MHM March 2010 - West London Mental Health NHS Trust

CUBBON’SCORNERIf you’ve not already done it Iwould like you to have a read ofthe Government’s ‘New Horizons:A Shared Vision for Mental Health’.This document was completedlast year and an updated versionwas published last month. It’s onthe Department of Health website(www.newhorizons.dh.gov.uk)The big change is that theGovernment now recognises mentalhealth and wellbeing, not just as ahealth concern, but as a major socialissue. We are told that no otherhealth condition matches mental illhealth in the combined extent ofprevalence, persistence and breadthof impact. It’s also recognised as anissue for our productivity as a nation,Editorial teamMental Health Matters is written for staff, atWest London Mental Health NHS Trust, bythe Communications team. We’d love you tocontact us if you have any news or views forinclusion in the magazine.Email us at communications@wlmht.nhs.ukin terms of days of work lost andcost of care. This is the strategiccontext in which we are nowoperating – which is very different toeven just a few years ago.One thing that jumps out at mein the document is the plea from‘service users’ to be involved inhow their care is provided. Thisranges from simply being listenedto, through to structured serviceuser involvement in all levels ofdecision-making.You’ll read in MHM about our driveto ensure we effectively involvepeople using our services. Thiscovers everything from involvingpeople meaningfully in their CPAto having a service user or carer oninterview panels. It can also meantaking action when a service usercomplains about something toensure it doesn’t happen again, ormaking sure that feedback from thePatient Experience Trackers informsthe decisions we make in ourinpatient areas.For all the right reasons patientinvolvement needs to be a priorityfor us all. What’s also key is that theway NHS organisations are funded,and will be funded to a greaterextent in the future, is now linked tohow satisfied our patients are withthe care they receive. This means wereally must get it right and to do this,EditorTara Ferguson Jonestara.ferguson-jones@wlmht.nhs.ukTelephone: 020 8483 2283we need to be clear about what ourpatients want their experiences ofcare with us to be like.We’ve set up a trust wide PatientExperience Forum which willco-ordinate all user and carerinvolvement at the Trust to make sureit is meaningful and consistent and tomake sure feedback received informsour direction of travel at WLMHT.This group will co-ordinate all of ouraudit material, complaints data andfeedback from service users so wecan use it at board level. There willof course be service user and carerrepresentation on this forum.At the end of last year, we launchedour first service user Christmascard competition, which was a greatsuccess. It generated lots of interestand service users told us how muchthey enjoyed taking part. In the spiritof creating meaningful activities forour service users, I’ve asked thecommunications team to launchan art competition. The artworkswill be judged, by a group includinga service user, and the best piecesof art will be used to decoratewalls around the Trust. Look out formore information on the Exchangeand in flyers being sent out – andencourage the service users withwhom you work to take part.Peter Cubbon, Chief ExecutiveEditorial assistantAlison Nunanalison.nunan@wlmht.nhs.ukTelephone: 020 8354 8737trust newsBroadmoor redevelopmentThe re-development planning process forBroadmoor is still moving forward, underthe direction of Vickie Holcroft (pictured.)We were asked by the Departmentof Health to revisit our OutlineBusiness Case in light of the HighSecure Commissioners’ review of highsecure hospital services for the whole of the UK. Thisreview stipulated a smaller number of beds than we hadpreviously planned for, and this meant that we neededto adjust the scale of our plans and costs accordingly.These are now with the Department of Health and NHSLondon for approval. If we’re successful at this stage, theTreasury is the next stop which we hope will be beforeTrust commended fordeveloping student nursesThe training we offer to student nurses on placement withus has been commended by the Nursing and MidwiferyCouncil (NMC). They recently undertook an assessmentof our ability to provide high quality nursing placements forstudents.Says Steve Trenchard, Director of Nursing and PatientExperience: “This is really good news for our studentnurses and I’d like specifically to thank the very manyunsung mentors around the Trust who consistently workhard to achieve a quality learning environment for ourstudents. There has been a phenomenal amount of energyput into the development of students by our nurses andfor this I am grateful. Well done!”At any one time we have around 300 student nurseson three year placements at the Trust from Bucks NewUniversity and Thames Valley University.The NMC visited Hounslow and Hammersmith & FulhamSDUs. Sandra Bailey, Head of Nursing in Hammersmith& Fulham said: “We had the privilege of a visit from theNMC last week. The reviewer who visited H&F met withstaff and students and was very pleased with the workbeing undertaken and the level of commitment to preregistrationlearning in partnership with the universities.We are very pleased with the outcome of the review andwould like to thank all those who were involved for theircontribution in making the visit a success.”the election. There is however a chance that we will notget full approval until the summer.In the meantime, we will begin the early design process.In addition Bracknell Forest Council are proceeding witha consultation process for their Local DevelopmentFramework (LDF) and have already announced this tothe local press. The Broadmoor re-development is partof this as it would provide some of the land they need toimprove local housing and amenities. This means they arevery supportive of our plans.We remain cautiously optimistic, bearing in mindthe CQC report and its recommendations for newinfrastructure to improve patient safety and recovery.More news when we have it.Medicines informationDid you know, information leaflets on 32 medicinesprescribed for adults with mental illness are filedon the Exchange for you to print off and give outwhen you need them? Go to homepage / clinicaltoolkit / managing medicines / information forpatients. These leaflets are available in a number ofdifferent languages, from Albanian to Urdu in thesame folder, and if you work with children you willsee there are leaflets specifically for them too.If you have access to the internet you might wantto have a look at www.choiceandmedication.org.uk, which is a high quality source of informationabout mental illnesses and their treatment, forpeople who use services, carers and professionals.As always the pharmacy team is available toprovide medicines information and for advice onclozapine, contact the clozapine clinic nurse in theSDU, who also has access to a DVD on clozapine,which has been put together for patients, carersand professionals.2 MENTALHEALTHMATTERS MENTALHEALTHMATTERS 3