Monday, September 21, 2009

In Memory Of Madness And 911

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Coming Back In From Asylum Centauri


10 or more days after fate
Time's fire ships
Are off course
And are sometimes late

Radio and gamma waves
You know,

Interfered

But we could tell that two fear planes
Had speared

There was a building which held
Like a squared up male
And one which shook into
Powdered hail
And was a giant tree
Collapsing trail
As the fire axe of angers made it buckle
And made it fail

We touched the Time Ship's hot glass
And we saw all white dusts
And the rain of shale
And powder beings in a last steel mass....

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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

UK Wide Personality Disorder Survey Gets Top Spot on Google Blog Alerts


UserWatch Gets Top Spot !


Googlebots help UK Wide Personality Disorder Spectrum Survey !

Still active HERE


The PDS urvey is still active for UK Users and encompasses PTSD , Borderline PD , Dissociative Identity Disorder , PD and complex PTSD (that includes combat stress)

Its still at 131 Inputs .

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Monday, September 14, 2009

Mental Health UK Wide Personality Disorder Spectrum Survey Goes to 131 Users Inputed

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UK PD Spectrum Survey puts on the numbers

The PDS Survey is still active HERE

This survey is intended to capture indicative data about the Personality Disorders Spectrum (PDS) experience in the UK . It is primarily aimed at the experiences of Service Users who have had the following labels on their condition . Personality Disorder , Borderline Personality Disorder , Post Traumatic Stress Disorder , Complex PTSD , and Dissociative Identity Disorder. This survey is intended to be followed up depending on input from UK Services Users . It will also form a foundation for taking any concerns and directions generated, to the Care Quality Commission in the UK . It will also be shared with NALM (The National Association For LInks members) . The survey is independent of all bodies and created by Service Users in the UK. Entries on the survey by participants are anonymous.

Carers or advocates may complete the survey on behalf of a Service User.


Friday, September 11, 2009

Mental Health NHS Homicide Report Shows Devastating Failures

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The full Report released on Sept 10th 2009 is downloadable now from the Strategic Health Authority is available HERE

The Report details a sad case of a Afro Caribbean man terrified of police and "MI5" intrusion into his life . By chance on the local street he walked into the police team sent to determine an approach to him . One might say events cascaded from there into the killing of Det Constable Swindells . Glaister Butler a paranoid and ill man felt he had to protect his own life by carrying a knife . He was eventually disarmed under threat of firearms .

From the Report :

"On 21st May 2004, on a canal towpath in Birmingham, Glaister Earle Butler lethally stabbed a police officer, Detective Constable Michael Swindells, who was, with a large number of other officers, trying to detain him. At the time Mr. Butler was a patient under the care of the Small Heath Assertive Outreach Team [AOT], following his discharge from in-patient treatment at Highcroft Hospital in October 2001 "

The Report does well to document failings described as :

'Pretty devastating'

Sue Turner, chief executive of Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Trust, apologised to the family, friends and colleagues of Det Con Michael Swindells and also to Butler for the shortcomings in his care and treatment.

She said the team was responsible for a "pretty devastating set of shortcomings" and promised that vast improvements had been made since.

The Report highlights the negative significance of treating a man with paranoid problems for years by reliance on the medical model alone and it emphasizes looking into a whole system approach assertively regarding the financial and social forces that he lived within, including his past stresses of being black and living inside a social system that was at times difficult .

From the Report we see a desire to shake some insights into the "community care" systems of mental health care delivery in Birmingham and elsewhere - its highly probable that some improvements have been made, and the Gov't have implemented Community Treatment Orders (CTO's) which mean much closer monitoring of medication can take place . Whether or not this may lead to other forms of patient-abuses is not known since CTO's are a fairly recent policy addition in the UK .

The Report also highlights the lack of a coherent social model "care plan approach" (CPA) which ideally would have taken into account Glaister Butler's aspirations and abilities (to help him train or learn) since he was a highly skilled design draughtsman at one time . That he needed help was simply missed and not monitored enough by a team .

More from the Report below :

13.4 Unhappily we suspect that many of the problems we have identified in this Inquiry are not confined to one Assertive Outreach Team in Birmingham and that there may be a case for a review of practice elsewhere. Unless the report is published in full this benefit may be prejudiced.

15.3 The Trust and the Strategic Health Authority should consider whether the issues in this report require a review of policy and practice in community mental health services generally in their respective areas and, to the extent that they consider that such a review is necessary, ensure that it is carried out and publish the results.

15.4 The Trust and the Strategic Health Authority should produce and publish a statement indicating the extent to which they accept the findings and recommendations in this report and the action taken to implement those recommendations which they accept.

17.2 CPA documentation during this period was sparse and did not detail sufficiently Mr. Butler‟s needs or what support for them was planned

25.4 The result was a focus on a medical model of care rather than a social one and a failure to devise exit strategies and targets for each service user. They did not seek out new ways of tackling difficult cases such as Mr. Butler‟s.

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

A4E Embark On New Arts For Emma Competition - Rudolph Sues - Pathways To Work In Trouble



"Art For Emma " or A4E - the one time Action For Employment broker of Welfare To Work is now in legal arguments with several well known fantasy personalities .

"Rudolph is fuming" Says Steve Claus of the well known Christmas Unlimited firm who are always in the red .

"His nose is his brand !" Says Steve loudly .. "He is having therapy at the moment for his feelings about nasal identity theft . "

"And Emma's mixture of Oz wings , bats and fairy persona does not fool him "

He knows he has been targeted ..

Another character from Oz known as Ms Wicked W. O' West is putting posters up about yellow brick roads and Pathways to Work and screaming bitterly about being outdone on the dark oppressive magic front ...

We can reveal exclusively she has threatened to open up a new competitive front shop to "Poundland" - known as "Wickedland" where people can be turned into bats or toads as they work

Meanwhile back to Really- real- Land in the world of corporo-weave lets have a look what "Third Sector say about Pathways to Work and the response of some charities who associate into A4E .

Uh oh :

Full credit goes to John Plummer on "Third Sector" for the report below :

Job cuts at major charities including the RNID

Several large charities have withdrawn from key government welfare-to-work programmes because they are not proving financially viable.

The RNID has pulled out of eight New Deal for Disabled People programmes and three Pathways to Work programmes, worth £500,000, following a review of sustainability. Fourteen staff have been laid off.

The Department for Work and Pensions established the initiatives to help people on incapacity and disability benefits find work. But rising unemployment has made targets difficult, the charities said.

Michael Adamson, executive director of individual services at the RNID, which had subcontracted work from prime providers, said the problem was compounded for charities because they dealt with the most hard-to-reach groups.

"We could not sustain the contracts at the prices available," said Adamson. "We need to get a fair price for what we do and recognition of the distance from the labour market of some of our clients."

Action for Blind People shed nine staff last week after ending Pathways subcontracts with private providers A4e and Work Directions and employment charity the Shaw Trust.

Elizabeth Percy, acting head of regional services at Action for Blind People, said the contracts could have generated £121,000, but the recession and the complex needs of its beneficiaries left it with no choice.

"It's a fair blow," she said. "It's income that we rely on but it just wasn't achievable."

The RNIB, which passed on Pathways contracts in England to Action when the two charities formed an associate agreement, has abandoned one Pathways subcontract in Wales.

Last month the Shaw Trust, the largest voluntary sector provider of employment services for disabled people, blamed the DWP funding structure for its £2.8m annual loss.

Employment minister Jim Knight said prime providers were responsible for managing subcontractors.

"Providers may have underestimated challenges and set high targets but we are working to improve performance," he said. "Many of the contracts run for three years and, due to start-up costs, providers would not be expected to make a profit immediately."

Special Note : Mental Health factors in Pathways To Work type projects includes a programme being rolled out by Mental Health Foundation 's David Crepaz Keay in Wales . That is one to watch for those interested in auditiing how grants are used and to what beneficial effect. Who benefits ? Is the tool of enquiry and question to form .

We think there are other ways to achieve social inclusion through skilling up Users in mental health without major money going to administrators. That is all too what happens with so many projects that use various forms of the lottery or other grant streams .

From Issue No 7 by http://www.cypswansea.co.uk

"David is an eloquent and passionate campaigner against discrimination on the grounds of mental health history. With over twenty-five years of involvement as first a user of mental health services and later as a campaigner, he is also an advocate of service user voices being included in mental health service planning and delivery. He is currently leading a major self management initiative for people with a severe psychiatric diagnoses which aims to train approximately 900 people across Wales. He is also amongst a small group of service users/survivors leading the development of an England-wide service user network"

Monday, September 07, 2009

A4E 's Brilliant Eye Patch Marketing Idea


A4E Cheek Practice Session On UserWatch


It started as a cold in the eye cure . "Action for Eyes" -

But Emma (Pictured above with a DWP Polly the Pollicy Parrot) realised there was money in other patches ........

It is rumoured she employed Golley and Slater the marketing firm at one stage to help A4E's expansion into pantomime jobs ..

We wish to point that Golley is no relation to "Golly" who used to be obtainable as badges from Robertsons Marmalade tokens before he was savagely accused of racism ..

At any rate with the help of Polly and Golley now Emma Harrison is sailing the UK dubloon infested welfare waters but we do not know if Spanish pirates are involved ..

Neither do we give credence to rumours that A4E is making people on welfare walk the plank, into the shark waters of the Bugger-all sea where the whales of a job do not exist ..

There is also no proof Emma is related to Long John Silver either - the eye patch is purely for medical reasons and we defend her right to wear it !!!!

UK Wide Personality Disorder Spectrum Survey Goes To 129 User Inputs


To take the survey hosted by the Socialist Health Association

CLICK HERE

This survey is intended to capture indicative data about the Personality Disorders Spectrum (PDS) experience in the UK . It is primarily aimed at the experiences of Service Users who have had the following labels on their condition . Personality Disorder , Borderline Personality Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder , Complex PTSD , and Dissociative Identity Disorder. This survey is intended to be followed up depending on input from UK Services Users . It will also form a foundation for taking any concerns and directions generated, to the Care Quality Commission in the UK . It will also be shared with NALM (The National Association For LInks members) . The survey is independent of all bodies and created by Service Users in the UK. Entries on the survey by partcipants are anonymous.

Carers or advocates may complete the survey on behalf of a Service User

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Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Mental Health UK Wide PD Spectrum Survey Jumps To 121 Users Inputed

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Survey Now at 121 Users inputed

To take the survey hosted by the Socialist Health Association

CLICK HERE

This survey is intended to capture indicative data about the Personality Disorders Spectrum (PDS) experience in the UK . It is primarily aimed at the experiences of Service Users who have had the following labels on their condition . Personality Disorder , Borderline Personality Disorder , Post Traumatic Stress Disorder , Complex PTSD , and Dissociative Identity Disorder. This survey is intended to be followed up depending on input from UK Services Users . It will also form a foundation for taking any concerns and directions generated, to the Care Quality Commission in the UK . It will also be shared with NALM (The National Association For LInks members) . The survey is independent of all bodies and created by Service Users in the UK. Entries on the survey by partcipants are anonymous.

Carers or advocates may complete the survey on behalf of a Service User.

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