The value of experience

As usual it was good to catch up with people at our group meeting this week. We kicked off with some ideas for our pre-Christmas meeting in December and settled on a good old fashioned approach of bring and share food, some silly games and a raffle. We're also hoping to have a performance from Andrew CJ Smith - you can hear him narrate his most recent book here. It'll be at the usual venue of Manchester Carers Centre, from 6 - 7.45pm on Wednesday 14th December.

The bulk of our meeting was spent talking about Manchester Mental Health Trust's current review of adult community mental health services (read our recent post about this). Patrick Cahoon and Linval Smith came to talk through the plans. The Trust is proposing moving to a recovery-based, stepped care model which is a slightly jargonified way of saying they want to encourage and help people to get better, with different levels of care (or steps) within this. These steps range from Step One (the most basic one) which is provided by pretty much all service providers (public health, voluntary and community sector) through to Step Five which is focused on highly complex or specialist 'interventions' (types of treatment), provided by highly specialised providers. We pretty much agreed that the proposals sound good on paper as an overall approach, though did have some questions and concerns. These were:

• Awareness/skills of GPs in relation to mental health - this can be highly varied and we need to raise skills levels.
• Importance of being given information about non-statutory services when being discharged, and throughout contact with statutory services, in particular information about peer support groups. Otherwise it can take a long time to find these at a time when you are feeling vulnerable, and only the more confident/outgoing people are likely to take the initiative.
• Related to the above point, the need for more awareness amongst staff about peer support groups and other non-statutory groups.
• The importance of clear information about how services are shaped, who provides care and who makes decisions. This information should be given to anyone coming into contact with Trust services for the first time as well as their close family and/or other 'carers'.
• How easy will it be to be moved up/down a level? Movement both ways needs to be allowed depending on need.
• People should be allowed to remain under the care of the Trust for as long as that care is needed.
• Will there be enough staff to deal with all the caseloads, given that staff numbers are to be reduced by around 46.
• How will all staff across the Trust be involved and made aware of the changes, especially those that have a more traditional outlook on treatment.
• The importance of involving service users and carers in devising the care package, and at any reviews.
  
  Patrick and Linval did respond to all our points and by and large it felt like a constructive discussion. We look forward to hearing more when the results of the review are complete.
  
  The session really demonstrated to me the value and power of experience, and how important it is that we share this experience with professionals so services can be improved.