Remember mental health represents maybe 10 % of the budget of an Authority - very much therfore a minority interest, and separated from the people who do the work, by another management -the local Trust management which runs the workface.
How many do the Authorities - they commission the mental health services so should have looked at those services appraised by the Inquiries - how many do they have in their Libraries?
I sent a fax to the chief executives of the Health Authorities. ( they commission and pay for what they want from Trust providers of mental health services)
Ninety-two
I hope to have replies by February 1st. ....not possible ...eighteen Authorities could not receive the fax query - not turned on - maybe too busy ?- tried 10 x over two days ... no, the number listed in the Department Regional lists, are a little outdated - ten have changed the fax number.
I'll list them - in due course - mid - late February -will be end of March - delay due to trying to catch up with those whose fax addreses were outdated
Hey.
Avon don't know -second thoughts - three - correction final score 34 !
Chelsea & Westminster ... by phone ... twenty to thirty ...( ? too busy to count ? - well I suppose it's a fairly unimportant try at getting a measure of their importance )
other comments ....little used ...... used once by medical students .... used by officials so that the circumstances and procedures described are not followed .....circulate round the officials before they come to the Library ...
Portsmouth have lost their mental health lead...a not uncommon occurrence
[ They are as they have always been routinely circulated to relevant mental health and child care managers in both health and social services.....
I wonder how the Department of Health will react to the returns from the Authority. If their own declaration, given over three years ago, that they were studying the Reports, and that they would publish their own review , is the line to follow, then I will be surprised if the Health Authorities - bother . - the sytems - nursing , social work , psychiatry , have been broken up, split off to their own hierarchy management by direction from 'the Central executive' If carers had the power , they would put in place a 'one-stop' service: information, to and from, one contact point of contact to the local weekly catchment area meeting where any new matters were discussed together regularly by the three core practitioners - social services mental health, mental health nurses, psychiatry . Well, the lacklustre will be listed - their Chair people and their Chief Executives, those who can't be bothered to know about the Reports after Inquiries, will be listed, those who find it all too difficult, those who are'nt even going to try, as well as those who can be encouraging.
They are acting on behalf of the weak and the excluded, who cannot reach up to the far away people, who do for them.
Time to 'pour encourager les autres'? micakernow home page
meet with these relevant managers twice yearly to examine the recommendations of each report in the context of local services and practices. Following each meeting a detailed action plan is compiled with a clear recommendation about who is responsible for what and in what timescale.
I believe that the above action takes us a stage further than simply distributing reports to managers and commissioners in the hope that necessary actions are taken. Local managers are committed to this new process.
The managers included in this process are: Integrated Mental Health Services Manager, Mental Health Development Manager, Service Manager Child and Adolescent Services, Primary Care Trust Commissioner and Assistant Director of Planning and Partnership. ]
The tragedies, as examined in their Reports , throw up deficiencies in purchase, provision, and direction; management disengagement which goes with a feeling of - we cannot be brought to accountability, they cannot point to who is responsible; maybe just tiredness with all the changes and a feeling of 'humpty dumpty'
and in the more local powers no one person has a power of decision - has the mechanism or power to put Humpty Dumpty together again.