20th Day of Lent: Going without the Dementia Intensive Support Team (DIST) that NSFT promised

Just as the last of the public consultation meetings took place in Beccles, it emerged that Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) is closing its Dementia Intensive Support Team (DIST) at the James Paget University Hospital. The DIST is a key component of the sham consultation proposals on which Great Yarmouth & Waveney Clinical […]

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18th Day of Lent: Going without respite beds, going with fake extra capacity

John writes: “Ashcroft is a female residential unit which provides support to people who, due to mental health difficulties, need periods of residential care. For many, regular planned respite for short periods forms a key part of their care plan. This respite enables them to build their resilience, access therapies and talk to familiar staff

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Gallery: Demonstration against Norman Lamb’s ‘cashless concordat’

A spokesman for the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk & Suffolk said: “Today, members of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk & Suffolk tried to engage Norman Lamb about the crises in mental health provision. Rather than talk to campaigners, he simply put his head down sheepishly and sought

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16th Day of Lent: Going without care in the community

Ruth writes: “As a carer it is a relief to be able to access the campaign’s website to access information about the impact of perceived cuts in funding. We carers need to prepare ourselves for a future where the care of loved ones living in the community with life-long mental health needs will receive a

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Sham Consultation: Last chance to pillory the NSFT Board – Tuesday 25/3/2014 – Beccles

Please, please do attend the sham consultation in Beccles on Tuesday 25th March 2014 between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. The acting Chief Executive, Medical Director and Operations Director of Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) are being forced to publicly account for their ‘radical redesign’ for the last time by Great Yarmouth & Waveney

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Protest: Friday 21st March – Assemble 1130 at Norman Lamb’s ‘Concordat’ Launch – Carrow Road

This leaflet can be downloaded as a pdf to print and distribute. Look out for our placards and banners and bring a friend! Norman Lamb, MP for North Norfolk and Minister of State at the Department of Health, is launching the Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat this week. However, mental health services – both nationally

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15th Day of Lent: Going without 25% of already overstretched commmunity teams

Karen says: “Gateway House, our ‘The Office’-esque building on a business park in Wymondham which has no facilities whatsoever to see service users, is currently home to leaving cards, bunting and endless leaving do’s. By the end of March, around one quarter of our colleagues in already overstretched community teams will have been paid to

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EDP – Graphic: Shock over mental health trust’s £5m redundancy bill

If ever there was a time to reward great journalism with a physical newspaper purchase, today is it – and the double page spread graphic exposure of NSFTCrisis is brilliant – frame-it-on-the-wall good. Award-winning Adam Gretton in the EDP reports: “The mental health trust for Norfolk and Suffolk, which is trying to fill hundreds of

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14th Day of Lent: EDP – Going without access to treatment even if you’re staff

This is quite the most shocking story from the excellent Adam Gretton of the EDP. “A mental health worker has revealed how she tried to take her own life during a two-month wait to get an appointment with a community team after she was signed off sick.” Click the image below to read more. Whether you

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12th Day of Lent: Going without safe staffing of hostels

‘Still a nurse’ writes: “One hostel of 4 beds is already closed, and the staff have all been redeployed to other wards. 9 beds remain but staffed from the CRHT so no longer in the same function it was before. And this was no redesign, just the shambles of counting staff in numbers of other

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Response from North Norfolk CCG to AMHP letter highlighting bed crisis at NSFT

See the letter below which states that North Norfolk CCG will not accept the closure of any more acute adult beds, including the hostels, until people placed out of county are returned and there is no likelihood of out of area placement reoccurring. This reply can be downloaded as a pdf also. You can read

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10th Day of Lent: Going without services which have saved my life

Victoria writes: “In 2003 I had a breakdown. My Mother had to take me to my GP’s surgery, as he refused a home visit. As I paced up & down the receptionist appeared & asked me to go into a private room as “I was upsetting” other patients. It took 3 days of hell before

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7th Day of Lent: Going without Suffolk MIND’s local support

Jane told us: “A group of people in a small Suffolk town came together in a local church hall. Until this group started I was told how lonely and isolated one man felt. He told me they drank coffee, learnt a little about each other and made friends. They were supported by mental health professional

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Public Campaign Meeting: 7 p.m. Tuesday 18th March 2014 at Suffolk One, Scrivener Drive IPSWICH IP8 3SU

Public Campaign Meeting Tuesday 18th March 7pm Suffolk One, Scrivener Drive, IPSWICH IP8 3SU Did you know: Mentally ill people are sent out of county because there are no beds free in Suffolk? Suffolk’s Early Intervention in Psychosis teams have been scrapped? Specialist Assertive Outreach intervention teams are being abolished at a time of rising

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3rd Day of Lent: Going without… dedicated Assertive Outreach (AO) teams

Dr Geraldine Strathdee, NHS England’s national clinical director for mental health recently told Community Care: “I know there are a number [of Trusts] saying ‘we won’t have a crisis/home treatment team. Instead we’ll put that crisis team function, or that assertive outreach function, into generic services’. I’d urge anyone going with that approach to really

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Video: BBC Look East on the CAMHS Bed Shortage

This is an excellent piece of journalism looking at the bed shortage for young people. The BBC visits an oversubscribed child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) unit in Essex, The St Aubyn Centre, built by North Essex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Sadly, but unsurprisingly: Norfolk & Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) is the trust

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2nd Day of Lent: Going without adequate resources, reliable appointments or reasonable waiting times

Footyfan says: “When is this NHS Trust going to realise that whilst community-based care and treatment is great and looks to be the way forward, they must provide adequate resources for it to work? As a family that accesses this service I have to say the organisation of it is terrible; we worked out the

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1st Day of Lent: Going without a face-to-face consultation with a psychiatrist for a whole year but being prescribed high potency mood-stabilisers anyway.

Rachel writes: “Meeting face-to-face with your psychiatrist is not for a chat. A consultation is imperative if the patient is to fully understand the nature of any medications they are prescribed and the possible and potentially very dangerous side-effects. The psychiatrist also has an opportunity to further know their patient and assess if the prescription

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