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Freedom of Information ...suicide prevention
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Spirituality and Psychiatry
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Spending Costs on Severe Mental Illness
D. Speers made this Freedom of Information request to Department of Health
The request was successful.
From: D. Speers
16 November 2009
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am concerned that after much research and after reading the
responses to the Parliamentary Health Select Committee report on
Patient Safety, that it appears funding for mental health care is
taking a disproportionate cut in public funding. Suicide Indicators
are being withdrawn from 2010 and England will therefore be left
without a National Suicide Prevention Policy. Suicide clusters are
,according to the Dept of Health, possible indicators of
'significant system failure' and if the indicators are withdrawn
then how will DH guidance HSG(94)27 be accessed?
http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/grou...
Can I please have updated information on current spending and
proposed spending.
1) How much is spent on severe mental illness?
2) How much is spent on the carers of this group of people? 3) How
does the cost of keeping such patients in care(hospital or other)
compare with patients being kept at home?
Yours faithfully,
D.Speers
Department of Health
16 November 2009
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Department of Health
10 December 2009
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From: D. Speers
10 December 2009
Dear Ms Gasston,
Many thanks for your response and as Ruby Wax so succinctly put it
recently. "one in four people will suffer a mental health problem
and one in five will suffer from dandruff".
The odds of having a mental health problem are greater but receive
less publicity.
Maybe our priorities are a bit skewed!
Yours faithfully,
D. Speers
D. Speers left an annotation (10 December 2009)
Thanks for your contact Alix and can I link you to
Minds contact site:"All of Mind's work is informed by the experiences of service users. http://www.mind.org.uk/get_involved/tell....
I have added our families experience to Minds site and will continue to fight the fight from the periphery.
As ever
Dee
D. Speers left an annotation (10 December 2009)
Alix,
Keep fighting for your rights and your local LINks should be able to help you.
Keep contact with WDTK...an excellent site for openness....... then maybe we can help sort something for you. Thanks for your support.....you are not alone!
Dee x
Alix Cull left an annotation (11 December 2009)
Thanks Dee. Have coped for many years, and my eldest son is taking over a bit at a time as I get ancient!
D. Speers left an annotation (12 December 2009)
Hi Alix,
On yesterdays local TV news there was a piece on Samuel Reid-Wentworth....a schizophrenic being 'allegedly' cared for in the community by Sussex Partnership Trust (SPT)
SPT are under the spotlight over their reluctance to publish the internal report into the case of Samual Reid-Wentworth (not monitored in the community) and the stabbing of Lucy Yates. Mrs Reid-Wentworth also wants to see the 'Secret' Report published!
Majorie Wallace from Sane is expressing her concerns about 'duty of care' for patient and public. South Essex SHA are meeting to consider an independent enquiry into this case.
Tragically this young, seriously ill man stabbed an young woman whilst she was innocently out shopping. Thankfully Lucy Yates survived the violent attempt to kill her but no doubt she has been emotionally scarred for life.
SPT have a duty to publish this Report as I believe it is in the public interest. Maybe you could ask SPT to publish under FOI through this site or make contact with Mrs Angela Reid-Wentworth and support her attempts to get justice for her son......who has been sent to Broadmoor (whose management by West London Mental Health Trust which was the subject of an investigation into Broadmoor incident and patient safety this year)......and on and on it goes!Sorry I dont have contact details for Mrs RW but maybe online somewhere....I'll keep my eyes open and post the link if I can find it.
Take care
Dee
D. Speers left an annotation (12 December 2009)
Thanks Alix,
This is the only link I have found......SRW was being treated by the Sussex Partnership Trust, a mental health trust under investigation after a chillingly similar unprovoked attack.
Paranoid schizophrenic Benjamin Frankum, 26, stabbed a 33-year-old to death. He had not taken his medication for more than two months. Frankum - deemed to be no risk - was sent to Broadmoor secure hospital for life two weeks ago.
DO you know the victim? Call our newsdesk on 0207 782 4104 or email exclusive@the-sun.co.uk. e and its from the Sun online "
I feel like asking: 'Do you know how many seriously ill people are failed by the services that are meant to support them." Feels a bit too heavily weighted on the 'human interest' angle!
Would we expect a person with a broken leg to walk? Would we expect a person suffering a heart attack to be able to do as we expect? Then why do we expect a person with a broken brain to think clearly!
Maybe we need to spend more public money on mental health instead of eg. anti-smoking campaigns!
Alix Cull left an annotation (13 December 2009)
How many patients suffering from schizophrenia are discharged from the Mental Health Services
1. By the consultant psychiatrist.
2. By other members of the Mental Health Team.
3. By Managerial staff without psychiatric training.
How many patients who defect from their treatment are actively followed up by the Psychiatric services and/or reported as missing?
C Rock left an annotation (23 March 2011)
These are questions that must be asked. Having recently come across the comments above I feel bound to press this strongly. My son was repeatedly discharged from mental health services, without any advice being given by them or his GP. It's as if they were blind to the developing situation - just waiting for an incident and ignoring his parents' requests for help. He was last seen by a non-medic who closed his case without referring back or offering available intervention options.
My son's last incident was exactly just that. He took his own life in November 2008. I still do not know what action has been taken to remedy the incompetence shown by his Solihull GP or Mental Health services. Their whole approach has been to step back from honest investigation, and cloud the issues of their failures.
I still have no idea if my son's death has been reflected in any statistic that would be acted-on; and are the vital questions, as raised in this thread, yet dealt with?
D. Speers left an annotation (23 March 2011)
I fully agree and the questions are even more important now that austerity is putting pressure on mental health spending.
We need to be asking for advice not just nationally, from Dept of Health, the Commons Health Select Committee, The Public Admin Select Committee (who (allegedly!) scrutinize the PHSO process annually!) also worth seeking advice from the All Party Parliamentary Groups (APPG) Chair of APPG for mental health is Charles Walker MP walkerc@parliament.uk and APPG for Suicide Prevention Chair is Madeleine Moon MP madeleine.moon.mp@parliament.uk.
At a local level its the Trust's formal complaints process "local resolution" and local authority Overview and Scrutiny Committees....who have responsibility for scrutinizing health care in their area!
Independent Complaints Advocacy Service (ICAS) can be accessed via PALs offices......some a great support, some mediocre!
When all fails then formal complaint to Parliamentary Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO).
Keep records of all conversations and copies of all letters. Try to access full medical notes (ICAS can help here!)
All the best.
A. Reid-Wentworth left an annotation (13 December 2011)
So glad my son Samuel didn't become completely forgotten by the outside world. Thank you, Dee.
You may notice I have now posted my own FoI, and you can search under a. reid-wentworth, or Sussex Partnership NHS Trust and South East Coast Health Authority.
The whole matter knocked our family flat. I all but completely ceased being able to function and am still very easily exhausted.
I hope you are able to have success with all the other work you are doing. You seem to have a lot of knowledge.
Best Wishes.
Angela
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Alix Cull left an annotation (10 December 2009)
I am in full agreement with D.Speers regarding the plight and in many cases neglect of people with mental illness. In particular those who suffer from schizophrenia. This ia a brain illness and no more a crime than an ingrowing toe nail. The patients are theselves usually unable to speak up for themselves. Schizophrenia is a severe illness, and recent research is showing by scan techniques, where the fault in the brain lies in the faults in this organ. Yet as far as I am aware there are few such scanners available for the diagnosis of brain illness. When are these going to be supplied, at least one to each Health Authority? Also when is it going to be realised that a number of these patients are not fit for full time work, or placement in the open market? Although they do need some occupation such as the shltered workshops used to provide, without pressure.
The stress for caring families may well result in the family becoming ill through stress of caring for a difficult illness.
I would also point out that a number of such patients end up in prison at great cost to the Home Office and ususlly occurs because of lack of treatment and care brought about by the shortage of psychiatric staff. They should be in the care of the N.H.S.
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