PPlog

There’s nowt funnier than fact. anyone interested in IAPT and “patient outcomes” should read this and learn! I’m still laughing having confirmed the accuracy of the Commandments in 40 years of contact with Shrinkydom. It’s so familiar! Go to http://tinyurl.com/krhqsl Booker Prize please.

Dead the dream. A few months back here in Thurlton, we suffered a rural excitement. The village shop and post office was in difficulty and the owners were faced with imminent foreclosure. I found myself Chair of a steering group to take forward a scheme to obtain the shop and post office for ownership by the whole village. The project was to set up a Community Interest Company (a company in which all the assets are owned by the community and no individual or group can make financial gain from it). The objects of the company were established early. These were: To provide retail, postal and other services in the parish of Thurlton, Norfolk; To serve as a meeting place and focal point for the community of Thurlton. To promote local produce, local culture, healthier lifestyles and a more environmentally suitable community economy. To provide for an information/advice/advocacy point for health and social care, disability rights, LINks contact and service user involvement. We quickly got t...

My response to this hugely important and extensive draft Guidance finished and sent off today. I found it impossible to devote enough time to reading and absorbing the whole thing so I concentrated on taking in selected sections, leaving out requirements on finance, staffing, management etc (just as important as the service quality sections but not my bag). Having read the sections I wanted to read, I concentrated my comments and suggestions on issues around full service user and carer involvement. In short, the Guidance is to be comprised of detailed and comprehensive general requirements for categories such as: Respecting and Involving People who use Services; Care and Welfare of People who use Services; Safeguarding vulnerable people who use services; and more - too numerous to list here. Then it details specific guidance for specialist services such as Mental Health Hospitals and Mental Health Community Services. The specific requirements for these have to be complied with alongsid...

This is from the Equality and Human Rights Commission newsletter: New ruling gives people with mental health conditions the same human rights as others The Commission has welcomed a Court of Appeal ruling which found that people with mental health conditions are protected from discrimination by the European Convention on Human Rights. The Commission intervened in the case of N & G v Secretary of State for Health and Nottinghamshire Healthcare Trust to argue that people detained under the Mental Health Act should be afforded the same protection as others under Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The ruling clarified a grey area in the law. Article 14 states that 'The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Convention shall be secured without discrimination on any such ground as sex, race, colour, language, political or other opinions, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status.' The Comm...

My last post (I often hear that these days) prompts some short notes on responding to Government papers/proposals. You’ll find that like a skilled barrister they (those sinister clay white faces in starched collars sitting in the third underground cellar of the Department of Health) quietly and subtly lead you in the direction they want your mindset to go. They do this by setting their own predetermined questions so that you’re only looking for the things they are asking for. They’ll say they do this to make a complex task simpler. This is skewed consultation and you should be looking at the proposals with a service user’s eye, not one the Government wants you to look with. I suggest a first global scan, noting the bits that make you frown, however slightly, then a more detailed reading, section by section, happily using their system of reference, and finally making comments and suggestions that are your’s - no one else’s

More from Benefits and Work: It’s been an extraordinary fortnight since this campaign began. So, apologies for the long email, but we want to get everyone caught up. AA & DLA WON’T END ON 13 NOVEMBER
Firstly, we want to make it absolutely clear that AA and DLA are not going to be abolished on 13 November, because some people seem to have got that impression. We’re asking you to make your voice heard before the green paper consultation period ends on 13 November because, if you don’t, it makes it much more likely that disability benefits will be handed over to local authorities at some time in the future. EMAILING DISABILITY ORGANISATIONS
Over 19,000 people have now signed up to the campaign and last week disability charities were deluged with emails after we asked campaigners to contact them and ask what they are doing about this issue. So much so that after a few days we had to ask you to stop sending emails, as they were simply being met w...

In the interests of balance I tried to find out what other political parties had to say about LINks. These are the results: The Liberal Party. The nearest I can find is this, from their 2008-2009 Manifesto: “Liberals call for the establishment of regional assemblies which would include health powers and would bring local health provision into government. This would solve the problem of the inherent weakness in Community Health Councils (my italics ???) and greatly improve the rights of patients and other users within the health service and would improve grant aid facilities for self-help groups, such as “Well Women” clinics.“ The Green Party All I can find is an even briefer statement from their ‘Manifesto for a Sustainable Society’ The role of Patients' Forums as users' advocates will be developed to provide greater assistance to individuals in difficulties or disputes with the health services. UKIP A search for ‘Health Policy’ ...

As I have no allegiance to any political party I feel a bit uncomfortable about posting this but as it is centrally important to the future of PPI and service user and carer involvement and it is in the interests of a realistic look at the future I will go ahead. A recent note from Ruth Marsden of the National Association of LINks Members told us that Richard Taylor, Independent MP for Wyre Forest said, in response to an article in the Health Service Journal by Joan Saddler: “I found it staggering that there was no mention of local involvement networks in Joan Saddler’s article (opinion, page 15, 23 July, HSJ). LINks are the government’s replacement for the abolished patient and public involvement in health forums and are intended to make meaningful interchange take place between patients and the public and commissioners and providers of health services. For the Director of Patient and Public Affairs to not even acknowledge these vital bodies of willing volunteers i...

I think the article below from http://www.benefitsandwork.co.uk is worth posting on PPlog in full. Those that churn out this legislation really don’t consider those disabled people who have to rely on benefits just for mere existence, and in particular they have no regard whatever for people who happen to be beset by mental health problems which don’t allow any kind of volitional choice, are too unpredictable and intermittently florid for any employer to manage and which are made worse by trying to wade through the local authority swampland of eligibility criteria and inexpert assessment by those who only think in the tramlines of financial culture: A government green paper has revealed plans to stop paying disability benefits and hand the cash over to social services instead. Join the Benefits and Work campaign to stop these cuts by typing your first name and email address in the boxes below. The Shaping the Future of Care Green Paper published by the DWP and the Depar...