Edinburgh Users Forum

Edinburgh Users Forum

Saturday 5 July 2008

McDonald Road Library

PRESENT: 6 members

In attendance: Keith Maloney (CAPS) and Kirstie Henderson (CAPS).

APOLOGIES: 4 members

Last meeting

A member of the forum told us some men are being excluded from activities that women are involved in at RedhallWalledGarden. As a result they feel they are being discriminated against. Do we need to take this up as a collective issue? The member is going to take this up with the Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) who manage Redhall.

What happens if someone doesn’t feel comfortable using a certain advocacy organisation? Keith will take this to the next Advocacy Implementation Group.

Jacquie Nicholson, Manager of Edinburgh Crisis Centre is keen to come back to EUF to keep the Forum up to date about the Crisis Centre.

Ch-Ch-Changes

At the meeting CAPS gave an update of what’s happening with the plans for new mental health services in Edinburgh.

Mental health services are either provided in the community or at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital (REH). This balance between the community and hospital is going to change when home treatment is introduced. The Intensive Home Treatment Team (IHTT) will work with people in their own homes. It will provide an alternative to going into hospital but not a substitute for hospital. This method of supporting people has shown to be successful in Australia and England.

Intensive Home Treatment Team (IHTT)

Edinburgh will have two IHTTs – one for the North and one for the South of the City. Each team will have a Nurse Team Leader. Each team will have its own Consultant Psychiatrist and a team of specialised nurses. It will also have close links with other workers such as Social Workers and Occupational Therapists.

The IHTT will be the gatekeepers for hospital beds and will decide whether they can treat you in your home or if you have to be admitted to hospital. They will also work with people in hospital to support them to leave hospital as soon as possible.

Providing intensive support to people who are unwell will be the IHTT’s job. They will be ableto visit people in their homes a number of times a day if necessary. The Community Mental Health Team’s (CMHT) cannot provide this kind of intensive support, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. The idea is that the IHTT will work closely with the five CMHT’s so if someone is becoming unwell they can be referred quickly. Each IHTT will have a team of about 18 members. They will work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Communication between the different services is key for making sure each part works together. ‘For over ten years we have been saying we need different responses to crisis.’

Mental Health Assessment Service (MHAS)

The Psychiatric Emergency Team(PET) is now called the Mental Health Assessment Team (MHAT). MHAT will be based at the REH and Royal Infirmary Edinburgh (RIE). It will cover Edinburgh 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. People over the age of 18 will be able to self refer to MHAT. GP’s will also be able to refer to MHAT. They will decide whether you need to be referred back to community services or onto the IHTT if you are unwell.

MHAT has now been up and running for a month. The IHTT should be up and running by the middle of October 2008.

These arrangements should help reduce the number of people needing to go into hospital and the time people need to be in hospital.

Each CMHT will have a single person to deal with referrals called a Referral Coordinator. They also have someone who coordinates support for people from other services, including those from the voluntary sector. In the pastthis may have been down to your individualKey Worker being aware of what was available.

And of course, there will still be the option of contacting the Crisis Centre 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. One of the things they will be able to do will be to help you get in touch with other services if you want to.

EUF hope to hear about people’s experiences of using these services in the future.

Crisis Centre

An evaluation of the Crisis Centre is being carried out by an outside agency called Infusion. They have recently published their first report of their findings so far. It has been difficult gathering feedback from people who have used the Crisis Centre. Often those who have gone through a crisis find it difficult talking about the experience once their situation has improved.

Some members thought part of the problem could be down to knowing who to get in touch with to provide feedback. We also need to be sure that what we say will be kept confidential and those who give feedback will not be identified from what they say. This is why an outside agency is doing the evaluation and not the Crisis Centre workers. We will put Infusion’s contact detail in the next EUF Newsletter.

We think that anyone who uses the Crisis Centre should be given Infusion’s contact details i.e. a card or leaflet with details of how to give feedback.

We decided it would be good to invite Infusion to a future meeting.

The Edinburgh Crisis Centre has moved to new premises and continues to provide emotional and practical support 24/7 through the free phone helpline number 0808 801 0414. In the next few weeks they will be able to provide short term face to face support and in the following period people will be able to receive face to face support at the Crisis Centre for longer periods including overnight. There will soon be open sessions when people can visit the Centre and meet the staff.

Will taxis be arranged for those who cannot use public transport or find other ways of getting to the centre if they are invited to stay?

Someone was disappointed that when they called the Crisis Centre the only response they got from the member of staff was that they couldn’t give them any advice. Another felt that when they called the helpline the conversation went round in circles and they hadn’t got the information they needed in the end.

EUF has a sub group that supports EUF representation on the Partnership Group that oversees the running of the Crisis Centre. One member expressed an interest in becoming involved.

Other items on the agenda:

• EUF Executive;
• Day Services Review;
• Improving the Mental Health and Wellbeing of Students in Lothian;
• Advocacy Leaflet;
• Oor Mad History;
• REH – 2nd round of workshops.

We didn’t have enough time to talk about the other items on the agenda so it was decided to include more information about them in the next newsletter.

AOCB

• It was emphasised that what people say at forum meetings should be kept confidential. This is how we run meetings.
• We will talk about what we do in meetings to try and liven things up a bit at a future meeting.
• One member does not like the fact the mental health system uses a legal process to detain people as they feel it restricts their human rights. Advocates can be involved if you feel you are not being listened to and need someone to make you aware of your rights.