In July of this year, I made a complaint to the South Norfolk CCG that they had a "prospectus" for 2013/14 with no mention of mental health, let alone a mention of 'parity of esteem between mental health and physical health."
I didn't get an acknowledgement but after several promptings and a threat to take the issue to the Ombudsman, I finally received a letter of response at the end of last month (October). That response, although mentioning several strands of mental health, was not satisfactory as it said nothing about 'parity of esteem.'
As it happened however, There was a SNCCG board meeting on 5th November, so I went.
I was surprised how positive this meeting was with the board showing tacit resistance to competition for commissioned services. Mental subject of health services was talked about but only in terms of the two elements in their 2013 - on strategy, IAPT (Increased access to psychological therapy) and dementia. In addition, when I challenged them about the subject of my letter, there was a general acceptance of the principle of 'parity of esteem.'
It was obvious the board was still at its forming stage (very slow evolution here - what do you expect - this is Norfolk!) and the recent additions to its membership were two representatives of community engagement, one Oliver Cruickshank who is the Engagement Lead
and who is keen to increase public involvement in CCG processes. The upshot was that the chair of the board and those two aforementioned representatives were interested in my involvement and so my details were taken.
We will see what, if anything develops from this and anyway, I'll certainly be keeping an eye on things.
Sadly, my colleague, Susan who has been running the 38 degrees group, expressed the opinion that we no longer had 'a group' so I'll send a copy of this write-up to them as well as Ed Davie of NSUN.
I didn't get an acknowledgement but after several promptings and a threat to take the issue to the Ombudsman, I finally received a letter of response at the end of last month (October). That response, although mentioning several strands of mental health, was not satisfactory as it said nothing about 'parity of esteem.'
As it happened however, There was a SNCCG board meeting on 5th November, so I went.
I was surprised how positive this meeting was with the board showing tacit resistance to competition for commissioned services. Mental subject of health services was talked about but only in terms of the two elements in their 2013 - on strategy, IAPT (Increased access to psychological therapy) and dementia. In addition, when I challenged them about the subject of my letter, there was a general acceptance of the principle of 'parity of esteem.'
It was obvious the board was still at its forming stage (very slow evolution here - what do you expect - this is Norfolk!) and the recent additions to its membership were two representatives of community engagement, one Oliver Cruickshank who is the Engagement Lead
and who is keen to increase public involvement in CCG processes. The upshot was that the chair of the board and those two aforementioned representatives were interested in my involvement and so my details were taken.
We will see what, if anything develops from this and anyway, I'll certainly be keeping an eye on things.
Sadly, my colleague, Susan who has been running the 38 degrees group, expressed the opinion that we no longer had 'a group' so I'll send a copy of this write-up to them as well as Ed Davie of NSUN.
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