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M ental I llnessC oncernsA ll
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Services to schizophrenia - a very serious mental illness lasting in most to some degree for life are not fulfilled. The provision of aftercare; domestic resource and outside activities, routines are missing, which are necessary to hold the longterm ill, onto 'recovery' .Community Treatment Orders, where necessary can initiate and oblige such attendance in a routine of aftercare activities. They have to be there already, for the team to make them accessible, and for the long-term to gain access to them It makes sense that these activities, are wide enough to be those which will carry with them, the interest and engagement of those with the residual illness effects of schizophrenia, so that a willingness and a want to continue the involvements will return. Why is the NSF advice on priority to be allowed to lapse when services to
this serious and enduring illness are still unsatisfactory. New Horizons should first of all state publicly, those it is going to leave out and leave behind in the future, abandoned, when the NSF is quietly laid to rest '
Dr D H Yates FRC Psych carer
There are 200,000 people suffering with the burden of some degree of schizophrenia in England, and there must be 400,000 family members affected by the problems coming with the condition. All should write or e-mail. Aftercare is the service most needed, most wanted, most lacking. The essence, for longterm ill and carers, is the provision for the longtermof something to do which takes their interest, on sufficient days in the week, to deliver 'breaks within the week' in the care situation, so that , consistently, both have time to themselves, to fashion their own lives. So:- 1. In the Care Programme Approach at the Needs Assessment stage, in the Care Plan, at the Review stage, there is stated, and registered, a declaration of a commitment to 'breaks in the week' in aftercare. If these are not in place for each longterm , then this person has unmet needsto be registered as an NHS service deficiency. 2. Because things are not done unless there is a process to do them, every area must have a Rehabilitation team, working in the area community, discovering outlets into the variety of activities needed to take the longterm into them, accompanying the long-term into that involvement, sustaining it. Sir Louis Appleby , and it is time he spoke out and stood up for services to the worst off in psychiatric illnesses. Think on the e-mail outline above and if it bears with your own experience, of frustration at there being nothing to do for aftercare in your area, and nothing worked out in your locaity then e-mail or write to the two contact points in the New Horison display,giving your experience - that aftercare in schizophrenia is nowhere near a working service, and that this unmet need must remain a priority to be overcome, before funding goes off to the milder conditions in people, who can do something for themselves. Wanted: for Neglect - a Rehabilitatiuon team with a lead consultant psychiatrist in the team, provided in every area, funded to provide aftercare support with an appropriate level of accomodation with personal support, and the resource to find and establish a routine of interest provision, in every week, for those with some degree of longterm schizophrenia.
This is the attitude of my PCT commissioner of mental health services,when told of the burden of distress many family carers endure, looking after members with schizophrenia, the absence of 'breaks in the week' for them both, showing that the priority for those with serious and enduring mental illness had not been met. 'The National Standards Framework [ NSF ] ends in Septemeber 2009. That is where the money is going, unless we do something about it ! It's how much bang they get for their bucks The devil will take the hindmost, and Professor Layard will rule.
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E-mail reaction is welcome
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