HEALTH and social care teams will try to reduce the number of hospital admissions in two new pilot schemes.
People more likely to be taken to hospital — such as the elderly or those with long-term conditions — will be identified by Integrated Neighbourhood Teams (INTs) in Bolton.
The pilot schemes are a joint project between Bolton Council, the Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and Greater Manchester West NHS Mental Health Foundation Trust as part of the new “integrated” health care system.
Council chiefs say there are more than 44,000 people aged 65 and over in Bolton, and more than 13,000 of these are at risk of developing future health and social care needs.
The mental health intermediate care centre, which was officially announced on Monday, would manage tenant’s mental health and provide help with integrating back into society.
However, MM has learned that many of the staff who would be needed to run the centre are set to lose their jobs in April, if proposed Salford Council budget cuts take effect.
The mental health floating support service which workers are employed in will be seeing a reduction in funding of £214,000 under the council budget cuts.
Steve North, branch secretary of Salford Unison, has been involved in the proposed centre’s planning and says the announcement is a ploy by Salford Council.
“On the face of it this looks like a really positive development,” North told MM.
FURY AS SALFORD COUNCILLORS REJECT VULNERABLE ADULTS CUTS CALL IN
Star date: 24th July 2014
SALFORD PEOPLE UNANIMOUSLY IGNORED BY SCRUTINY COUNCILLORS AS £4.4MILLION CUTS GET GO AHEAD
“It’s gobsmacking and you would really question your faith in Salford City Council’s political system today” Steve North, Salford City UNISON
There was fury yesterday as six councillors sitting on Salford Council’s Budget Scrutiny Committee unanimously voted to reject a `call in’ to reconsider over £4million of cuts to services for vulnerable people in the city.
The Samaritans say they are seeing a huge increase in calls from people with mental illness – because patients have no-one to turn to at evenings and weekends.
The Manchester branch of the service, based on Oxford Road in the city centre has seen an increase of 3,500 calls over the past 12 months, dealing with 41,320 in total.
Many are existing mental health patients who say they have no-one else to talk to. It is not recorded by The Samaritans which health trusts each patient is being treated by.
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Re: Patient and Public Involvement in Research Strategy January 2014
The National Survivor User Network (NSUN) was asked by the Manchester Users Network (one of our member groups), to provide comments on the above strategy.
This was in relation to the definition of ‘Service User’ on page 5 and the serious concerns from ‘service users’ that the definition used was both excluding and restrictive in terms of involvement.
In November of two thousand and seven, eighty-three [83] cross party MP signed an early day motion sponsored by Manchester MP John Leech, in July of 2007. Let us not forget what was said back then in the House of Commons about Manchester Mental Health & Social Care Trust (MMH&SCT) who had a bad record when it came to free speech.
“As a direct result of ‘Patient’ (Services Users) receiving some of the poorest commissioned mental health care in the country , Manchester services user groups have been working with MACC and other mental health support groups on a Manchester Mental Health Charter; which already holds the support of Manchester Services User groups and carer groups and is presently seeking pursuant to further consultation with ‘Services Users’ and the Manchester People and which will eventually give legally binding protections from discrimination because of mental disability and should contractually enlist all members of staff who work for the three Manchester commissioning Groups who commission for Manchester mental health services for patients within their remit.”
Staatement Made By MUN Chair To North Manchester CCG Full Statement: https://www.manchesterusersnetwork.org.uk/2014/03/12/patients-put-questions-north-manchester-clinical-commissioning-group/
Below we have published three recent examples of what patients, users of mental health services (services users) in Manchester have been saying they now want in a charter for mental health. Please leave in the comments section below what you would wish to see in a Manchester charter . The three Manchester mental health commissioning bodies are listening so please add your voice and be heard “It’s Time to Be Heard”
“Zero User Engagement.” Questions to the Chair of the Board of North Manchester CCG, Today Wednesday 11th June 2014, 2.00PM !
Note: – Some questions would normally be for the service provider (Manchester Mental Health & Social Care Trust) to answer, but we are being continually ignored and the Service Users have described this as “Zero User Engagement.”
1] Could the CCG implement User monitoring Groups assessing the quality of services with benchmark standards, which would produce value for money, Quality Services meeting patient’s needs, and would give the CCG a better idea of what services to commission?
Senior Manager, Health & Wellbeing Service, MMH&SCT. Douglas has helped to improve mental health services for many years and promote User (Patient)Involvement.
