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More wishes for mental health

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Today I've spoken about our Mental Health Wish List campaign at an event organised by Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust. The Wish List is our four top priorities for improving services in Manchester - see an earlier blog post that explains it in more detail. We've been asking commissioners and providers to respond. We got nothing from local councillors and had a meeting with commissioners NHS Manchester (who are set to be abolished under the government's health reform plans). However, the most productive response has been from Manchester Mental Health Trust. They're putting together a formal written response, we spoke about the Wish List at their recent AGM, and today have been at their 'Effectiveness Day' to do the same. The best part about today for me was getting new wishes from the audience.

Here they are:

Wishes about services...
  • Continuity of service – the cumulative impact of closure, such as losing established relationships, are are often not counted.
  • Better awareness of mental health outside of mental health services.
  • I wish we could get it right for everyone, everytime.
  • I wish that all service users are supported towards working towards their own recovery.
  • With budgets so tight...mainstream some carers’ services and work more in partnership to minimise duplication.
  • Professionals who decide on the services understand the services fully.
  • Carers to have a break for a few days every three months.
  • Person-centered approach for everyone.
  • Better resources including more frontline staff, allowing for better quality of care and time given to service users and carers.
  • Family support services for carers.
  • Co-ordinated support and services.
  • More Community Psychiatric Nurses for ethnic minorities.
  • Joined up services for dual diagnosis patients.
Wishes about attitudes to mental illness...
  • Mental illness to be treated as an illness like cancer and not as something strange.
  • The wish for a universal acceptance of mental illness.
  • Mental health is everyone’s business.
  • Get rid of stigma and discrimination in mental health.
I've sent theses issues to the Trust.
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