Vikram Dodd in the Guardian reports: Police say they are being relied on as an emergency mental health service and that cuts in psychiatric provision are probably to blame, the Guardian has learned. Officers point to an increase of more than 50% in a decade in the use of powers to detain people under section […]
Guardian: Police says its forces are becoming emergency mental health services Read More »
No wonder the Eastern Daily Press has been shortlisted for a mental health journalism award. Andrew Papworth reports: A teenage mental health patient sent to hospital 206 miles away from home while recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after a violent assault has said: “We must campaign for local hospitals.” Sarah Barrett was 16 and studying
The number of out of trust acute (OOA) bed days has nearly doubled: from 332 days in April 2016 to 647 days in May 2016. Most of these patients are being sent to the expensive, remote and private Mundesley Hospital, where it seems that none of the medical staff have passed the exams of the Royal
Hannah Rose reports in The Norwich Radical from the recent RSA event: Instead, I was perturbed by the oddly formal sense of occasion — cheese and wine were offered on arrival — and I was given instructions to mingle. I had the distinct feeling that I was definitely at the wrong meeting. Only around fifty chairs
The Norwich Radical: The Elephant in the Room: Norfolk’s Mental Health Crisis Read More »
CQC, the independent regulator of health, mental health and adult social care in England will be inspecting Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust the week beginning the 11th July. They would like to hear feedback about mental health services before the inspection. There are a number of ways people can feedback their views (CQC are
Help: Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspecting NSFT in July 2016 Read More »
Tomorrow evening, on Tuesday 7th June 2016, we will be protesting at the failure to invite service users, carers and professionals to an event the purpose of which is said to be finding ‘affordable, innovative new solutions’ to mental health. We will be assembling outside St Michael at Plea in Norwich from 5.45 p.m. A
Today, members of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk joined local people from York to protest against the closure of Bootham Park Hospital with only five days notice. Imagine the chaos if Hellesdon Hospital was closed in less than a week. Local campaigners in York believe that Jeremy Hunt’s plan
Gallery: March for Mental Health, York Read More »
Jessica Goldfinch gave an incredibly powerful and moving speech before the minute’s silence outside Castle Mall in Norwich on our March for Mental Health. Many people were moved to tears, some of them the bereaved. Others couldn’t hear Jessica speak as well as they would have liked, given that six hundred people turned up on
Today, members of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk from throughout East Anglia joined local people from West Norfolk to protest against the closure of one quarter of the remaining acute mental health beds in West Norfolk at the Fermoy Unit in King’s Lynn and to highlight the threat to
Gallery: March for Mental Health, King’s Lynn Read More »
Sophie Biddle of the EDP reports: More than 100 campaigners pounded the pavements from The Walks and through the town centre before finishing outside the Majestic Cinema to hear speeches. The protest was triggered by the Fermoy Centre, an in-patient NHS facility for mental health, facing closure. Beth Anthony, 18 of Dersingham, is youth officer
EDP: Protesters in King’s Lynn fight against mental health service cuts Read More »
Community campaigners, concerned citizens and service users will be taking to the streets of King’s Lynn on Saturday 23rd April to protest at the closure of the Fermoy Unit, the only local in-patient, NHS facility for mental health in the area. Starting at twelve noon at the Bandstand in the Walks, the event will include
Nicholas Carding of the EDP reports: Mental health patients in West Norfolk who need acute treatment face being sent to Norwich or further for a hospital bed after bosses closed the last remaining unit to new admissions. But a spokesman for the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk described the situation
EDP: Last mental health inpatient unit in West Norfolk closes to new admissions Read More »
Nicholas Carding of the EDP reports: Bosses at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) said they could not rule out closing the Fermoy Unit in King’s Lynn, because of problems with its design and safety. The unit is the only inpatient facility for mental-health patients in west Norfolk. Last month research by this
In another example of first-class investigative journalism, Andrew Hirst of the East Anglian Daily Times reports: Campaigners have welcomed plans for a new mental health unit for children in Suffolk after it emerged concerning numbers of young people from the region had been sent to adult wards – a practice described by one mother as
More excellent investigative reporting from Nicholas Carding of the EDP, showing how people in crisis from Norfolk and Suffolk are being transported across the country due to a chronic lack of beds. We’re deeply concerned that some people in crisis are not getting a hospital bed at all. Let’s not forget that NSFT and North
EDP Front Page Exclusive: Passed from Pillar to Post Read More »
Victoria Leggett of itv News Anglia reports: Hundreds of people took to the streets of Norwich today to protest against cuts to mental health services. The march was organised by Norfolk and Suffolk Mental Health Crisis, a campaign group set up by front-line health staff and people who rely on the support of the NHS.
itv News Anglia: Hundreds take to the streets of Norwich for mental health cuts protest Read More »
Nicholas Carding of the EDP reports: Calls for better mental health services echoed around the centre of Norwich today as hundreds of people took part in a march to send a clear message to NHS leaders. Campaigners and politicians said action is needed now and called for steps to be taken at both local and
EDP: Marching for better mental health services Read More »
Click on the image below to watch Mark Summer’s excellent report for Mustard TV, Norfolk’s local television channel:
Having our campaigning local media and one MP who genuinely cares about mental health makes such a difference. Annabelle Dickson, Political Editor of the EDP, reports: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health services would have almost £70m a year more if they were treated in the same way as physical health, the Norwich South MP has claimed.
EDP: Mental health patients in our region are being failed by the government, says MP Read More »
David Powles of the EDP reports: Bosses of the trust used their recent AGM to proclaim of turning a corner, but Ms Corlett says while some things have improved – there’s a long way to go before staff feel that is the case. She explained: “A lot of staff still feel angry about how change
