NSUN news

AGM visual materials

1. Photos taken for NSUN by Stephanie Taylor King are available on Flickr:

Page 1, page 2

Please note that, for reasons unknown, Flickr provides an inaccurate total of '54' when the album contains in fact 108 pictures. If you wish to use any of the pictures in printed materials please email.

2. Debbie Robert's fantastic graphic record (fully completed version) is here along with all her other work produced for NSUN events. If you wish to use a picture of the graphic record, please contact Debbie by email

Member Blogs

Abolishing Forced Treatment in Psychiatry is an Ethical Imperative -  'It has never been shown that forced treatment does more good than harm, and it is highly likely that the opposite is true' writes Peter Gotzsche, MD, for Mad In America

Healthy Lives London project questionnaires

Even if you cannot attend the Healthy Lives workshops about improving physical health for people living in London diagnosed with serious mental illnesses, you can still feed into the project by sharing your views via questionnaires by 29th June.

  • Please complete this if questionnaire you are someone living in London who has been diagnosed with a serious (enduring) mental illness.
  • Please complete this questionnaire if you are are a family member or unpaid carer living in London.

N.B. If you already completed the survey and did so before 4th June, could we kindly ask you complete it again. Due to a technical problem responses were not being fully captured.

#NSUNthrive campaign

It is 10 years since the 'Doing it for ourselves’ service user conference in Birmingham.  It was at this conference in 2006 that the vision of the National Survivor User Network (NSUN) was taken forward, leading to funding in 2007 and becoming a fully independent organisation in May 2010.

We have survived!  To enable us to continue to connect, communicate and influence, we need your help. We want to continue to communicate weekly with over 5000 people. Please spread the word to help raise funds to continue our work through our #NSUNthrive10 campaign. You can also raise money by shopping online with the  Giving Machine

Donate here
 

Previously shared information available online

Please visit our website to find involvement opportunities, jobs and events we shared in previous e-bulletins. This includes our guides to support involvement in reducing the use of restraint in mental health settings.

 

Help save user-led mental health service in Hounslow

This petition is asking Hounslow Council to reconsider the closure of Number 10 Project, School Road, a life-saving, life-affirming space where over 500 people aren't judged and can feel safe and supported.

As of Sunday, 129 people had signed, 200 signatures are needed. Will you help make the numbers?

 

Ministers ‘breach FoI laws’ by delaying release of fresh benefit deaths reviews say disability campaigners

Disability activist group Black Triangle have released an article informing that 'Ministers are delaying the release of nine secret reviews into the deaths of benefit claimants, even though civil servants apparently prepared them for release three weeks ago under freedom of information laws. '

 

Long time leader of psychiatric survivor movement dies

Pat Risser, who has been a leading voice in the american psychiatric survivor movement for decades, died on Wednesday of congenital heart failure.

Mr. Risser, who was once diagnosed with schizophrenia, wrote and spoke elegantly about trauma, including the horrible abuse he had suffered as a child, the fight for civil rights in the mental health system and in society, and of the many destructive elements of the psychiatric system.

He published many papers on these topics and, as a mental health consultant, gave presentations and workshops to survivor groups and professional groups, his voice recognized for its power and authority. He spent his last years living in Ohio. He was 63.

 

Free event in Oxford: Celebrating our lives

Date: 15 July
Time: 10:00-16:00 
Venue: CMS Mission Centre Watlington Road OXFORD OX4 6BZ

Fun, exciting and free event for people who use mental health services in Oxfordshire, by a group of people with lived experience working with staff from the new Oxfordshire Mental Health Partnership.

Workshops on art, music, creative writing and movement. Alice Hicks will present her new research on the value of user led groups and there will be information stands about mental health services.

The event will create a spirit of equality, openness, and fun in which people can learn from one another.

Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Please RSVP by 24 June, by phone: 07710 701 283 or email

 

Test a new care plan tool in Bristol

The Joining the Dots team is inviting service users and staff within Bristol Mental Health to try out the new care planning software as part of a pilot which is now scaling up from the initial group to a much broader cohort.

Joining the Dots is a collaboration between Bristol Mental Health and Otsuka Health Solutions, which has developed the Care Pathway Tool. This is a new digital tool used on a touch screen device to improve the process of health care professionals and service users creating care plans together.

Healthcare workers are loaned a touch screen tablet which has the Care Pathway Tool software installed on it. This enables service user and healthcare workers to:

  • See their care plan develop over time

  • Make sure the care plan is written in the service user's own words

  • Keep a record of the session that is both simple to look at and easy to understand

If you're interested in trying the tool, please contact Sam Kozak, Engagement and Implementation Manager, on 07552 279 023 or email

 

Offer: 3 free places for conference to be held in Manchester

3 free places offered to the NSUN Network:

Quote ref: hcuk00snsun when booking online or emailing hanisha@hc-uk.org.uk, FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED

Eating Disorders: Developing a Gold Standard Service

Wednesday 6 July, Manchester Conference Centre, Manchester

This conference focuses on improving services for children and young people with eating disorders, meeting the new national waiting time standard, and ensuring gold standard care. There is a particular focus on developing rapid early intervention services in line with the new waiting time standard, meeting quality standards for eating disorder services, preventing relapse, commissioning effective services for eating disorder, and looking forward to the 2017 updated NICE guidance and waiting time standard.

For further information and to book your place visit the website or email

Follow the conference on Twitter ‪#‎EatingDisorders‬

 

Healthwatch Bradford AGM

It's an opportunity to say thank you to everyone who's helped this year, as well as to celebrate Healthwatch Bradford's impact, and to launch the Annual Report.

11.45am - 1.30pm on Thursday 30 June at Central Hall, Alice Street, Keighley.

There will be short presentations about our work, and an opportunity to catch up with Healthwatch staff, volunteers, and board members over lunch.

Please let the organisation know if you're able to come by registering your details online (no need to login, just click 'register now' and follow onscreen instructions)
Alternatively, call 01535 612 545  or email

 

Art and science meet for 'Seize the Day' dance performance

An art-science dance performance that explores stories of an unexpected disease diagnosis and how it changes person's perspective. The dance shares a journey through diagnosis, challenges, triumphs and hope.   

The evening performance is a collaboration between Movement for Hope, UCL (Neuroscience) and Tanztheater Adrian Look. After the dance, there will be a question & answer session with UCL researchers, dancers and patient-advocates.

Featured conditions: Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Motor Neuron Disease, Transverse Myelitis

Each of these conditions are disabling and share common and powerful stories for overcoming the challenges associated with them.

1.Tuesday 21 June 19.30 Bloomsbury Theatre, 15 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AH
Booking: www.thebloomsbury.com

2.Friday 1 July 19.15 Sadler's Wells, Rosebery Ave, London EC1R 4TN
Booking: seizetheday2016.eventbrite.co.uk

 

Employment opportunity: youth engagement coordinator

Salary £24,000 pro rata, London-based
2 days per week from September 
2 year fixed term post

Application deadline: 9am Monday 20 June
Interviews: Thursday 30 June

Tender is an arts and education charity committed to preventing domestic abuse and sexual violence amongst young people by promoting healthy relationships.

Tender is looking for a Youth Engagement Co-ordinator to successfully design, deliver and evaluate art based education projects with young people in a variety of youth settings. The successful candidate will have extensive experience of co-ordinating creative education projects. This role has responsibilities for delivering projects with marginalised young people, therefore it would be beneficial if applicants had demonstrable experience with a particular marginalised group of young people such as looked after children, LGBTQ young people, young carers, SEN young people etc.

To know more about this opportunity and how to apply, please visit this page

 

Research project needs 10 more participants to interview

If you missed our NSUN extra on Friday, you can still contact the research team:

Keeping Control: Exploring mental health service user perspectives on targeted violence and hostility in the context of adult safeguarding

Research study participants now being sought for interview
Have you experienced abuse, harassment or violence (hate crime) because of your mental distress / health difficulties?
Have you sought help as a result of your experiences?

The researchers are looking for people aged 18 years and over for a user-led[1] study exploring people's experiences of being victimised because of their mental distress / mental health difficulties. Your help is needed to make recommendations for adult safeguarding and how systems such as the police can respond better to people with mental health difficulties.

If you are interested in being interviewed, the researchers would like to know more about you in order to ensure that they are reaching a range of different people. If you are interested in being interviewed please download, complete and return the Recruitment Form

The information you give on this form will remain strictly confidential but it will help monitor and plan research interviews so as to include people from a wide range of backgrounds.

The recruitment deadline has been extended to 4 July 2016.

If you have any questions about the research please email: keepingcontrol@mdx.ac.uk or phone Alison Faulkner on 07729301379.

Further information is available on the Project website

Each interview participant will receive a £10 voucher as a token of thanks.

 

Accord Group and Black Country Housing Group are hosting in partnership – Britain’s Lost Women -  National Day of Memory for Victims of Honour Killings 2016.

Date: Thursday, 14 July
Time: 9.30am until 1.30pm
Venue: Blackheath Library, 145 High Street, Blackheath, B65 0EA.

To book your tickets, click here.

 

Important upcoming events

We already shared these with you in previous editions. You can still register to attend these events. Don't miss out! Click on the titles for more information.

 

Student nurses: plans to scrap bursaries criticised

Health leaders have written to David Cameron urging him to halt a plan to replace bursaries for nursing and midwifery training courses in England with loans.

The Government has said that replacing bursaries with loans will free up around £800 million a year, create extra nursing posts by 2020 and help students from all backgrounds take up the role.

But the coalition of health leaders, including those from the Royal College of Nursing, the National Union of Students, the Royal College of Midwives, Unison and Unite, have urged the Government to consider the implications on patient care in England.

This comes as an RCN survey points to a dramatic fall in the number of school nurses, with almost a third working unpaid overtime every day to keep up with their workload.  In figures released for its national conference this weekend, the RCN said its research showed the number of school nursing posts had fallen by 10% since 2010, leaving 2,700 school nurses now caring for more than nine million pupils, despite a rising incidence in issues, especially in mental health, among children.

Queen's Birthday honours 2016: Health and Social Care services

People from across the health and care community have been acknowledged for their service in the latest Queen’s Birthday Honours awards.

 
NSUN, 27-29 Vauxhall Grove, London, SW8 1SY 
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