Press Release: Campaign statement on the delays to the cuts café

A spokesperson from the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk said: “People in crisis need real services, not being patronised with cups of tea and endless signposting to long waiting lists or non-existent services. There are already drop-in centres, cafés and NHS services but their funding is deeply inadequate and has […]

Press Release: Campaign statement on the delays to the cuts café Read More »

EDP: Mental health crisis hub delayed by a year as patients continue to be sent hundreds of miles for treatment

Geraldine Scott of the Eastern Daily Press reports: A crisis hub pegged to help stem the number of mental health patients sent miles away due to a lack of beds has been delayed by a year in part due to debates over the building it will be in. A wellbeing hub – also known as

EDP: Mental health crisis hub delayed by a year as patients continue to be sent hundreds of miles for treatment Read More »

BBC News: Mental health: The NHS patients who are ‘abused and ignored’

Nick Triggle of BBC News reports: New rights should be given to severely ill mental health patients detained in hospital to stop abuse and neglect of this vulnerable group, a review says. The 1983 Mental Health Act is outdated and needs an overhaul, sectioning is being misused and does not properly protect patients’ rights, it

BBC News: Mental health: The NHS patients who are ‘abused and ignored’ Read More »

The Guardian: Ministers urged to act over Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust

Matthew Weaver of The Guardian reports: The health secretary, Matt Hancock, is facing mounting calls to intervene in England’s worst performing mental health trust after it was rated inadequate for a third time. There have been more than 250 extra deaths in Norfolk and Suffolk over the past five years as a result of the

The Guardian: Ministers urged to act over Norfolk and Suffolk mental health trust Read More »

EDP Front Page: Is ‘remote, awful and inhumane’ mental health support in north Norfolk behind a spate of young men’s deaths?

In investigative reporting that is worthy of a national journalism award, Jessica Frank-Keyes of the Eastern Daily Press writes: Grieving parents and a retired GP say “remote, awful and inhumane” mental health support is leaving young men in north Norfolk at a heightened risk of taking their own lives. In recent months two young men

EDP Front Page: Is ‘remote, awful and inhumane’ mental health support in north Norfolk behind a spate of young men’s deaths? Read More »

Beds not Tea: Cuts Café Consultation: Last chance to respond

The bureaucrats who commission NHS mental health services in Norfolk have decided to run their consultation into the proposed cuts café over the Christmas and New Year holiday period, thus ensuring as few people as possible respond. Commissioners tried to do a back-door deal to give a ‘pilot’ cuts café contract to Norfolk Mind without

Beds not Tea: Cuts Café Consultation: Last chance to respond Read More »

Video: BBC National News at Six: NSFT rated Inadequate and placed into Special Measures for Second Time

BBC Health Correspondent, Sophie Hutchinson, of the BBC national News at Six, reports on Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) becoming the mental health trust to be placed into Special Measures after being rated Inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) not just once but twice. Includes interviews with Cath Pickles, new NSFT CEO

Video: BBC National News at Six: NSFT rated Inadequate and placed into Special Measures for Second Time Read More »

RSA Norwich: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions

Terry Skyrme reflects on the recent RSA mental health event in Norwich: “Campaign supporters held a protest outside an event organized by the RSA at St Michael’s church in Norwich. Speakers at the event represented the “Third sector” and other mainstream services such as Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT), the main provider of

RSA Norwich: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions Read More »

The Norwich Radical: The Elephant in the Room: Norfolk’s Mental Health Crisis

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 »

Protest: RSA: “Throwing money we don’t have at a problem that just won’t go away is not the answer.”

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

Protest: RSA: “Throwing money we don’t have at a problem that just won’t go away is not the answer.” Read More »

A Revolution in Mental Health? Questions about the Prime Minister’s announcement of new funding

The government is making much of David Cameron’s mental health announcement today and any new money for mental health is welcome. Yet all of the figures are promises for total funding over the next five years. Mental health funding fell by at least £600 million per year during the last Parliament, when local MP Norman

A Revolution in Mental Health? Questions about the Prime Minister’s announcement of new funding Read More »

Research: Specialist mental health services in England in 2014: overview of funding, access and levels of care

Specialist mental health services in England in 2014: overview of funding, access and levels of care Mary Docherty and Graham Thornicroft International Journal of Mental Health Systems 2015 9:34 DOI: 10.1186/s13033-015-0023-9 © Docherty and Thornicroft. 2015 Abstract Background Since the economic recession began in 2008 anecdotal reports suggest that mental health services in England have experienced disinvestment, but published data to test

Research: Specialist mental health services in England in 2014: overview of funding, access and levels of care Read More »

BBC News: Mental health crisis care ‘inadequate’

Nick Triggle of the BBC reports: People who need urgent mental health care in England are receiving inadequate support, regulators say. The Care Quality Commission reviewed the help given to people in mental health crisis, which includes people who are suicidal, having serious panic attacks or psychotic episodes. The regulator said the system was “struggling

BBC News: Mental health crisis care ‘inadequate’ Read More »

Guardian: ‘System failure’ of NHS mental health services puts pressure on A&E wards

Haroon Siddique of the Guardian reports: Large numbers of people with mental health issues are ending up in A&E wards because of “system failure”, according to leaked minutes of a government-attended steering group. The meeting heard that people with mental illness are presenting themselves at emergency wards because of inadequate provision for them in the

Guardian: ‘System failure’ of NHS mental health services puts pressure on A&E wards Read More »

Mind the Gap: Mental health charity Mind excludes election candidate, mental health service user and disability campaigner, Mick Hardy, from its mental health election panel

We’ve just receives this shocking press release from Mick Hardy, prospective parliamentary candidate in Norwich North for the Dandy Party and a founder member of the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk: Mental health charity Mind excludes election candidate, mental health service user and disability campaigner, Mick Hardy, from its mental

Mind the Gap: Mental health charity Mind excludes election candidate, mental health service user and disability campaigner, Mick Hardy, from its mental health election panel Read More »

BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust failed to act on 258 recommendations

Nic Rigby of the BBC reports: A mental health trust failed to act on 258 recommendations from 98 reviews into serious incidents, such as patient deaths, a report has revealed. Former Norfolk coroner William Armstrong said the trust’s failure to act was a “serious concern”. Serious incident reviews take place after there are unexpected or

BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust failed to act on 258 recommendations Read More »

Community Care: Mental health trust should face special measures over ‘inadequate’ safety and leadership, says CQC

We were all delighted to meet Andy McNicoll, deservedly Mind Mental Health Journalist of the Year, at our campaign meeting yesterday. Ethical investigative journalism is a critical component in our campaign and Andy McNicoll’s work with the BBC’s Michael Buchanan has been of the highest quality. In November 2013 a campaign led by frontline staff

Community Care: Mental health trust should face special measures over ‘inadequate’ safety and leadership, says CQC Read More »

It is a crisis: What MIND really thinks about mental health under Health Minister Norman Lamb and the CCGs created by his government

Mind has written privately to all prospective Members of Parliament. Rather than the usual sycophantic nonsense for public consumption, Mind has told the brutal truth to prospective MPs: that the consequences of the Health & Social Care Act 2012, the introduction of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and the tenure of Secretary of State at the

It is a crisis: What MIND really thinks about mental health under Health Minister Norman Lamb and the CCGs created by his government Read More »

BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health unit waits of 22 hours ‘not acceptable’

Nic Rigby of the BBC reports: Patients having to wait up to 22 hours in mental health assessment suites in Norfolk and Suffolk is “unacceptable”, leading experts have said. A BBC Freedom of Information request found that between January and July, seven patients had to wait more than 15 hours and three more than 20.

BBC News: Norfolk and Suffolk mental health unit waits of 22 hours ‘not acceptable’ Read More »

Scroll to Top