Category Archives: Carers Lewisham MH Forum

Lewisham MH Carer Forum March 2018

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Here is the March update from another of the forums I chair for Mental Health unpaid carers in Lewisham. The carers forum is based at Carers Lewisham and we are always on the lookout for other carers wanting to become members of our forum.

As with other carer forums. We come together to discuss carer issues, get engagement from our Mental Health trust being South London & Maudsley and also get engagement/focus groups from other parties. It is not unknown that members from other trusts tend to pop down to observe or engage with the forum for networking purposes.

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Lewisham MH Carers forum November

133Welcome to the November update of the Lewisham Mental Health carers forum for 2017. This will be the last forum for 2017 until January 2018. The carers forum has been running in Lewisham for some years now and there has been some minor problems, but many successes.

For the November forum on the agenda we had feedback from South London & Maudsley regarding carer queries from the October meeting. The patient information officer did a great job in notifying the involvement lead, information manager and engagement lead regarding carer queries.

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Lewisham Mental Health Carers Forum September 2017

Here is the update for the Lewisham Mental Health Carers forum for September 2017. This forum took place on the 26th of September, 1:00 pm at the Carers Lewisham centre.

If you wish to see the video version, please click below

The topic for that day was the importance of involvement in mental health services. While some of the carers are involved at South London and Maudsley foundation trust, which provides the bulk of mental health services in Lewisham, Croydon, Southwark and Lambeth. I was fortunate enough to have Debbie who is an involvement representative over at North East London Foundation Trust.

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When I talk about foundation trusts and mental health services. Usually foundation trusts are a coalition of large hospitals and community teams providing mental health services. As far as I know every mental health trust has some form of involvement and some trusts do this well, while at other trusts there still is a lot to learn.

North east London Foundation trust provides services in several london boroughs being Barking, Dagenham, Brentwood, Havering, Kent, Basildon and more. Debbie spoke about what she does over north east london and the importance of involvement.

The forum discussed what was good about involvement and services, what was difficult or bad and what we would like to change. We also discussed how involvement within our local mental health trusts can empower us, but it is also a duty to speak up for injustice and protect those who are vulnerable.  Debbie mentioned that SLaM was held in high regard, but I pointed out that over at SLaM we speak highly of NELFT.

During the discussion, I found ex service user Debbie to be extremely knowledgeable about getting involved in the mental health services. I also noticed her leadership skills while presenting to carers.

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I was hoping to present a bit about involvement myself while charing the forum, but we ran out of time since a lot of carer issues where raised, plus Debbie had to attend the NELFT annual meeting.

Also at the forum we had another special guest that being the Carer Engagement Project Coordinator from Oxleas Foundation Trust. Oxleas provides services in Greenwich, Bromley and Bexley. We were greatful to have engagement from hard working prople from two different trusts, but the main aim was to learn from each other, which will be an ongoing relationship.

Lewisham Mental Health Carers forum August 2017

Here is the update for the Lewisham Mental Health Carers forum for August 2017. This is one of the older mental health carer forums in south London, the carers forum has been running for more than a year. Of course, When I say “Mental Health Carer”, I mean someone who is caring unpaid for a relative, friend or neighbour suffering from some form of mental illness.

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Lewisham mental health carers forum July 2017

coverHere is the update for the Lewisham Mental Health Carers forum for July 2017.  This is one of the older mental health carer forums in south London, the carers forum has been running for more than a year.  Of course, When I say “Mental Health Carer”, I mean someone who is caring unpaid for a relative, friend or neighbour suffering from some form of mental illness.

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Carers Lewisham MH Carers Forum June

Mental Health Open ForumWelcome back to another update of the June Mental Health Carers forum 2017. The Mental Health Carers forum is a basically a forum for carers who care for someone using the mental health services. What I mean by a carer is someone who is unpaid and caring out of love, desperation or commitment. Carers are not care workers, carers do not get paid and they do not have clients.

The Mental Health carers forum runs from a carers centre in Lewisham. The forum has been running for nearly 2 years, but there is some exciting news as the forum is slowly networking with other carers and word is beginning to spread. Another Mental Health carers forum has just also started in June and there are plans for a few more Mental Health Carers forums.

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Mental Health Carers Forum – March 2017

Mental Health Open Forum

Welcome to another blog post from a carer in south London. Just a quick update, one of the projects I am interesting in helping to run is to be involved and help chair carer forums. I am hoping to write a blog at a later date regarding the importance of carer forums, but for now, this blog post is an update from the Carers Lewisham Mental Health Carer forum.

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