Tag Archives: mental health

South West London Mental Health carers January 2024 update

Welcome to the first SW London Mental Health carers forum for the year 2024. This group is aimed at those caring for someone with mental ill health within SW London. The group aligns itself with the same areas the mental health trust South West London & St George’s covers.

Our members are from the boroughs of Merton, Sutton, Kingston, Richmond and Wandsworth. The carers forum is co-facilitated by Ava who is also a carer. Ava focuses on the carer peer aspect in the group. She is also a strong member of the Kingston Carers Network and on involvement at SWLSTG.

The speaker requested by the SW London MH carers group was Stamatia Filippou. Stamatia is the Wellbeing Practitioner of the Wellbeing Team, NHS Merton Talking Therapies. She is based at SWLSTG. Members wanted to hear what services were provided by Merton Uplift.

Merton Uplift Presentation

Stamatia talked about the following.

On how NHS Merton Talking Therapies is a free service for anyone in Merton who has a mental health or wellbeing need, whether this is due to emotional difficulties or life stressors (low mood, feeling stressed or worried, stressful family situations, financial worries, parents who are worried about their children or feeling overwhelmed, life changing events).
The service is accessible to anyone living in the borough of Merton or registered with a Merton GP who are 18 years and over.

Stamatia also mentioned that they are an integrated service which consists of the following teams; Talking Therapies: Offering a range of psychological therapies, CBT (cognitive-behavioural therapy), IPT (interpersonal therapy), EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing), Mindfulness based therapies, online, over the phone or face-to-face, self-guided, in groups or one-to-one.

There is also support for Wellbeing, where this helps individuals connect and access activities and resources to meet their physical, social and emotional needs. Their outreach work focuses on engaging with individuals who have historically not fully accessed talking therapies. Merton Uplift run a variety of wellbeing workshops e.g., Coping with Stress, Food and Mood, Living Well with Chronic Pain, Managing Anger, Managing Sleep, Self-care and Relaxation, Understanding Anxiety, Reaching your potential, Work, stress and burnout plus Wellbeing for carers.

After the presentation, there was a Q & A session where carers can feedback or query what was on offer.

For Talking Therapies referrals:
Phone: 020 3513 5888
Referral Email: mertonupliftreferrals@swlstg.nhs.uk
Via the website: Referral Form (mayden.co.uk)
The service’s admin team will register your referral and book you in for an assessment.

For Wellbeing workshop referrals:
Wellbeing Email: MertonWellbeing@swlstg.nhs.uk
Book directly on Eventbrite: https://mertonuplift.eventbrite.co.uk

Greenwich Mental Health carers forum update January 2024

Welcome to a brief update of my Greenwich MH carers forum. Like all my other groups apart from the London cancer carer forum, the Greenwich forum provides a platform for carers supporting someone with mental ill health.

The group seeks engagement from the mental health trust Oxleas, healthwatch Greenwich, social care, local authority and health services. It is important that unpaid carers are heard, included and involved regarding services.

For the January forum, we were joined by Healthwatch Greenwich on their update on the focus of including carer feedback about services.

The second set of speakers were Britt makhetshemu and Ana Stojanovic (South East London Mind) on the development of the new Greenwich Mental Health Hub.

We were also joined by Sue Sauter who is the Lead governor for Oxleas NHS trust.

Healthwatch Greenwich updates

Nakkita has a focus on topics such as Poverty, Vulnerability and Community Activism. Her interests are in how rights are upheld, especially during times of crisis and amplifying the voices of those most marginalised. She is passionate about giving back to the community she has grown up in and the services she has used, as a carer.

Nakkita De Silva who is the Admin & Project Assistant at Healthwatch Greenwich updated on the research project about improving services for adult ethnic minority carers in Greenwich.

Greenwich Mental Health Hub Presentation.

Next to present to carers and Greenwich carers was the development of the Greenwich Mental Health Hub. This is a partnership between South East Mind, Oxleas NHS and Bridge Support.

It was noted that the is a strong case for for Community Mental Health Transformation, because of the following.

Fragmentation and Transition Between Services
Thresholds and Barriers to Access
Challenges in Getting High Quality Care
Distance from Community

The Greenwich MH hub has a strong vision to develop:-

Personalised support. Where their commitment is to provide a diverse and personalised range of support for people facing mental health challenges within the community, addressing their psychological, physical, and social needs.

Crisis prevention. Their approach is to enable earlier support, foster recovery and staying well, and prevent the escalation of mental health issues that could lead to crises.

Making care fairer. The Greenwich MH hub are dedicated to reducing inequalities in access and experience of mental health care for all adult residents of Greenwich, regardless of where they live or their background.

A lot of time was presented on what the Greenwich Hubs core model is looking like

It was presentated that people should be able to transition seamlessly between different types of help, care and support as their presenting needs change on their recovery journey from ‘thriving’ and ‘getting advice’ to ‘getting risk support’.

Presenters Britt makhetshemu and Ana Stojanovic also talked about the pathways people have to access inteventions at the Greenwich hub.

Oxleas Lead governor Sue Sauter engages with the carer forum

Did you know a lot of mental health trusts have governors hold to account their board? Governors are usually voted in by the public, patients, carers and staff. It was excellent to see the lead governor Sue Sauter.

Sue worked at the NHS for over 40 years as a Registered Midwife in both a clinical, managerial and supervisory capacity. During this period, she was also employed by the Nursing & Midwifery Council and was a member and latterly, a Chair of their Professional Conduct Panels.

Sue talked about the roles of a governor, where one of the roles is to ensure the voice of our members, the public, patients and staff is used to inform our trust’s decisions and improve medical care and patient experience.

Since governors are voted into the role, it helps that they can hear from community groups. Sue was kind enough to take views back from our group and feed this through their council of governors.

This concludes a brief update of the Greenwich MH carers forum.

Ethnic mental health Carer Forum Update January 2024

Welcome to a brief update of my ethnic mental health carers forum. This is the January 2024 update where the forum focused on updates from mental health NHS trusts. The update was specifically on the new equalities initiative from NHS England, which is the Patient Carer Race Equality Framework. (click on picture below to zoom in)

As of 2024 the mandatory framework will support NHS trusts and providers on their journeys to becoming actively anti-racist organisations by ensuring that they are responsible for co-producing and implementing concrete actions to reduce racial inequalities within their services

Usually for my ethnic mental health carers group, I focus on things outside PCREF, but since PCREF has a heavy focus on minority voices, my group looks to engage with NHS trusts and their PCREF ambassodors on updates. A special note is the group is interested on how minority carers are being identified and included.

I am aware many NHS mental health trusts learn from each other so for the January group we had the following attend and present

As usual I brought in a special guest speaker from Middlesex University to speak about the following topic which she published in The Practising Midwife for the 2023 edition in November. Kristina spoke about “Mental Health Context for Minoritised Ethnic Individuals” and was specifically interested in why Perinatal birthing minoritised ethnic women and people suffer from poorer outcomes. Just to note, Krishna is not a mental health nurse, but a nurse under midwifery at University College London Hospital. She also teaches Midwifery at Middlesex University.

NELFT PCREF Presentation

Before we move onto Kristina’s presentation, the ethnic carer forum opened with a presentation from Asia Zaman who is the Transformation Project Manager for PCREF at North East London NHS FT. She was joined by Tarek Seeraullee who is the Havering Carers Lead at NELFT.

NELFT NHS has taken strong steps to not only incorporate PCREF, but also align it towards the hospitals carers strategy. The NHS trust presented that they admit their patients and carers have poorer outcomes, but things will improve through the following drives and more.

Upcoming workshops and events (increase cultural awareness) – carer led, to understand further about needs, perspectives etc.
increase Staff Knowledge and Awareness) – Develop workshops carer led, to share knowledge and awareness.
Increase Partnership Working – Task and Finish group- carer led, Havering best practice example? NELFT to consider aspects across all directorates.
Co-production – Carers group NCV-NELFT CarersVoice has been set up andrunning, for adults and young people.Workstreams in progress.

Presentated was 10 PCREF competencies where the carers strategy was aligned. We then had a Q&A session from attendees some carers were also from NELF.

SWLSTG PCREF Presentation

It was kind for South West London & St George to attend and present their focus on PCREF. This section was presented by Tom Carter who is the Peer Involvement Coordinator, Involvement Team. I know SWLSTG NHS trust fairly well as I have been hosting a carers peer forum for 4 years. My carers group in SW london covers the same areas as the MH trusts being Sutton, Merton, Richmond, Wandsworth and Kingston.

Tom presented the focus for PCREF at the NHS organisation, however we did have a few attendees from the area interested in the focus on ethnic minority carers. This is because they saw the presentation from NELFT and did not wanted to be left out. There was specific interest from Wandsworth carers centre and a few others.

On a side note, the mental health trust has developed a new induction video, which you might want to view below.

Kristina Goh presents on Mental Health Context for Minoritised Ethnic Individuals

As mentioned earlier, I was joined by Kristina to talk about her publication on why minorities groups giving birth had poorer outcomes. The group cannot always restrict itself to mental health NHS services as the equality challenge is presented in all other health sectors include acute services.

Kristina presented that one of the leading causes of maternal death antenatally and postpartum is mental ill health (10-20% of women).

Kristina mentioned that poorer outcomes could be challenged with the following.

Cultural competency training for healthcare professionals
Cultural competency vs cultural humility
Workforce needs to be reflective of the population we care for- think outreach, retention, development opportunities
Non-pharmaceutical interventions

You can view Kristina’s article from the following site. https://www.all4maternity.com/mental-health-context-for-minoritised-ethnic-individuals/

Kent & Medway Primary NHS Trust presents on PCREF

I have been involved at Kent & Medway for a long time and sit on their triangle of care steering group (see below).

https://www.kmpt.nhs.uk/carers/triangle-of-care

KMPT were very kind to engage with the ethnic MH carer forum to update us on their progress. We were joined by a number of Kent & Medway presenting their focus although time ran out before CNWL presented on their drive to include the Patient Carer Race Equality Framework.

CNWL, South London & Maudsley, plus Oxleas NHS and NHS England will update in February.

This concludes my brief update for the Ethnic mental health carers forum January 2024.

January Monthly Carer & Health News Updates 2024

Here is the latest carer and mental health news for January by carer activist and author Matthew McKenzie.

January 2024 Carer and Mental Health news <- read more news items here.

For the January edition on unpaid caring and mental health we have the following news items.

Carer Videos

Carer Centre Newsletters

Latest Carer News

National Organisation updates

Carer Research Papers

Cancer Awareness updates

Supporting service users and carers after exposure to coercive practice

Hello Carers. There is a new research opportunity for carers of those using mental health services. The project is being carried out by Lewys Beames, PhD Student from Kings College London. Lewys will also be attending my ethnic mental health carers forum, which is many of the groups I run voluntary to give carers a platform for engagement and updates.

The project focuses on people who access mental health services will receive care and treatment for a time in a hospital ward or inpatient setting. In these settings service users are sometimes subject to practices which may be experienced as forceful or restrictive, such as physical restraint (being physical held by trained mental health staff) or being forced to take medication. These types of practices are commonly and collectively referred to as coercive practices.

We know that service users and carers can find experience of coercive practices distressing.

The purpose of this project is to ask about and understand the views of mental health services users, informal carers and inpatient mental health staff on coercive practices and ideas of how to improve experiences for service users and informal carers where coercive practice has occurred during a psychiatric inpatient admission.

As informal or unpaid carers, this is your chance to give feedback.

For more information, you can contact

Lewys Beames, PhD Student
Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience,
King’s College London
Email: lewys.beames@kcl.ac.uk
Telephone: 07876875892

December Monthly Carer & Health News Updates 2023

Here is the latest carer and mental health news for December by carer activist and author Matthew McKenzie.

December 2023 Carer and Mental Health news <- read more news items here

For the December edition on unpaid caring and mental health we have

Carer Videos

Preventing trips and falls – Carers UK

How to solve a problem like hospital discharge – The Kings Fund

What are all these assessments? – Carers Support Merton

Saul Becker Keynote on Young Caregivers | 2023 Quebec Symposium on Young Carers

The Triangle of Care explained – Carers Trust

Latest Carer News

The Carers Leave Act received Royal Assent and will be enforced in 2024

The new immigration rules will pile more pressure onto unpaid carers – Emily Holzhausen

How can we better support unpaid carers? – Age UK

Carers Championed at Cygnet

NELFT publishes carers report findings as part of PCREF

Young carers across Northants launch new film to have their ‘voices heard’ and to show the reality of daily life

National Organisation updates

Book a coronavirus vaccination if you are a carer

What can we learn from the Can You Tell We Care report? – Carers Trust

Give feedback on care – CQC

Benefit and pension rates 2023 to 2024

Find your local Healthwatch – Healthwatch England

Volunteer with us – Carers UK

Ethnic carer and minority news updates

Carers UK good practice briefing for supporting Black, Asian and minority ethnic carers

Advancing mental health equalities – PCREF

Ethnic Inequalities in Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT)

Racial inequalities in maternity must be addressed

NELFT publishes carers report findings as part of PCREF

Racial trauma has profound mental health consequence – a Black clinical psychologist explains and offers 5 ways to heal

AHPs news updates

Occupational therapy interventions for informal carers and implications for carer support: a systematic review

Physiotherapy in the media – 2023 highlights

Cancer Awareness updates

Looking after someone with cancer

Caring for someone with a terminal illness

Risk of dying from cancer in some poorer districts of England over 70% higher than wealthy districts

Join the London Cancer Community

How to save a life by Holding the Hope – Guest blog by Jo and Matthew

CONNECT REFLECT VALIDATE – 3 key takeaways to support someone in suicidal crisis

My name is Jo Lambert and I am one of six volunteers who made Hold the Hope, a suicide prevention film which explores how to support someone in suicidal crisis though a lived experience lens.

Over the last year, we have been working with film production company Creative Colony to bring our ideas and vision for Hold the Hope to life.

The film is split into two parts, with the first part told through two spoken word poems Today’s the Day and Hold the Hope (written by me and performed by award winning George the Poet).

It depicts the journey of someone who is in mental health crisis and the thoughts, feelings and emotions they experience. The second part of the film features behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with me and my lived experience colleagues.

Hold the Hope was funded by NHS South West London’s Suicide Prevention Programme (part of the NHS South West London Integrated Care Board).

The film will form part of a new life-saving training course that will be co-delivered by me and other volunteers alongside NHS staff for schools and the British Transport Police in South West London.

At the start of the project, I wrote a carer narrative, a distillation of my lived experience supporting a loved one in suicidal crisis. I condensed it into three key takeaway points – CONNECT REFLECT and VALIDATE in the hope that this might be easy to remember in a crisis situation. These three words and their significance are themes which run through both of the poems in the first film’s voiceover and in the second film, my colleagues and I share our lived experience examples of how to connect, reflect and validate someone in crisis and what holding the hope for them means. The film’s name derives from the name of the second poem.

As a mental health carer, I joined this project because I wanted to share what I wish I had known at the start of our family’s crisis. I am delighted that there are plans not just to deliver Hold the Hope into the police and secondary schools, but that there are already discussions about sharing it more widely across communities – with mental health carers, parents, universities etc.

Hold the Hope has been produced from lived experience, and my belief is that it is versatile and eminently portable because of that. For me the beauty of Hold the Hope is that it can be shared anywhere – it is just as applicable in a corporate setting so that staff can learn how to support family members and colleagues as it is for clinicians in a hospital who can deepen their understanding of their patients’ experience.

“Can you turn stigma on its head

And see my staying power instead?”

From Hold the Hope ©Jo Lambert 2023

For me, this is the most important part of the poem. Once you start to understand the details of the back story to someone’s suicidal crisis, what is remarkable is not that the person had thoughts of ending their life but that they coped with as much as they did, as well as they did and for so long. The act of connecting, reflecting back and validating someone’s experience and holding the hope for them in their moment of crisis, can re-connect someone with their own immense internal power to survive.

It was an honour and a privilege to be part of this project and I have made what I hope will be lifelong friends as well as extended my own understanding from the shared experience of my colleagues.

Final words by Matthew McKenzie

I attended the Hold the Hope Launch on Friday the 8th of December 2023. The launch was at the Everyman Cinema Borough Yards.

I was not sure what to expect, but felt welcomed and involved. With collegues from Cygnet attending along with me, it was a great way to support the amazing work Jo Lambert and others had put into the project.

After watching the video Hold the Hope, I can certainly see the challenge that must be taken up by the police, rail service, schools and more. Suicide must be tackled as soon as possible and one of the best ways to do this is through education.

Health, social care and the mental health services can only grow stronger with the inclusion of those who have lived experience. It takes courage, determination and care for those who get involved, because they have their own challenges and trauma.

The film clearly shows the importance of holding on to hope. There is always a chance, but sometimes we cannot see this. Sometimes those who attempt suicide cannot see any hope and those who should help can lack the skills to spot and prevent suicides.

With Jo Lambert’s poem, I can see how this hits home. I can feel her words gently remind that there is hope.

I could not help but be intrigued after the film was shown. I wanted to hear so much from the inclusion of lived experience.

I asked Jo what she expected from the project and was amazed at how thoughtful her answer was. As a carer I can see the potential of the project. We need to include carers and help them tackle the challenges when caring for someone going Suicidal Ideation.

I admit there is so much to do, but with the Hold The Hope project, I can certainly see a strong foundation.

Thank you for reading

Healthwatch Lambeth to include black carer’s voices

Calling carers from Black African and/or Black Caribbean communities in Lambeth. There is an exciting project that asks for your views.

It has consistently been shown that black men have the poorest experiences and outcomes when it comes to mental health services. So Healthwatch Lambeth wants to hear your experiences of caring a male relative who has a Serious Mental Illness, been hospitalise as a result of their illness and then discharged to their GP.

This is a core part of Healthwatch Lambeth’s new mental health project and each carer would receive a £15 shopping voucher for their time.

The borough of Lambeth want those to recover, stay well, and lead a fulfilling life.

Lambeth Healthwatch also wants to talk to carers as they play a key role in supporting people with a Serious Mental Illness.

To share your views, please contact Anna D’Agostino at 07737 599224 or email Anna at anna.dagostino@healthwatchlambeth.org.uk

November Monthly Carer & Health News Updates 2023

Latest carer and mental health news for November by carer activist and author Matthew McKenzie

November 2023 Carer and Mental Health news <- read more news items here

For the November edition on unpaid caring and mental health we have

Carer Videos

Carer’s Leave Act support – Carers UK

Calling For Unpaid Carers Rights – Carers Trust

Carers Rights Day Video – Worcestershire Association of Carers

Latest Carer News

Carers Rights Day – your rights today, tomorrow and in the future – Richmond Council

Carers’ Rights Day 2023 – Government

First parliamentary inquiry into young carers reveals devastating impact on life opportunities

Monthly One Stop Shop for Carers – Kingston Hospital NHS FT

Third of UK carers with poor mental health have thoughts of suicide, survey finds

National Organisation updates

Carers Trust responds to Autumn Statement

Carers Rights Day – Carers UK

Book a coronavirus vaccination if you are a carer

Carers UK responds to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement

Ethnic carer and minority news updates

Lambeth leads the way in the journey towards anti racism in mental health services in England

Black and Asian people find it harder to access NHS mental health services, report finds

Carers UK good practice briefing for supporting Black, Asian and minority ethnic carers

Carers, Families and Friends Network Event Sheffield

Welcome to another carers blog from carer activist Matthew McKenzie. I blog and promote awareness campaigns, events and updates for unpaid carers. Just so you know, an unpaid carer is someone caring for a person who suffers from a serious mental or physical health need. An unpaid carer is not a care worker, so carers need their own specific support needs.

This leads on to an event I attended as one of the Cygnet carer network ambassodor. The event was another of the carers, families and friends network event. Cygnet try very hard to reach out to unpaid carers whose loved ones are using their services. It is a great way to network with staff and other carers. Carers go through many struggles and one of them is caring in isolation. So what I often tell carers is that they should network with other carers. This can help build up a support structure where carers can become peer supporters. Of course there are boundaries as carers do not often have the time to check in with other carers, but we still have to value the importance of a carer support network.

Cygnet Sheffield

Cygnet Hospital Sheffield offers a low secure service for women and CAMHS services for male and female adolescents over three distinct wards. When I mention CAMHS I am talking about Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

We cannot ignore that children and young people can also develop serious mental health problems and the outcome can be devastating for carers, friends and families.

Carers need all the information and support they can get. So it helps to have these events. The event took place on Carers Rights day, which is held on the 23rd of November each year. Please check out my earlier blog post on Carers Rights day to find out more.

Carers Rights Day 2023 blog

Also presenting at the Sheffield Carers Network event were

Ali Curtis – CAMHS Service Lead for Cygnet Sheffield and CAMHS Lead Nurse for Cygnet
Dr Seb Thompson – Head of Psychology at Cygnet Sheffield and CAMHS Lead Psychologist for Cygnet
Lesley Mellor – Parent & Carer
Julian de Takats – Parent & Carer
Kate Mercer – Family Advocate, Black Belt Advocacy

Ali Curtis started off the event. Ali who is a qualified learning disability nurse started her career nursing within medium and low secure forensic services before progressing to management within locked rehabilitation and children’s community services.

She her presentation and introduction to the event on what the service provides for those who use Sheffield hospital services. Ali presentated on aspects of the Triangle of Care, which is a scheme to improve mental health services for unpaid carers.

Sheffield hospital has done an amazing amount of work to develop and improve carer engagement and support. This was done in co-production with unpaid carers. This includes

Developing a Carers Welcome Pack
Carer awareness training
Carers contributions and videos and podcasts
Communication Care Plans, including information sharing agreement
Family Forums and so much more.

The above was developed to connect to the triangle of care 6 standards.

Dr Seb also contributed to the presentation on how the triangle of care made improvements to severals. If we include the families and carers in our mental health services then the quality of the services improve.

We then had Lesley Mellor talk about her caring role and feeding back what she heard from Dr Seb and Ali Curtis.

Lesley is the chair of Dorset Parent Carer Council. She is also the founder and administrator of West Dorset Coping with Chaos Plat Scheme for children with disabilities / additional needs. Lesley is a parent of 2 sons with disabilities. Lesley gave a passionate and indepth talk about the importance of parent carers.

Next up to speak was myself where I wanted to get views from those in attendance regarding carer awareness. I read out one of the poems out of my carer poetry book focusing on the desperate need for carer identity. I also talked about the importance of Carers Rights day and how we can use the day to highlight carers rights.

Up next to present during Lunch time was Kate Mercer. She runs a training organization called Black Belt Advocacy that offers support and formal qualifications to independent advocates including a National Advocacy Conference each year.

Kate spoke about the importance of advocacy for carers and the impact advocacy has in their lives. With support of the Care Act and mental health laws, there has been an increase in carer rights, but this is no good if services are unaware of these rights and they must be practiced and promoted to carers.

Last to speak was the 3rd member of the Cygnet Carers Network Julian de Takats. Julian is also a parent carer and used his lived experience to present the importance of including carers.

Overall the event increased carer awareness for those in attendance. I will continue to urge carers attend such events so they get a chance to network, ask questions and learn about how Cygnet services are developing to include carers.

A Caring Mind

A blog for carers of mental health and cancer

Tag Archives: mental health

South West London Mental Health carers January 2024 update

Greenwich Mental Health carers forum update January 2024

Ethnic mental health Carer Forum Update January 2024

January Monthly Carer & Health News Updates 2024

Supporting service users and carers after exposure to coercive practice

December Monthly Carer & Health News Updates 2023

How to save a life by Holding the Hope – Guest blog by Jo and Matthew

Healthwatch Lambeth to include black carer’s voices

November Monthly Carer & Health News Updates 2023

Carers, Families and Friends Network Event Sheffield