ISU Norfolk - Involving Service Users in Mental Health

Service User Involvement in Norfolk

With the new financial year, a new way of involving all users of health and social care services has been requested by central Government. This is local authority based and must be in place by the end of the summer. This new way of involving as many people as possible in evaluating local services will be known as Norfolk's Local Involvement Network (the local LINk), where a designated host organization ensures all aspects of health and social care are represented at a county level. It will be important that members of the public are properly informed as to how and who to contact to give their views. It will also be of paramount importance that appropriate and useful feedback reaches all those in the community who care about the provision of quality services that are meaningful and effective.

Those Who Can't Work Still Have Something to Give

Clair Allan – The Guardian, Wednesday 9^th April 2008

People with mental health problems often have an uneasy relationship with the welfare state. The reasons for this are many and complicated. First, mental illness is not specific and tangible. It doesn't show up on scans or in blood tests, or fit neatly into boxes, which must be trying for a government determined to have us all stamped and sorted and processed and put back to work.

Also, a great many people who suffer from mental health problems have experienced trauma such as sexual and/or physical abuse.

Feelings of general worthlessness are far more likely to keep someone out of the labour market than to propel them into it. And that's presupposing the market is there: research suggests that fewer than four in 10 employers would even consider employing someone with a history of mental health problems. What is the government doing to address this?

Our society values what we earn over who we are, and this is not conducive to mental health. With education increasingly assessment-driven and vocationally focused, this situation seems unlikely to improve. Of course work is important, and not just for financial reasons. We need to help people find appropriate and fulfilling employment if and when they are ready. But we also need to realise that a career isn't everything. Some people have enduring problems that may prevent them from ever becoming taxpaying citizens. But this doesn't mean they have nothing to contribute.