Can you speak for me? Thursday March 5th 2015 Bristol

I am looking for a voluntary speaker to attend SEAPs IMHA (Independent Mental Health Advocate) Focus Group on Thursday March 5th 2015 in Bristol.

The focus group is made up of IMHA’s, all at varying degrees in their career, myself and the South West Area Manager, Chris. The group size can be anything from 5+(max. 15).

At this focus group we will be concentrating on the Mental Health Act Code of Practice (MH CoP), in particular the amendments which come into effect in April this year.

I am looking for someone who would like to come along and share working knowledge with us, experiences of advocacy and all other things related to Mental Health and advocacy.

Are there areas in your community group, business market, expertise etc. where you would like to see an advocacy service being developed and introduced? Is there something you would like to share with us to enhance our professional skills? Do you have specific knowledge and experience on the MHA CoP? How are you implementing the changes in your workplace?

Do you like to think out of the box and would like to speak to us about something you are passionate about?

You can be as creative as you like. At SEAP we embrace and encourage innovative ways of working, developing and supporting others. We currently have a Storytelling Project, perhaps you can work on delivering your thoughts, ideas and experiences to us as a story teller.

If you have other ideas and would like to run them by me, please contact me here sarah-jane.summer@seap.org.uk or by messaging me through this blog.

I look forward to speaking with you and arranging a great day at our focus group in Bristol.

 

Thank you

A client explains what advocacy support did for her.

Thanks to the work SEAP did acting on my behalf with the medical profession, from emails to telephone calls, there is now a Patient Pathway set up for East Sussex hospitals regarding Adolescent Mental Health. Without the knowledge of your organisation I would not have known where to start.

There were times when I was so exhausted trying to deal with my step sons mental illness that I felt I didn’t have the energy to continue the fight. But Pamela would email me with some small bit of news or ring me and it would give me the strength to carry on.

I cannot thank you enough for the support and amount of hard work you have put in to help me. I would not have been able to achieve the result without your help. The Patient Pathway was set up because of my persistence but you must also take the credit as without you I would not have known where to start.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. You gave me the confidence to fight for what I believed was truly necessary in the Mental Health Service. 

What is Advocacy? film – link is here

SEAP ADVOCACY UK

Following an earlier update on SEAP’s Annual review, here’s a link to a film explaining ‘What is Advocacy?’, from all perspectives. The client’s ‘voice’ tells a powerful story.

 

http://vimeo.com/102218539 from The Lens Box

“The organisation SEAP asked us to make a film to help people better understand their advocacy service, and how it may be able to help people. SEAP provide independent advocacy services to help resolve issues or concerns you may have about your health and well-being, or your health and social care services.

SEAP Advocacy is able to support the most vulnerable people in society, including those that do not have the capacity to instruct SEAP and people from marginalised communities who struggle to have their views and wishes listened to and heard.”

Annual Review 2014

SEAP’s annual review on their advocacy services is now available to read/download here http://www.seap.org.uk/

 

Alison

Aaron is my daughters partner and he is taking on his 2nd fundraising boxing challenge (White Collar Boxing) for Cancer Research, this Christmas.

When our lovely Aaron took up the challenge again this year, to show cancer who is the boss, little did we know how poignant this would become.

This week my sister Alison has been diagnosed with terminal cancer.  It is in her brain, kidneys, liver, spleen, lungs, stomach and Pancreas.

Needless to say she has a very short time (weeks) left with us all.

We are devastated.

Alison is petrified.

What I want to know is, why are melanoma skin cancer patients not given body scans as routine, once the melanoma had been removed and patients are considered to be in remission, as happened to Alison 4 yrs ago?

Surely a contribution of monies raised can be given to fund body scanning, alongside funding vital research.

It is not good enough that now Dr’s say there was perhaps just one cell that got away, causing this secondary cancer.

I intend to campaign for this to become standard practice, and I want to hear from you if this has been yours or a loved ones experience.

I want Cancer Research, Macmillan, NHS Trusts and anyone else to talk to me and explain why funds are not given to the screening of the human internal system.

I want an open dialogue to engage with people on levels where understanding, awareness and vital equipment are all in the realms of possibility. Can you help me?

Please support Aaron and anyone else you know who are taking part in fundraising challenges to show cancer who is boss.

Please share this again and again. Let us get our voices heard about this and begin to make an impact. Skin cancer is killing far too many people.

You can support Aaron here:

https://www.justgiving.com/Aaron-Meek1/

Please email me, Sarah-Jane @ madame-butterfly@live.co.uk or post your comments, thoughts, experiences on here.

International White Ribbon Day 25th Nov

Thousands of people, worldwide, are making a commitment to play their part in standing up to condemn violence against women.

Make your pledge here.

http://www.whiteribboncampaign.co.uk/

Being depressed did not make me “an innocent in hell”

An honest and open account.

Under Reconstruction

People suffering from clinical depression are often likened to an innocent in hell by medical professionals and their loved ones. It almost always stems from a well-meaning attempt to lift the depressed individual from the quicksand of self-loathing and self-beratement. You are not any of those things you say you are. You are not evil, you are not selfish. I know you. You are an amazing person and you are suffering due to no fault of your own. Basically, an innocent in hell.

I disagree. Yes, it was never my fault that I was depressed, but I am in many ways flawed, and so are you. I am not innocent, and neither are you.

The only difference is that those who are depressed feel the weight of their flaws, and the flaws of others (though mostly their own), far more intensely than those who are not depressed.

While deep in depression…

View original post 599 more words

Dementia Friendly Communities in Japan

Caring for others can be so simple

http://www.theguardian.com/social-care-network/2014/nov/18/dementia-care-japan-community-volunteer-schemes

Another Battle? “The wounded unwounded”

Military personnel ‘the wounded unwounded’ – access to NHS services

The recent news has been full of reports about service men and women not getting the appropriate medical care they need when they are discharged. A recent report (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29807947) said, “The government is failing to abide by its pledge to give injured British soldiers priority for medical treatment in the years after their service.”

Simon Brown, veteran Corporal says, “If veterans got the treatment they are entitled to they could remain productive members of society”. Although a Ministry of Defence spokesman said it was “fully committed” to the Armed Forces covenant (https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/49469/the_armed_forces_covenant.pdf), which sets out how Government is supporting veterans and their families in key areas such as healthcare, housing and education, leading professors in psychology and orthopaedics say the healthcare system is not providing veterans with the service they have been promised.

SEAP Military Advocacy Service works with veterans and has recognised this to be the case. Dan, a former serviceman, who leads SEAP’s military project in Oxford says, “One of the biggest problems that I am seeing is with the ‘wounded unwounded’. It seems that those with less obvious physical injuries or deformities and those with mental health problems struggle the most with getting the care they need. I am noticing that a lot of veterans feel that unless they have very obvious physical injuries as a result of their service they fall to the bottom of the pile.”

“During my short time working on the project I have heard several disheartened veterans claim that it would be a different story if they had lost limbs.”

“I agree that not all NHS staff are aware of the covenant.”

Dan goes on to say, “An example of this is the experience of one veteran we are supporting who has a long term, severe back injury sustained in Afghanistan. He was told by a NHS physiotherapist that he is not entitled to ongoing care and was even discharged, leaving him with no option but to go back to his GP with a print out of an article explaining the covenant in order to get re-referred.”

Being discharged from the army due to an injury often brings additional problems with military personnel, finding themselves in the unfamiliar territory of ‘civvy street’ where everything is totally different – with the stress of ongoing injury to deal with. Adjustment is challenging enough without the added uncertainty of what’s happening with their healthcare.

We owe it to our veterans, at the very least, to have their healthcare fully taken care of. SEAP’s Military Advocacy Project supports people leaving the military to access the services they need. Please click here for information on our military advocacy pilot

Broadmoor Reviews – Episode 1

My colleague has given me some of the reviews he has come across in the press since the airing of Broadmoor Documentary on ITV Weds evening.

Some of the reviews from Episode 1

“This first-ever visit by TV cameras provided more than a voyeuristic peek behind the walls; it gave an insight into some of the troubled minds confined
within. It’s testament to this film that I felt for a violent psychopath.”
Telegraph

“ITV documentary Broadmoor has been largely praised by viewers for its sensitive
look at the complicated issue of mental health treatment, after the psychiatric
hospital opened its doors to the public for the first time.”
Metro

“The doctors and nurses going into Broadmoor every day to try to help put these broken
people back together show more faith in human nature and the human spirit than I
could muster in a lifetime. [Dr] Basu, like the rest of the staff, has all the
calmness and self-command their suffering patients lack.”
The Guardian

“One of the amazing things that the documentary taught
me about Broadmoor was the fact that it attempts to allow its
patients to live a normal life.”
Unreality TV

I hadn’t come across these reviews throughout my week. The thoughts and feelings from people I speak with, are very much along similar lines, particularly The Guardian review.

I felt there was human compassion, warmth and humanity throughout the documentary and the staff came across as calm, soothing and professional without being patronising.

It is music to my ears, to hear Broadmoor described as , “…attempting to allow patients to live a normal life.”

What does everyone else think?