Hello everyone, welcome to the latest update from the Lewisham mental health carers forum, which took place on August the 28th carers Lewisham. I know I have missed a few updates regarding the other forums that took place in July, I am hoping to add those at a later date.

As a quick reminder, the MH carers forums give a chance for carers to get updates, engagement, empowerment and also query NHS services and policies. We had some good attendance for the latest lewisham carers forum.

The forum usually runs for 2 hours, however so much was discussed at this particular forum we actually overran. I gave updates from our local mental health trust, which is South London and Maudsley. The NHS Trust has been really good in engaging with carers forums from the Boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark, Croydon and Lewisham.

As a forum we are excited to have future guest invites from lewisham hospital in regards to how they engage with mental patients at A&E. We are also excited to have the attendance of the social care lead in the coming months. We also hope to get engagement from the director of carers Trust. The forum has achieved a lot over the past 2 and a half years.

As a forum we were glad to hear how the modern matron in charge of carer engagement feedback how the trust aims to look into the Triangle of care. We are also hoping that a new care support group start up at the inpatient unit soon. As a forum, the members were very impressed with the director of Lewisham mental health services attending and engaging with some exciting ideas and projects.

For this month, we were very lucky to have Lewisham CCG engagement officer attending and listening to a lot of the members feedback and updates. The engagement officer told us about her role and the role of lewisham CCG, we got updates about some new projects and the importance of patient participation groups at doctors surgeries. As a forum we discussed NHS service provision, however a lot of questions should be saved for the Lewisham CCG AGM.

The CCG engagement officer educated and updated us on the recent health promotion projects in the borough of Lewisham. The engagement officer was well aware of my activities in the borough of Lambeth and Southwark and felt that we can learn from what they are doing over there and vice a versa.

I updated members that the NHS trust mental health act officer is due to appear this Thursday at the BME MH carers forum, plus members are interested on updates regarding the trusts carers strategy, however there is a strong feeling that the carers strategy must encompass local engagement rather than being too heavily trustwide focused.

I also updated members that SLaM are looking to discuss the Carers Strategy, plus that their AGM is coming up.  We are interested on who will win staff awards.

As usual many of the members feedback on what they are doing in regards to carer empowerment projects. Members of Keen to have a local carers listening event, however we are wondering about promotion and networking.

We look forward to more engagement from Lewisham CCG and also Lewisham Healthwatch, but importantly from a local NHS Mental Health Trust and Lewisham hospital.