NSUN news

Mental Health Taskforce

The Mental Health Taskforce was launched in March to create and publish a new five-year all age national strategy for mental health to 2012, aligned to NHS England's Five Year Forward View. Over 20,000 people participated in the online survey and initial engagement events. This has been supported by an ongoing call for evidence from  charitable organisations, professional bodies, patient groups and clinical experts. Based on the enormous amount of feedback and detailed economic analysis work, the Taskforce will agree priority outcomes, supported by achievable and measurable objectives for implementation by 2020 and milestones for delivery over the next five years. The Taskforce has met four times since March and agreed four themes under which the content and priorities will be organised. These are:

• Prevention and empowerment
• Access to compassionate and effective services
• Empowerment and respect
• Whole person care

These headline themes were presented at the NHS Confederation Conference and  a blog was written bythe Taskforce Chair, Paul Farmer. The  publication of the findings of engagement should be out this month and the publication of the strategy by 30th September.

NSUN has been able to input priorities set by members over the last two years. These were published in the Members' Manifesto  at the end of March this year.

Rochdale Boroughwide User Forum (RBUF) recruiting for a Wellbeing Officer

Closing date: 5pm 20th August 2015
Interviews: 25th August 2015
Salary: £19,998 pro rata

RBUF are advertising for a new staff post of Wellbeing Officer. This post will be funded through the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Better Together Project and will support volunteers and service users. The job advertisement, job description and person specification can be downloaded here.

We are inviting all our members, service users and volunteers to be involved in the assessment session prior to the formal interviews.

If you are interested in being involved in the recruitment process, there will be a pre-interview meeting on 18th August 2015 from 10am to 12pm at the RBUF offices.

The assessment session for the Wellbeing Officer recruitment will take place on Tuesday 25th August from 9am to 1pm. There will be mini-interview sessions with members and service  users taking the lead to devise and ask questions. There will also be a presentation from each of the candidates. All those involved will take part in the decision making for the appointment of the Wellbeing Officer.

For more information or to confirm your involvement in the recruitment process and meeting dates, please email or telephone Rachel Ginnelly  01706 521279.

When a mental health condition becomes a disability

A mental health condition is considered a disability if it has a long-term effect on your normal day-to-day activity. This is defined under the Equality Act 2010. Your condition is ‘long term’ if it lasts, or is likely to last, 12 months. ‘Normal day-to-day activity’ is defined as something you do regularly in a normal day. For example - using a computer, working set times or interacting with people.
Read more here.

Minister of State for Community and Social Care, Alistair Burt, talks about his priorities for mental health.

The Minister's talked about his priorities for mental health at the Royal College of Psychiatrists International Congress in Birmingham last month.  His top three priorities are, children's mental health, getting the basics right and mental health.
Read the full speech here.

Making healthcare more human-centred and not system-centred

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt set out the direction of reform for the future NHS at a conference at the Kings Fund in July.  In his speech, Hunt announced:

• Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority will be renamed NHS Improvement, with an explicit mission supporting providers to become more efficient and provide higher quality car;
• The new regulator will be chaired by Ed Smith, currently NHS England’s deputy chair;
• Lord Darzi has been appointed a non-executive director for NHS Improvement; and
• NHS England’s patient safety function, led by Dr Mike Durkin, will be moved to the new regulator.

Read the speech here.