Maidstone Weald Locality Planning and Monitoring GroupFriday 15th July 2011 at 10:15amKingswood Community Mental Health Centre, 180-186 Union Street, Maidstone ME14 1EY |
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Present |
Initials |
Organisation |
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Neil Bunker – Chair |
NB |
Voluntary Action Maidstone Platform |
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Emma Crawford - Minutes |
SAM |
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P Warnett |
PW |
Voluntary Action Maidstone V-Team |
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Justin Morris |
JM |
Voluntary Action Maidstone V-Team |
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DS |
DS |
Service User |
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WE |
WE |
Service User |
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Bob Ditchburn |
BD |
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Brian Pugsley |
BP |
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MI |
MI |
Voluntary Action Maidstone V-Team |
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Maureen Belcher |
MB |
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Ellie Potts |
EP |
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AP |
AP |
Service User |
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Brian Johnson |
BJ |
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Maggie Bowman |
MBo |
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JW |
JW |
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Susan Iverson |
SI |
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Merryl Chesher |
MC |
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RN |
RN |
Service User |
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Rachel Turpin |
RT |
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Charlotte Osborn-Forde |
COF |
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Sara Hutchinson |
SH |
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Rob King |
RK |
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Jenny Hogben |
JH |
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Apologies |
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Organisation |
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Chris Beach |
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KMPT – Maidstone Recovery Team |
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Gloria Bacon |
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VAM Maidstone Carers Project |
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Shaun Neaves |
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Homegroup |
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YL |
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Carer |
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Jill Martin |
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Medway PCT |
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Alan Heyes |
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Mental Health Matters |
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Paul Absolon |
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KCC Strategic MH Commissioner |
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Jan Prior |
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Blackthorn Trust |
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Theresa Hughes |
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Kent Carers at Home |
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1. Welcome, Introductions and Apologies The Chair welcomed the attendees to the meeting and all of the attendees introduced themselves. Apologies noted above.
2. Update from Sara Hutchinson on Community Development Work (CDW) Her work at Rethink is to try and increase BME (Black, Minority and Ethnic) communities access to mental health services in the local area as they are currently hugely under represented. Rethink have people working in placements in early intervention, personalisation, offender health etc. but her focus is on mental health promotion. In Maidstone she is running English as second language courses, for which there has been huge interest and as a result of this people are being trained to become mental health champions, where people do a 10 hour course covering mental health awareness, first aid, cultural stigmatisations etc. SH is looking to get further support and interest and get more people involved with this. Have people from a variety of backgrounds such as Afgani and Polish and following on from the training the hope is that these people will become more involved in mental health services letting these services know what these communities need and at the same time raise awareness and become trusted members of the communities to help ease the stigmatisms and taboo nature of mental health issues. Overall, this is a chance to all work together to find communities that arenÕt accessing services and maybe gain some volunteers from these communities to all work together. It is just as important to get the services on board as well as raising awareness amongst these communities as if the two do not work in conjunction then it will not work. SH noted that young black males are 3 times more likely to go in via crisis point through the criminal justice system and generally in BME communities the taboo and stigma surrounding mental health stop people accessing the services. SH also noted that BME does not limit itself to Black and Asian communities but ÒWhite OtherÓ is actually the biggest group of people accessing MH services in Kent, these can include Irish, Gypsy and Travellers, Eastern Europeans etc. Increasing the BME workers into services will provide huge long-term benefits with accessing of these services as well as in recovery.
3. Minutes of the Previous Meeting The minutes of the previous meeting were approved.
4. Matters Arising NB noted that he knows of no specific issues with people from rural areas having problems with access to Òmeetings with coffeeÓ as run by Platform and he has 3 people from the more rural areas who are very happy making their own way to these. The only potential issue he can see is that the free bus passes are now only available for use after 9.30am when previously it had been 9am and this may be causing some problems for people accessing Kingswood and Pagoda. MC noted that one of the main issues from people she had spoken to was accessing the statutory meetings, such as the Joint Commissioning Board (JCB) and this was an issue which had intended to be raised at the last JCB but could not be as the service user had not be able to get there. NB noted that having spoken to PA, he did attend the last JCB regarding this issue and the JCB noted the concerns of transport issues, bus passes etc. and took them seriously and intend to do some work on this going forward.
NB went through the Action Points and noted that both minutes and the agenda of meetings had all been circulated in timely manner. Some people noted they would also like to receive these by post and SAM agreed to do this. MC noted that anyone who wanted to access any of these documents would be welcome to call into Maidstone Mind offices where they were kept in a specific folder.
MC noted that herself, Alan Heyes and Jan Prior were still due to meet up but had as yet been unable to.
SAM noted the Gateway presentation was confirmed for the September LPMG.
5. Service User and Carer Issues MC raised the issue that people are feeling anxious and concerned about their general funding for next year, with the possibilities of further cuts to a number of services. MC noted that decisions on funding should be made earlier as services need to be able to plan for the coming year and at present cannot. The group decided that this matter should be discussed further at the next LPMG with a view to it being carried forward to the next JCB in November.
NB and MB both noted that they had heard lots of positive feedback from carers regarding the Aspergers day that took place and this too was noted at the JCB.
MC noted that the PCC (Patient Consultative Committee) recently sent a letter to KMPT regarding the correspondence sent out by KCC relating to future plans for the charging for some mental health services. The PCC noted that the letter was difficult to interpret and not easy to understand. BP noted that people could go to the Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley local blog to see the letter that their LPMG wrote and the reply received regarding this issue. NB noted that there was a vigorous conversation surrounding this letter at the JCB and the difficulty people had in interpreting it was noted.
6. KMPT Service Redesign
7. Service Round Up Merryl Cheshire – Maidstone Mind
Jenny Hogben – Sanctuary Carr-Gomm Currently waiting to hear as to whether or not funding will be continued
Charlotte Osborne-Forde – Voluntary Action Maidstone (VAM)
Service User - Voluntary Action Maidstone V-Team Has had lots of positive experience with the V-Team and as such mental wellbeing is excellent at present.
Susan Iverson – Winfield Very busy as always. Will be closing for 2 weeks, the 3rd and 4th week in August for holidays.
Maggie Bowman – KCC Mental Health Commissioning Team The KCC update was circulated with the minutes.
Brian Pugsley – Live It Well website
Maureen Belcher – Maidstone Carers Project
Justin Morris – Voluntary Action Maidstone V-Team
Service User – Maidstone Mind Wanted to thank everyone for all the help and support offered during times of difficulty and distress. She is very grateful.
Rachel Turpin – KMPT Maidstone Access Team Sadly Paula Hoobens, from ÒHealthy WalksÓ has lost her funding but it is hoped that the service will be continued on a voluntary basis A group of service users who enjoy taking pictures have formed a Facebook group called ÒMind ClensÓ and are hoping to attend ÒArt Uniting PeopleÓ
8. Working Group The group have not yet been able to meet due to busy schedules but a meeting is planned for August. They have however, managed to get a local GP, Tony Jones, on board with the GP involvement day.
9. Joint Commissioning Board (JCB) Unfortunately the group were unable to ensure any representation from a service user from the Maidstone area at the last JCB. This was due to transport issues as the meeting was not in Maidstone and no one else being available. However, NB did attend and he raised the issue of transport difficulties that service users were experiencing. The group were disappointed that they were not able to forward representatives to the JCB, but will endeavour to ensure that representation is made at the next meeting in November.
10.The Work of the LPMG – Neil Bunker As NB was chairing the meeting, he chose on this occasion not to present the proposed paper.
11.Any Other Business NB noted that the Group which takes place at the Fusion Healthy Living Centre have put together some work, documenting their thoughts on the LPMG. He would like to present this to the group at the next meeting in September. The second part of the work which has been prepared by the group meeting in Brewer Street, Maidstone relates to the transfer of care from CMHTÕs to GP surgeries. He would like to present on that at a later date. The group agreed to this and the ÒThoughts on the LPMGÓ will be added to the next agenda.
The next meeting was set for 10:15am on Friday 9th September 2011 at the Kingswood Community Mental Health Centre, 180-186 Union Street, Maidstone, ME14 1EY
The Chair thanked everyone for attending and the meeting closed.
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