General Election 2017: Questions for Chloe Smith, Conservatives, Norwich North

  You’ve claimed to be interested in mental health. Here are some questions for you about mental health in Norwich: Do you agree that it is a scandal that the age-adjusted three-year-rolling suicide rate, as published by the Office of National Statistics, rose by a staggering 33 per cent in Norwich between 2010-12 and 2013-15 […]

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General Election 2017: Questions for Norman Lamb, Liberal Democrats, North Norfolk

Dear Norman, You say you are the ‘mental health champion.’ So here are some questions for you about mental health in North Norfolk: Do you agree that it is a scandal that the age-adjusted three-year-rolling suicide rate, as published by the Office of National Statistics, rose by a staggering 77 per cent in North Norfolk

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General Election 2017: Questions for Brandon Lewis, Conservatives, Great Yarmouth

Dear Brandon, You say you are our ‘local champion.’ So here are some questions for you about mental health in Great Yarmouth: Do you agree that it is a scandal that the age-adjusted three-year-rolling suicide rate, as published by the Office of National Statistics, rose by a staggering 84 per cent in Great Yarmouth between

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Fixed, Flawed Farce: Part 2: EDP: Half of mental health beds budget for Norfolk and Suffolk spent in first month of year

Tom Bristow, Investigations Editor of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Last year the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) went £3.5m over budget on sending patients to beds at other facilities, including private hospitals and out of the area. Its budget for buying beds from other providers is £1m a year. But it used almost

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Fixed, Flawed Farce: Part 1: ‘No decisions about me, without me’

Below is a list of the people interviewed in the so-called ‘wide range of engagement meetings with local stakeholders’ during the £58,000 Beds Review. Thirty-nine are senior employees of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT). Five are commissioning bureaucrats. None are service users. None are bereaved relatives. None are carers. None are from patient

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EDP: Crowds gather in Norwich city centre to join March for Mental Health

Sabrina Johnson of the Eastern Daily Press reports: Hundreds of people of all ages gathered in Norwich city centre to add their voices to the call for better mental health services and to protest against cuts to the NHS One protester Hazel Van Der Lee, 43, of Great Yarmouth, who had her own experience of

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Video: BBC Look East leads with our March for Mental Health in Norwich

Jenny Kirk of the BBC reports:   The number of ‘unexpected deaths’ at Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has more than doubled in just four years.

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Beds Crisis: EDP: How 140 NHS mental health beds have been cut in Norfolk and Suffolk

Investigative reporter Tom Bristow of the Eastern Daily Press reports: A quarter of mental health beds in Norfolk and Suffolk have been lost in the last four years. While England has seen the number of mental health beds fall by 3,500 since 2012, a drop of 16pc, the Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT), which

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Beds Crisis: EDP: Campaigners criticise new mental health trust proposals: ‘We want beds not cups of tea’

Geraldine Scott of the Eastern Daily Press reports: No new beds for patients in psychiatric crisis will be made available by the region’s mental health trust, despite concerns being raised by the health watchdog over that a shortage of beds “had impaired patient safety and treatment at times”. We haven’t found a senior doctor at

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EDP: ‘What people need is support and understanding’ – Sister of mental health patient Neil Jewell speaks out over the care he received before his death

Geraldine Scott interviews Neil Jewell’s brave family in the Eastern Daily Press: A family has described the “seven year period of spiralling decline” a man suffered before sustaining fatal injuries while under the care of the region’s mental health trust. Neil Jewell, 42, of Philadelphia Lane, Norwich, died on January 17, 2014, while sectioned under

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BBC News: ‘Neglect’ contributed to Neil Jewell’s death

Nikki Fox of the BBC reports: The trust which runs mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk has apologised after an inquest found that neglect contributed to a patient’s death. Neil Jewell, 42, died in 2014 after a series of failures, the inquest said. He had paranoid schizophrenia and was not properly monitored after being

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Deaths Crisis: Notes on a Scandal: Safeguarding Adult Review (SAR) in respect of Mr Neil Jewell

We haven’t been able to publish the devastating review into the shocking death of Neil Jewell as a jury inquest has been taking place. However, we can now publish the Safeguarding Adult Review (SAR) into Neil’s death in full. We’d like to express our admiration for Neil Jewell’s family for their determination: they have lived

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EDP: Mental health trust boss admits ‘still too many’ patients were sent out of the area as more than £500,000 was spent on doing so last month

Geraldine Scott of the Eastern Daily Press reports: More than £500,000 was spent on sending patients under the care of the region’s mental health trust to other facilities in the last month as bosses admit “still too many” patients were being sent out of the area for treatment. Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT)

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Deaths Crisis: Your comments: BBC Panorama: Britain’s Mental Health Crisis

Below is a selection of the messages we have received since the BBC Panorama programme examining the massive increase in the number of unexpected deaths after the savage cuts inflicted upon mental health services in Norfolk and Suffolk: So grateful to make contact and so pleased to learn about the efforts being made to draw

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Deaths Crisis: EDP: Norwich man suffering psychotic episode died after being restrained, inquest hears

Adam Howlett of the Eastern Daily Press reports: A man who suffered fatal injuries while under the care of the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust had run out of medication to treat his schizophrenia, an inquest has heard. Neil Jewell, 42, of Philadelphia Lane, Norwich, died at Ipswich Hospital on January 17, 2014, after

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EDP Front Page: Mental health patient kept in Norfolk police cell for three days

Tom Bristow of the Eastern Daily Press reports: A mental health patient was kept in a police cell for three days in King’s Lynn because no bed could be found for him. A second person needing mental health treatment was detained at Aylsham police station for 36 hours as the region’s mental health service struggled

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EDP: Unexpected deaths rise coincides with bed closures at region’s mental health trust, Panorama finds

Nicholas Carding of the Eastern Daily Press reports: A sharp rise in the number of mental health patients dying unexpectedly coincided with the responsible organisation cutting nearly a quarter of its inpatient beds. Special investigations programme BBC Panorama, broadcast this evening, said the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) cut 136 psychiatric beds from

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Radical Redesign Heroes: Where are the TSSers now? Part 6: Norman Lamb, North Norfolk MP and Minister of State at the Department of Health responsible for mental health

Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat MP for North Norfolk, was directly responsible for mental health as the Coalition’s Minister of State at the Department of Health from September 2012 until the general election in May 2015 when the number of Liberal Democrat MPs was reduced from 57 to eight. After the general election, Norman Lamb failed in his

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EDP: Private Sussex hospital Priory Ticehurst put East Anglia teenager in a room with disturbing messages from former patients

Nicholas Carding of the Eastern Daily Press reports: A 16-year old has described her stay in a private hospital where former teenage patients had left messages encouraging self-harm and assault on her room’s wall. Her room was completely bare – containing nothing but a sheetless bed and a window. She sat on the bed, mentally

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EDP: Bed shortage means dozens of mental health patients are still being sent miles from Norfolk and Suffolk for treatment – three years after pledge

Nicholas Carding of the Eastern Daily Press reports: The region’s mental health trust is set to spend nearly £3m more than budgeted on treating patients at other facilities this year, this newspaper can reveal. In April just 26 days were spent by NSFT patients at hospitals outside Norfolk and Suffolk, but by the end of

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