“ARBEIT MACHT FREI” ‘Work Makes You Free’ Alan Hartman 22nd Nov 2014
“ARBEIT MACHT FREI” ‘Work Makes You Free’ Alan Hartman 22nd Nov 2014
‘Can Openers’ By: Mel Jones a Manchester Social Worker working in Mental Health
Those of us who have been campaigning over the last few years to save public services from government cuts and austerity have been known to say, only half jokingly, that when the Tories are done, there will be “nothing left”. But this isn’t true. Tory austerity measures are a full on ideological assault. Their economic policy masks a concerted attempt to demonise the poorest and encourage people to think that the unemployed, the ill, the disabled, immigrants, asylum seekers and the old aren’t “deserving”. Thus the future is not one without public services. It is one where minimal services are delivered, by privatised corporations, to those who are deemed worthy.
Strangulation of funds has seen the NHS Mental Health Trusts lose £253m, 2.3 per cent of their funding.
The core ideal of the NHS, that makes it so beloved by British people, is its promise of healthcare free for all. That promise has now become incompatible with the reality of austerity.
By 2020, the NHS will require an extra £30bn just to keep services at their present level. This strangulation of funds has seen the NHS Mental Health Trusts lose £253m, 2.3 per cent of their funding. These cuts translate into a dramatic loss of vital support for those with mental health conditions
Dr Sarah Wollaston condemns use of police stations for under-18s
Ministers should end the “scandal” of vulnerable children and young people suffering a mental health crisis being assessed in a police cell because of a nationwide shortage of proper psychiatric facilities, an influential MP has demanded.
Dr Sarah Wollaston, the chair of the Commons health select committee, said it was “wholly unacceptable” for under-18s who are picked up by the police because they are having a breakdown to be taken into cells rather than to a specialist medical unit.
The UK’s mental health care is in crisis : we’re not getting it right
A report this week was grim reading for those involved in mental health care. The survey of GPs revealed that one in five had seen patients harmed as a result of “delays or a lack of support” from mental health services, while shortfalls had forced 82 per cent of doctors to act “outside of their competence”. While this news is shocking, it is just another example of the UK’s mental health care crisis.
Just last week, data obtained from freedom of information requests led to claims that the NHS treated mental health care as a “second-class service”. Indeed, thousands of mentally ill patients have been forced to travel “hundreds of miles” for treatment in recent years. Extreme cases have seen patients being forcibly sectioned so that they can receive care in overcrowded wards. Even medical students have resorted to asking for greater teaching on psychiatry, highlighting the derisory attention that mental health issues receive. Yet the state of mental health services is unsurprising considering that they receive only 13 per cent of the NHS budget, despite mental illness affecting around a quarter of the UK population.
A proposed £300,000 Salford mental health centre is a ‘smokescreen’ to hide the fact that staff needed to run the facility face massive job cuts
The mental health intermediate care centre, which was officially announced on Monday, would manage tenant’s mental health and provide help with integrating back into society.
However, MM has learned that many of the staff who would be needed to run the centre are set to lose their jobs in April, if proposed Salford Council budget cuts take effect.
The mental health floating support service which workers are employed in will be seeing a reduction in funding of £214,000 under the council budget cuts.
Steve North, branch secretary of Salford Unison, has been involved in the proposed centre’s planning and says the announcement is a ploy by Salford Council.
“On the face of it this looks like a really positive development,” North told MM.
“It’s gob-smacking and you would really question your faith in Salford City Council’s political system today”
FURY AS SALFORD COUNCILLORS REJECT VULNERABLE ADULTS CUTS CALL IN
Star date: 24th July 2014
SALFORD PEOPLE UNANIMOUSLY IGNORED BY SCRUTINY COUNCILLORS AS £4.4MILLION CUTS GET GO AHEAD
“It’s gobsmacking and you would really question your faith in Salford City Council’s political system today” Steve North, Salford City UNISON
There was fury yesterday as six councillors sitting on Salford Council’s Budget Scrutiny Committee unanimously voted to reject a `call in’ to reconsider over £4million of cuts to services for vulnerable people in the city.
“This isn’t a recession, it’s a robbery.” Spokesperson Manchester Users Network !
A rep from Manchester Users Network told the crowd that “Hundreds of people on the point of death are being classed as fit for work and something has to be done to draw people’s attention to it”. A huge banner attached to the wall opposite the ATOS Assessment Centre, at Albert Bridge House on Bridge Street, said it all…
Have Children Then Study Could Be ! Healthier Option With Life Style Changes !
“De novo (or new) mutation in the developing sperm cell may contribute to an increased risk for a surprisingly wide range of mental health disorders, including schizophrenia, autism and mental retardation.”
Police Commissioner Tony Lloyd “Let’s not forget they’ve not committed any offence,”
“They are in a police cell simply because they are unwell and the NHS either can’t or won’t take them in. It’s shameful. Worse – it’s scandalous.”
