Changes urged to tackle mental health ‘human rights scandal’

Changes urged to tackle mental health ‘human rights scandal’

“The disparities in physical health outcomes for people with mental illness are currently regarded as a human rights scandal. Patients with serious mental illness are two to three times as likely to have obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases – which impact on quality of life and recovery, while contributing towards a 20-year gap in life expectancy currently experienced by this underserved population.
Dr Joseph Firth”

Trust Block Peer Advocacy for Services Users In Manchester

Trust Block Peer Advocacy for Services Users In Manchester

Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust (GMMH) is under fire due to policy changes that are said to be limiting peer advocacy and service user involvement.

In January, GMMH published its latest service user and carer engagement policy (SCE), which changed the definition of “service user” to mean anyone who has been discharged from its mental health services within the last 12 months. Only they are allowed to be involved in decision making about GMMH services.

Mad? I’m furious!

Mad? I’m furious!

My first contact with Liverpool Mental Health Consortium (LMHC) was in February 2003, when I wrote them a very terse letter complaining bitterly that I had been unable to access a place at their national Snakes & Ladders Conference & denouncing them for exclusivity & poor communication.
Fast-forward 9 months, & they advertised a post with a person specification clearly stating that lived experience of mental distress was a ‘desirable quality’.

Austerity is denying patients and care service users a voice

Austerity is denying patients and care service users a voice

User involvement in professional education was pioneered in social work, where service user and carer involvement is required at all stages. Students, service users, carers and educators all strongly support such involvement and see it as a key way of improving the culture of practice.

Male suicide: How Andy’s Man Club helps Oldham men struggling to cope with changing societal role

Male suicide: How Andy’s Man Club helps Oldham men struggling to cope with changing societal role

Andy’s Man Club was established by Luke Ambler in 2016 after his brother-in-law Andy committed suicide. It is a volunteer led organisation in which men suffering from mental health problems, including suicidal tendencies, can go for help.