Mental Health Newsletter, January 2013

Mental Health Rights MENTAL HEALTH RIGHTS GROUP NEWSLETTER JANUARY 2013

What’s new?

Who we are

Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR) is an organisation supporting disadvantaged people to tackle economic and social issues which affect their lives.

Using a Human Rights Based Approach, PPR supports groups to campaign for change and make their voice heard. Since 2006 PPR has supported the Belfast Mental Health Rights Group (BMHRG) with their campaign for a Card Before You Leave - a new appointment system for mental health patients visiting A&E The Belfast Mental Health Rights Group (BMHRG)is a group of

mental health service users, carers and families who have been bereaved through suicide.

BMHRG came together as a result of their personalexperiences and failures of the healthcare system. Since 2006, they have been campaigning for meaningful involvement in decisions made by government about mental health in Northern Ireland and for practical improvement in mental health services, such as the CBYL To learn more about the work of BMHRG and PPR please visit http://www.pprproject.org/right-to-health

NEED HELP? Call Lifeline: 0808 808 8000 if you need confidential support services and advice, or are concerned about someone else. This is a free helpline service available 24/7.

We are expanding our mental health project and can now offer support to a range of groups throughout Northern Ireland. We want to build on the fantastic work that the Belfast group is carrying out and support other groups to use a similar approach to address the issues that matter to them. Your group doesn’t need to deal with mental health issues exclusively or even at all – if any of your members are affected by any issues regarding accessing mental health services, we can help you to explore these.

If you think your group would be interested in learning more about the work of the BMHRG, PPR’s approach to making change in mental health services, or would like support in identifying the issues affecting you please get in touch for a chat about how we can support you.

If you are not part of a group but are interested in our work just give us a call. We are always looking for people willing to share their experiences of accessing services to help highlight the issues that people are experiencing.

So, whether you are part of a group or a person with a story to tell, get in touch with us to find out more about the work that we do and how we can support you to make your voice heard.

Contact Clare on 028 90313315 or email clarewatson@pprproject.org

What can we do for you?

Taster sessions...

We can arrange a taster session for your own group, looking at the experiences and approaches to campaigning used by different groups working with PPR. We can also offer you a workshop called ‘What We Know About Change’ to get your group started.

What ARE your issues?

We can work with your group to help identify the issues that are most important to you. We can support you to think about what campaigning tools are best suited to your particular campaign and how to take it forward. Some of the tools we can look at include use of the media, freedom of information requests and using human rights.

BELFAST GROUP UPDATE

Despite being long standing and committed members of the Card Before You Leave(CBYL) Implementation Board, Belfast Mental Health Rights Group members were dismayed to learn in November that after they received and commented on the first draft of the CBYL Evaluation- they had not been notified of later drafts which advocated that the CBYL Implementation Board be dissolved. This removes the Belfast Mental Health Rights Group’s ability to continue to feed in perspectives from service users on the ground, and ensure the Card Before You Leave is reaching those most in need. The Health and Social Care Board has continually commented on the Group’s value to the CBYL Implementation Board and yet their continued pattern of involvement of the Group has fallen well short of their own standards. The Group is disappointed that tokenistic involvement of service users still abounds in the health service decision making structures and is

considering what action to take in light of what has happened. Some of the Group’s comments on hearing what happened included:

“they don’t want the public involved – its all lip service” “but they need public representation –they need 100% of the story” A consultation on the evaluation of the Card Before You Leave is due soon and we have been told it will be published on the Health and Social Care Board website http://www.hscboard.hscni.net/. Once

we know it is available we will also put the link on our website

www.pprproject.org.

Message from Belfast Group Member Bobby Duffin I’m Bobby Duffin from East Belfast and part of a group called Survivors of Suicide. I came to Belfast Mental Health Rights Group in 2009 to try to get things done to improve mental health services. I find the Group helps me deal with my own issues after losing my daughter to suicide. The Group gives you a meaning to life by campaigning to get help for people who are suicidal or selfharming. One of the main things I would like government to do is concentrate more on deprivation as a cause of suicide –too often it seems to be overlooked.

Recently, I was at the launch of a book by the Colin Men’s Group in West Belfast and it was about a

man’s journey – his own battle with suicidal thoughts and the loss of his son to suicide. He talked about how being involved in a men’s group has helped him with his own issues which I found very interesting.

Bobby Duffin and PPR Development Worker Clare Watson at Man Matters Event (WEA) which supported Colin Men’s Groups book launch.

PPR’s second annual Tools for Action Summer School.

From 28th-30th August 2012, five members of the Belfast Mental Health Rights Group took part in PPR’s second annual Tools for Action Summer School.

Topics which were covered included ‘Human Rights and Change’, ‘How Power Responds’, ‘PPR’s Indicators and Benchmarks Methodology’, and ‘Organising within PPR’s approach’. The pre-

sentations, workshops, and discussions were lively and explored, through case studies of the PPR groups’ work, how innovative approaches to organising, policy work and campaigning can achieve lasting social and economic change for those in most need.

What participants said: “There were so many ‘wow’ moments… it feels like scales falling

from your eyes.”

“I would rate the summer school as one of the best training sessions I have ever completed."

“The summer school provided a very good blueprint for taking action regardless of the issue.”

If you are interested in attending the next PPR Tools for Action Summer School, please contact

nicola@pprproject.org

Out and About In the last few months we have been out and about at events throughout Northern Ireland including the Contact NI conference where some interesting highlights from the speakers included; changing attitudes from ‘accepting suicide as inevitable’ to ‘every suicide is preventable’ and highlighting that a change in focus also needs to occur at A&E departments. The view expressed from Professor Annette Beautrais from University of Auckland, New Zealand was that not enough is actually being done at A&E and it is being ‘under utilised’ as a way of helping the most vulnerable, particularly young men. This is in contrast with the message we often hear in NI, namely that people with mental health issues should not be attending A&E for treatment.

PPR is expanding our mental health project and we are currently looking at the issues experienced by people living in rural areas when accessing mental health services. By speaking to groups and individuals, we are trying to build up a better picture of what those issues are. We recently attended the Niamh Louise book launch in Dungannon of ‘The Last Taboo’ which hopes to help destigmatise suicide and heard about the research they have done as part of their ‘Breaking the Silence’

report. We were also at the Families Voices Forum event, ‘The Ripple Effect’ which looked at how the family as a whole can be impacted by suicide and the issues and support available for those affected by suicide in rural areas.

PPR and PIPS (www.pipsprogrammes.com) attended an open meeting in Fermanagh, held in response to a number of suicides in the local community in October 2012. We heard about the ‘hit and miss’ experience of people using GP services in terms of the attitude towards mental health and the services available; the lack of awareness of where to go for help and support; the reliance on the prescription of anti-depressants rather than a multi service approach; a lack of awareness in the wider community about mental health and the continued stigma around mental health and suicide.

www.pprproject.org

Suicide Prevention Open Meeting, Fermanagh includes: L-R Clare Watson PPR, Phil Flanagan MLA, a representative from the Fermanagh Trust, Caroline and Philip from PIPS and Michelle Gildernew MP

GET INVOLVED

If you are interested in becoming involved or would like more information please contact us on 02890 313315 or email bmhrg@pprproject.org or c/o PPR, 2nd Floor, 133 Royal Avenue, Belfast BT1 1FG www.pprproject.org FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/pprproject YOUTUBE http://www.youtube.com/PPRProject TWITTER https://twitter.com/PPR_Org NEED HELP? Call Lifeline: 0808 808 8000 if you need confidential support services and advice, or are concerned about someone else. This is a free helpline service available 24/7.