The Mental Health Chess Game For The Patient's Soul In Birmingham And Solihull Is Reflected Elsewhere In The UK

Whistleblowing Statistics And Why It Pays To Gag The User's Voice .

In response to the recent NHS nurse survey work by the whistleblowing charity Public Concern At Work (PCAW) UserWatch Speaks out about Birmingham And Solihull Mental Health NHS Trust :

In Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust UK over years colleagues of UserWatch have noted how the "User Voice" organisation which was initially voluntary was hijacked by the Trust itself . The ambition of some of those working for User Voice was also to make a career from it and in 2002 onwards the quicker the better - they were ambitious....

It has never looked backwards although it has looked "sideways" many times on issues of real patient importance and now it has the support of the corporate Trust and a significant amount of staff .. Yet its well under control . Of the outgoing independent PPI (Patient Involvement Independent Forum abolished by Gov't in March 2008 ) the Chair of the Trust Peter Marquis had this to say in a Jan 2008 Board Meeting of their position towards the Trust in-house paid User Voice. The PPI recommended an Independent User Voice similar to Derby User Voice which is an independent Charity ..

"Public & Patient Involvement Forum - Formal Request for a joint study and implementation group leading to the creation of an independent Birmingham User’s Voice organisation Board Directors will have received copies of a paper from the PPIF regarding the above. The Trust has its own User Voice mechanism that is serving the Trust well.

Clearly with changes to the Local Involvement Networks (LINks) which will become active from September 2008, PPIF are concerned that this more generic model will loose the defined mental health user opinion in the future. In addition, PPIF have not been supportive of our in house model.

I have asked the Director of Strategic Management, who has the Public & Patient involvement portfolio to consider the ramifications of the PPIF paper. Clearly, as we have staff employed (including service users as field workers within our Directorates), I am not going to progress this proposal until the facts and risks of any change are clarified and debated. I have acknowledged receipt of their paper as required "


Staff and ex User Voice members have informed those allied to UserWatch that "whistleblowing" is too diffcult . There is a subtle but felt threat of intimidation by upper management who are keenly performance driven and there is gestural pressure to dilute the patient's voice.. So yes Peter - the User Voice does serve the Trust's performance politics well ...

It seems this theme of poor whistleblowing is reflected in a survey done on Nurses in the UK . Its a very mixed picture of results and there is strong evidence that if Nurses stand up for their patients they suffer negative consequences ...

We have heard of this in Birmingham in the mental health Trust too but Unison the Union is very right wing and god knows what its doing but it does play the bosses game of keeping the code of silence ......This is why some of the upper management are known as the "Staffia"

Have a look at the survey figures into Whistleblowing below from PCAW

PCAW / Nursing Standard whistleblowing survey


Public Concern at Work
Suite 301
16 Baldwins Gardens
London EC1N 7RJ
Tel. 020 7404 6609

Percents
Absolute
Q1 In the past three years, have you had a concern about a serious risk to patient safety?

Yes
513
68.2%

No
239
31.8%
Q2 If yes, did you raise the concern?

Yes
445
86.7%

No
68
13.3%

Q3 Who did you raise your concern with?

Line manager
190
42.7%

Team leader
78
17.5%

Senior Management
91
20.4%

Union
10
2.2%

Regulator / Department of Health
5
1.1%

Patient or Patients Family
3
0.7%

Media
0
0.0%

Multiple
68
15.3%

Q4 How do you think the risk to patient safety was handled? Well – the patient safety issue was properly addressed or resolved

128
28.8%

Fairly – the patient safety issue was fairly considered but I did not agree with the outcome

89
20.0%

Badly – the patient safety issue was ignored, covered up or not addressed

210
47.2%
Don’t know

18
4.0%

Q5 Did you personally suffer any serious or lasting negative professional consequences?
Yes
170
38.2%

No
275
61.8%

Q6 Did the serious risk you identified eventually cause harm to patients?

Yes
23.2%
119

No
45.2%
232
Don't know
31.6%
162

Q7 If next week you were to have a concern about a serious risk to patient safety would you raise it?

Yes
85.1%
640
No
5.1%
38
Don't know
9.8%
74

Q8. Which three factors would you say most deter nurses from raising a concern about patient safety?

It is just a suspicion
22.1%
166
"I'm only a nurse"
11.2%
84
Someone else will raise it
19.7%
148
Not wanting to get colleagues) into trouble
49.6%
373
Fear of being seen as a "snitch" by colleagues
47.6%
358
Fear of dismissal or discipline
45.7%
344
Nothing will be done anyway
57.6%
433
Not knowing who to talk to
21.9%
165
It doesn't feel safe
24.6%
185
Q9. Would you say your employer does enough to promote whistleblowing?

Yes
21.1%
159
No
59.7%
449
Don't know
19.1%
144

Q10 Has your organisation used its whistleblowing arrangements to discourage staff from raising a concern?

Yes
16.9%
127
No
30.1%
226
Don't know
53.1%
399

Q11 Has a colleague in your organisation used whistleblowing to protect their own position or pursue a private agenda?

Yes
20.3%
153
No
21.0%
158
Don't know
58.6%
441

Q12 If you raised a concern about patient safety and suffered reprisals from your manager or team, how confident are you your organisation would try to remedy the situation?
Very Confident
50.9%
44
Quite Confident
23.3%
175
Not V. Confident
30.9%
232
Not at all Confident
245
32.6%
Don't know
56
7.4%

Q13 Compared to three years ago, how would you describe the culture for raising concerns in your workplace?

Much better
88
11.7%
Slightly better
174
23.1%
About the same
316
42.0%
Worse
108
14.4%
Much worse
66
8.8%
Q14 How would you describe your organisation's relationship with its staff? Very open

36
4.8%
Open
253
33.6%
Not very open
334
44.4%
Closed
129
17.2%

Q15 How would you describe your organisation's relationship with the public?

Very open
46
61.0%
Open
324
43.1%
Not very open
316
42.0%
Closed
66
8.8%


LINKS : PCAW NEWS

Rethink Is It A Duplicitous Mental Health Charity ?

UserWatch Updates On The Mental Health UK Charity Saga

It appears, as others on Mandy's Lifeboat (UK) have written, there is no heed to independent thought in the mental health (MH) User's no-mans lands of the UK where a shaggy war torn authenticity roams.....

Journalists like Mary Ohara of the Guardian and there are others, who benefit from mental health charity accolades because they endorse the Gov't work driven anti-patient choice ideology are just a another symptom of Serious Diverted insightus...

Quite a few NHS Trust paid ex mental health service Users have it now too ....

Patient Choice has been relegated to a few people on Direct Payments scattered here and there in a few DP waterholes in the UK authenticity desert picking daises god bless them .....The vast majority are waiting for the Gov't Staffia whacking, that was lined up for them by the mental health charities like Re-think ...A surrey originated charity empire..

Paul Jenkins 20 years a DOH civil servant came to Re-think as CEO only in the last few years after Cliff Prior left to work at UnLTD which is part of the Big Lottery empire ....




We've noted at UserWatch how difficult it is for a better kind of lottery funded localism to operate without Gov't agenda's all over it now ...Mental Health Charities too like NSUN (a baseless invention by a few) who were handed 500k and then another 250k are able now to hand out UK Comic Relief Charity funds to others they favour and adjudicate as worthy ... Is any of this over-arching power being investigated by Journalists ? NO . Why not ? Because the MH journalists are part of the circles of unofficial power networks and their objectivity is looped into those circles .....Rethink and MIND are now happily sharing out 18 million of Big Lottery funding on mind shaping anti-stigma propaganda

MIND the national mental health charity, award accolades to MH interested Journalists every year ...It keeps the top-down pyramid of London powers and charity influences alive and well ...

The patient ? Is still in the trough being converted to charity pounds and being eaten up ....

Rethink behind the scenes with Gov't, have been influencing the new "Workarse" agenda ... At UserWatch we know of people without treatments . People who do not fit the performance agenda of Trusts for easy social inclusion box ticking . We know of Rethink getting so pushy at a Centre with Users trying to make them work, that the Users decided to become street refugees or find other spaces as long as they got away from the charity ..

Rethink want anti stigma, the new illusion cavalry charge in mental health, to become the spur for a changed "mind" in society.....Employers too are to be targeted ... Quite what happend to the patient though stating their own needs and getting what they need to determine their own life is left behind or is latched into CBT (therapy) work drives and entry level employment activities at Trusts who now completey dis-label patients away from any deeper help or choices . This is what the mental health charities caused.

Now Rethink want mental health Users to become more involved in their self contradictions - after supporting the new "workarse" welfare to work philsophy with Gov't its looking a bit tough - click on the text pictured below :




They want (you) the UK patients to contact their MP's to lobby for a better deal when Incapacity Welfare Benefit changes into Employment Support Allowance for all the disabled groups in society .....Amazing ....Its as if Rethink do not experience themselves being seen for being multi headed and split minded ....."Lets all join in the illusion" .....How mad is that ?

As for treatment that fits mental health Users outside of psychosis which Rethink has extrapolated its vision from - well Miss Monopoly NHS was never going to give people much therapeutic help anyway for their damaged lives because she was too busy being manipulated by the Govt's hand ..

Always remember in authenticity and UserWatch terms :

"Who Cares Sins "

The Ward Jungles Are Blue Hear The Evidence

Find more videos like this on Mad Planet


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Mental Health : The Paradox Badge Of Social Inclusion

UserWatch Feature 17th May 2008

A podcastish filmly type thing featuring the ward multi coloured rabbit who always gets away and steps over the bureacratic fire rings ...

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Mental Heath Rabbit Dances Past Social Inclusion Fire Ring

Picture By Silvis Rivers 2008

UserWatch Reports 17th May 2008

We think there will be a podcast soon to add to this story [YES ITS HERE NOW CLICK HERE] ..Its a continuing local story of State Control over the Mental Health User Agenda . Now its down to actually badging patients with plastic token involvement : "I AM A SOCIAL INCLUDEE".......Yes there are real actual badges being made now ...

Right ......So any patient who does not wish to play at being badged must be an "Excludee" of some sort .....? .......Is their badge invisible ? Worn in the soul perhaps ? Whenever will damaged people who are long term patients be people who are not used by the State with its cheap drive to workarse people ? Wait for the podcast at UserWatch..... We do note some mental health rabbits are clever enough to dance over the contrary in-house social-inclusion-fire-rings .... Asbestos socks is on our list at UserWatch too after all some of us are fur-less.....

Mental Health Social Exclusion By Services and Users Inside Selective Inclusion

A Podcast Digi Film For Tommy Rose Who Committed Suicide 2008


Fuller comments on Tommy and his funeral is on Mandy's Lifeboat Appeal Blog

Tommy was a mental health User with multiple selves and a unique disposition according to Mandy one of our UK colleagues .. He died at least partly because the mental health systems around him are still contexts of social exclusion even when they claim the opposite, and even when other Users involved in those systems with some advantages they appear to selectively include themselves whilst excluding others ...Let the Podcast speak out about this in its basic and raw way ..

See Also A Soul Chant For Tommy And Those Like Him Below

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