National survivor user network

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Results of 2011 Election of Trustees to the NSUN Board

The NSUN Annual General Meeting was held Tuesday 1st November 2011.

The Annual Report Summary 2010-2011 is available here.

Full set of audited accounts here.

The results of this year’s election of Trustees to the NSUN Board were announced at the NSUN Annual General Meeting, held Tuesday 1st November 2011 at the Fazeley Studios Birmingham.

Those elected will join the Board from November 2011.

The full board of Trustees voted in to post at the Annual General Meeting are:

• Carolyn Anderson
• Alisdair Cameron
• Sarah Carr
• Susan Haworth
• Joyce Kallevik
• Nicholas Kennedy
• Kathleen Lovell
• Clare Ockwell
• Julia Smith
• Cyril Towse
• Dominic Makavachuma-Walker
• Karl Willet
  

Honorary Officers:

Chair:                       Kathleen Lovell
Co-Vice Chair:         Carolyn Anderson
Co- Vice Chair:        Dominic- Makavachuma-Walker
Treasurer:                Joyce Kallevik

Click here to read the Trustee profiles .

NSUN’s audited Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2011 were received and adopted. The full NSUN accounts for 2010-2011 can be downloaded here.

Martin Morrison & Co Ltd were appointed Auditors for the ensuing year and that they be paid for their services a sum to be determined by the NSUN Trustee Board.

Download the NSUN Articles of Association

A full report of the day will be available soon.

New workers at NSUN

NSUN is pleased to welcome Ed Davie as the new full-time Communications and Engagement Officer and Stephanie Taylor-King as the new part-time Information Officer. Saira Walker also joins NSUN this month, she will be leading the work of the South East Champions. For more information about the staff at NSUN click here.

NEWS RELEASE..NEWS RELEASE..NEWS RELEASE

Mental health groups’ growing fears that barriers between statutory bodies and BME service user initiatives could result in disengagement reveals new report

 The momentum of BME service user involvement must not slow down according to a review of the re-released report ‘Dancing to Our Own Tunes’ (TOOTS) which was launched on Tuesday 1^st November by the National Survivor User Network (NSUN) and The Afiya Trust.

The report identifies a number of barriers affecting the relationships between statutory bodies and user involvement initiatives. Following recommendations in the original report, an advisory TOOTS group produced set guidelines and a charter to ensure good partnership working between both parties. One guideline in particular is the recognition of the role of service user experiences in making them experts in their own right to inform the nature of partnership working and the solutions to challenges.

In relation to effective user involvement the report recommends:

Link work to change mental health services with broader race and rights based initiatives in education, forensic services, citizenship rights, social inclusion, employment, income generation etc.

Build relationships between mainstream groups and black and minority ethnic groups, between communities and between professionals and service users/survivors.

Enable professionals from Black and minority ethnic communities to think about race related issues in their practice.

Actively seek out groups and organisations working locally, highlight their work and endeavour to support and sustain them.

Sarah Yiannoullou, NSUN Manager, said: "The findings and recommendations in the 2008 report are as relevant today as they were when the consultations were done. There is a renewed onus on national organisations with resources and capacity to support local groups to ensure that the momentum built over the years is not destroyed by funding cuts and policy shifts."

Patrick Vernon, Chief Executive of The Afiya Trust, said: “This report launches the TOOTS charter and guidelines for involvement. It comes at a crucial time when both user involvement and the race equality agenda are underplayed and sidelined in mental health policy. It is our responsibility to ensure that the service user movement as a whole and black and minority ethnic user movement in particular are supported to continue doing the great, and sometimes difficult, work they do in challenging and changing the mental health system.”

Jayasree Kalathil, author of the report and a research consultant, said: “In many ways, service user self-determination and leadership have grown considerably over the years. However, regardless of the rhetoric around putting patients first in the government’s policy papers, user involvement structures and policies are being dismantled across the board. The new mental health policy says nothing about taking forward the legacy of the Delivering Race Equality programme. The shake-up of the welfare and benefits system and cuts to support like legal aid, advocacy and peer support organisations have left many service users vulnerable. I would like to see the recommendations in the report, the charter and the guidelines are taken seriously by the policy makers and organisations they work with in strategic forums.”

Government accepts main Future Forum recommendations

The Government has published its initial response to the report by the NHS Future Forum. The NHS Future Forum was set up to look at the Health and Social Care Bill and make recommendations. The Government has accepted the main recommendations and this means that nurses, hospital doctors and lay people will sit on the boards of clinical commissioning groups with GPs. It also means that the health care regulator Monitor will have a duty to protect and promote patient’s interests rather than promoting competition as an end in itself, and clinical commissioning groups will take over responsibility for commissioning only when they are ready and able.

Read the Future Forum Report at http://healthandcare.dh.gov.uk/future-forum-report/

 Read the Government’s response at http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/MediaCentre/Pressreleases/DH_127577

Mental Health Strategy 2011

Launched 2nd February 2011

Read NSUN's comment to John Pring here.

The Government has published the Mental Health Strategy, No Health Without Mental Health, setting out its six key objectives to improve mental health in England and the lives of people with mental health problems.

• More people will have good mental health and fewer people will develop mental health problems
• More people with mental health problems will recover a good quality of life
• More people with mental health problems will have good physical health fewer will die prematurely, and more people with physical ill health will have better mental health
• Fewer people will suffer avoidable harm
• More people will have a positive experience of care and support wherever it takes place
• Fewer people will experience stigma and discrimination

Paul Burstow has signalled a new, equal emphasis on mental health outcomes in assessing quality of NHS and social care. The new strategy will expect patients’ mental health to be considered alongside their physical health outcomes following NHS treatment.

The Call to Action has been published along side the strategy.

Other links:

• National Mental Health Development Unit briefing
• Mind briefing
• NHS Confederation briefing briefing
• Mental Health Foundation response
• Centre for Mental Health response

Read a write up of the Mental Health Strategy launch event here.

Also, read the Afiya Trust response to the strategy
'Disaprity of Esteem' for BME Communities

NHS White Paper Campaign

Hackney Local Involvement Network (Hackney LINk), the borough’s watchdog for health and social care services, is mobilising opposition to the government’s plans for the future of the NHS.

The LINk argues that transferring responsibility for purchasing services from primary care trusts to groups of GP practices will harm the doctor-patient relationship, reduce accountability to patients and require the use of expensive consultancy services and private healthcare companies.

The LINk has now circulated a NHS White Paper Campaign Pack inviting local people to write to their GPs, as well as to their MPs and councillors, voicing concerns about the plans.

Spending Review

Responses to Spending Review
City and Hackney Health and Social Care Forum (HSCF) newsletter contains a round up of responses and analysis of the Spending Review.

HM Treasury Spending Review Complete Report

HM Treasury press release

Spending Review: charities could face up to £4.5bn hit
http://www.charitytimes.com/ct/index.php

Follow the news feeds to the right to find up to date mental health news in the media.

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