In order to restore some degree of confidence, the Trust needs to act quickly in six key areas:
- Call a halt to the policy of bed closures and reopen wards wherever possible, until community services can actually show in practice that a number of inpatient beds are not needed.
- Withdraw the proposal to reduce the number of qualified Band 6 staff in the Crisis Resolution and Home Treatment (CRHT) teams. Continue with the proposed policy of boosting the home treatment capacity by employing more support workers. Give priority to providing a sufficient level of medical input to CRHTs so that access to a psychiatrist is readily available in a crisis.
- Restore link workers and carry out an urgent review of the role of Access and Assessment teams, especially in relation to CRHTs.
- Restore Early Intervention In Psychosis (EI) teams in Suffolk, in line with the Department of Health and Schizophrenia Commission recommendations.
- Establish a caseload management system so that care coordinators and lead professionals in community teams do not carry individual responsibility for excessive workloads.
- Carry out an urgent review of the prevention of suicide strategy, which should include a major rethink around the abolition of specialist assertive outreach and homeless persons’ teams.
The Trust board members need to ask themselves why there is such a gulf between their perception of the state of affairs and that of front-line staff and service users. Denying that a problem exists will not bring about a solution. The Trust, the CCGs, Health Minister Norman Lamb, have all been in denial for some time. It’s no longer good enough to blame one another. We need decisive action from all. If the NSFT Board cannot provide it, it should go!
If ‘parity of esteem’ meant anything and mental health had been fairly funded on a par with physical health, NSFT would have an annual budget £30 million greater than it does. This shameful shortfall in funding by the CCGs needs to be urgently addressed.
The media can contact our campaigners using:
Mobile: +44 (0)7760 673760
Twitter: @NSFTCrisis
Email: media@NorfolkSuffolkMentalHealthCrisis.org.uk
Hi there I am in support of your campaign certainly my own experiences leave questions. I experienced horrendous mental health problems in pregnancy and not once did I get suppor from hellesdon bar a link worker who in one session gave me an elastic band to help me. I was very poorly. Crisis team were ok but didn’t have the facilities or knowledge because I was pregnant. The only support I really valued was from my gp and eventually I felt so unsupported I quit seeing this link worker. It was my gp my midwife the Norfolk and Norwich delivery suite and my health visitor who helped me. No specialist support available. Yet I read that in areas such as liverpool they have specialist mental health antenatal clinics with medical staff from the mental health staff. No one knew how to help me one night someone on the end of the phone wrote me a script for perizyacine without examining me or xconsulting maternity staff. There was no help nothing to help me in crisis in pregnancy. Even the crisis team said I probably needed admitting but there was no
facilities for me being pregnant. Instead I ended up a night in maternity that was arranged by the midwives. No support at all. No follow up. Ultimately I’m ok two years on but it’s left me with two fears that if I fall ill there is no support because they didn’t care when I was carrying a baby. Norfolk needs mental health facilities for pregnant women. I hope you recognise this.
Hi there I am in support of your campaign certainly my own experiences leave questions. I experienced horrendous mental health problems in pregnancy and not once did I get suppor from hellesdon bar a link worker who in one session gave me an elastic band to help me. I was very poorly. Crisis team were ok but didn’t have the facilities or knowledge because I was pregnant. The only support I really valued was from my gp and eventually I felt so unsupported I quit seeing this link worker. It was my gp my midwife the Norfolk and Norwich delivery suite and my health visitor who helped me. No specialist support available. Yet I read that in areas such as liverpool they have specialist mental health antenatal clinics with medical staff from the mental health staff. No one knew how to help me one night someone on the end of the phone wrote me a script for perizyacine without examining me or xconsulting maternity staff. There was no help nothing to help me in crisis in pregnancy. Even the crisis team said I probably needed admitting but there was no facilities for me being pregnant. Instead I ended up a night in maternity that was arranged by the midwives. No support at all. No follow up. Ultimately I’m ok two years on but it’s left me with two fears that if I fall ill there is no support because they didn’t care when I was carrying a baby. Norfolk needs mental health facilities for pregnant women. I hope you recognise this.
I’ve been depressed since I was a child. I am now 53. My chronic depression was diagnosed in my late twenties. I moved from London to Suffolk for better schools for my children but it was disastrous for my mental health. I have been battling to get effective health for 12 years. I’ve been on and off medication all that time. I have seen a VOLUNTEER counsellor through Mind. I have seen various practitioners-in-training who were useless. I couldn’t tell you the number of people I’ve seen and had to describe my history. Every time the ‘help’ failed, my mental health got worse. I haven’t been able to hold down a job. I am now working in a very good job and go to work every day terrified I’m going to mess it up – again. I’ve been pushed from pillar to post as I’m too ill for some styles of treatment and not ill enough for others. On one occasion of despair with my GP, I made another attempt to access mental health services and the GP told me not to state how ill I actually am otherwise I wouldn’t be seen. I didn’t state that I have suicidal thoughts most days and it worked. I see a CPN intermittently because they don’t know what else to do with me. I have been told about the Recovery College which seems to be another patronising sop. And, anyway, whatever it is takes place during the day so I couldn’t access it anyway – I feel so insecure about the job I’ve only been in for 2 months, I can’t start taking regular time off every week. I was told, briefly, about mindfullness by a CPN and told to look it up on some website. Isn’t mindfulness meditation by another name? And don’t you need to be trained to do it effectively? And… my appointments keep being forgotten about. I turn up for them and nobody’s there to meet with me – gone on holiday or are ill or just forgotten.
I’ve resisted being medicated recently because the pattern is to medicate me and then forget about me. I am now medicated again – I have to be to be able to function at work. But I’ve dropped off the radar again.
SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE
Nothing will change until the denial and lying stops. ‘Parity of esteem’, was the word bounded around in 2012……where is it then. Three years on and still little has changed. Now the man at the head of the problem Norman Lamb chooses to just turn on those who seek to expose the horrendous problems NSFT is in…….Use your votes wisely.
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I am following with interest. Since moving from Leics I have had to fight for treatment. I should have listened and gone to A and E. It really is the only way to access support even when transferring from mental health treatment in another area.
I don’t believe there is any suitable practitioners at doctor level within my locality. Support workers need a reliable communication system and experienced professionals to make their jobs viable.
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