New publication asks ‘how do we make sure that a Big Society doesn’t fail people with mental health difficulties?

5/12/2011

Seeing people with mental health difficulties as people who can find solutions to their own challenges and ways of achieving their aspirations means taking a step on from seeing mental health simply as a range of conditions requiring care, support or treatment.”

This is a quote from ‘Better Mental Health in a Bigger Society?’, a new thinkpiece written by the people who bring you One in Four that examines the question: How will a Big Society approach affect the lives of people with mental health?

The thinkpiece,  to be published on December 5th 2011 by Mental Health Providers Forum, discovers surprising overlaps between Big Society ideas and changes that many people with mental health difficulties have long hoped for but set within a climate where pressures on public finances risk destroying the potential for community innovation.

It suggests ways in which the NHS, local authorities and new health and wellbeing boards can support the development of a strong and diverse mental health landscape. This means supporting community groups to enable them to provide real choice and opportunities for people with mental health difficulties.

As an alternative to a Big Society vision based on altruistic volunteering, the thinkpiece explores ideas such as co-production, peer services, personalisation, user-led organisations, and other community-based activities that put people with mental health difficulties at the heart of their own recovery.

‘Better Mental Health in a Bigger Society?’ challenges the tendency for thinking about mental health to focus solely on discussions of medical services. It provides examples of innovative mental health projects delivering the non-medical support that people need to stay well – many of which will be under threat from lack of funding as local authorities and the NHS retreat ‘behind the front line’ to concentrate on ‘core services’.

Mark Brown co-author of the thinkpiece and a person with mental heath difficulties himself says: “We stand a point where there’s a great opportunity for positive change for people with mental health difficulties but there’s a real danger that innovation and change will be strangled at birth by inability to recognise that new situations require new thinking. We’re looking for a new settlement between NHS and local authorities and the communities of which they are part. If we are to have a Big Society, then change from the bottom up must not be an empty promise.”

Download a copy here http://www.mhpf.org.uk/information-centre/publications/better-mental-health-in-a-bigger-society

Contact mark@socialspider.com for further details or telephone 020 8521 7817.  Bloggers especially welcome! Both authors of the piece, Mark Brown and David Floyd are available for interview and comment.

 

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