        Disabled parking·        Assistance in the car park·        Assistance with transport·        Hearing loop·        Information in large font·        Interpreter (please let us know which type)·        Wish to attend with a friend/carer?

Any other support required?

Mental health services letting down older people (13.08.07)

A Major inquiry sets out plan to help the 3.5 million older sufferers

A mental health pandemic and an inadequate Government response mean that over 3.5 million older people who experience mental health problems do not have satisfactory services and support, according to the final report from the UK Inquiry into Mental Health and Well-Being in Later Life – a major independent inquiry supported by Age Concern.

If interested click on this link: http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/AgeConcern/pr_mental_health_inquiry.asp

Failing Mental Health Community Services

People suffering mental health problems are being failed by poor access to key community services, a watchdog says. The Healthcare Commission review of 174 mental health teams in England found gaps in out-of-hours care, talking therapies and access to information.

See the BBC website for more on failing mental health services

Service Improvements

Thanks for that Brat Prince, but I think you are being too fair to managers etc.   They are paid a lot of money to provide services for us, not cut them back.   If they want to spend their time finding ways of cutting services, then they should not be in the job of providing them.   We need people who can work out ways round a problem, instead of just deciding to cut something out and leave it there.

mack the knife. 

Service Improvements – How?

Dear Oberon

Personally, I feel that the Welsh Assembly Government are not taking mental health issues seriously enough.   Dr Gibbons recently announced an additional £5 million to improve mental health services across Wales.   I participate in Monmouthshire’s Service User Network, and I am aware of some of the difficulties faced by health service managers and commissioners.

Mental Health Services do not overspend their budgets, but as there is currently a £40 million deficit in Gwent NHS Trust as a whole, Mental Health Services are legally obligated (under something called ‘Corporate Responsibility’) to pay back 8% of this deficit.   I failed my GCSE maths exam, but my calculator states that this is £3,2000,000.   Certainly not pocket change, even if you asked David Beckham’s financial advisor!

While paying back this huge sum of money, managers are expected to simultaneously improve services which have been previously chronically under-invested.   If 1 in 4 people suffer from mental ill health at some point of their lives (this is the same statistic as cancer and heart disease which are priorities 1 and 2 for the Welsh Assembly, – mental health is apparently priority 3), why can’t people in power see that it is not financially viable to promote such services with peanuts?   People like myself , who have used mental health services, are aware that the staff are over-worked, and very often cannot provide what their clients need in terms of quality services due to under-investment.

Just to top it off, more services are cut every year, under the banner of modernisation.   Services are cut, people have to rely on voluntary sector services like MIND and HAFAL, which are not given the same amount of money to provide these services as Gwent NHS Trust had previously required to run them.

Does this sound like lunacy, or am I just losing the plot?

Keep it surreal,

Brat Prince.