Hmm…. Around 18 months ago, most of my conversation was dedicated to slating the Mental Health service in Leicester (Leicestershire Partnership Trust – LPT), after all we had had some really bad experiences with them in the past, and the previous two years in their care had set new heights in terms of incompetence, dishonesty, stupidity and downright negligence… levels of horror so high that you would think that they actually studied long hours to see how many ways they could find to abuse, insult, neglect and antagonise their patients and their families… and don’t think that this is a maverick view held by just myself… from my experience a staggeringly high percentage of the people in their care share my views… the number of patients they allowed to escape or worse, take their lives whilst in their care hardly reflects to their benefit!
What did I do about it? Did I sit back and say “it’s just the NHS, it’s the way they are”. Did I hell… I kicked, screamed, fought and campaigned until something happened. Despite being told by the then CEO, that if I continued my complaint it would adversely affect my wife’s treatment, (I told home it couldn’t possibly be any worse) I pressed on, holding my ground against idiots at all levels of the LPT…
The thing in my favour I think, is that even then I understood that you cant take the clock back… what had happened to my wife and I happened… whatever I did it could never change it, the harm was done, and I always included that statement in my complaints, whether spoken or written, however much I ranted and cursed at the trust, and always said I wanted to help them become competent and caring.. I wanted to engage with them to bring about improvement… I didn’t want to see others go through the crap we had gone through.
I did however want three heads on plates.. I got one, one was investigated by the General Medical Council and the other transferred… I still want these two to accept responsibility for their lies and callous lack of care….
However, my complaints led me into uncharted waters, as the senior management changed, to be replaced by quality people who actually give a damn, there was a tide of change flowing across the Trust management.
I was initially asked to join a project called “Improving the Experience” which though focussing initially on the Community Health Teams, is designed to resensitize the staff to the more humane aspect of nursing… I got thoroughly involved in this project, got to know many great people within the Trust Management, and learned to understand that they understood and accepted how awful our experience had been, how awful so many peoples experiences had been, and I saw how keen they ere to improve and get it right.
This gave me my first kick of encouragement and confidence for many a year.
As the project continued, I got to know the staff well, and as my regard for them continued to rise, it seems their respect for me rose in parralel… and before long I was “the usual suspect” when it came to supporting and helping the LPT as a carer representative.
To cut a long story short, I was invited to join a small committee reviewing how the Trust handled complaints… hopefully damn site better than they handled mine, and again the will to understand and improve was immense.
From there, with my two carer groups, we approached the LPT with an offer to formally support them and to help to regain the public’s confidence in them.. and out of this project came my involvement with the Recovery College, a new initiative aimed at providing recovering patients a chance to learn life skills to enrich their lives and cope with their conditions. A truly wonderful initiative, which I am thrilled to be deeply involved in from the beginning.
I have also now got into an additional project, setting and defining patient clusters (awful name) to ensure that patients are given the most appropriate type of treatment throughout their time with the LPT.
I am also now working with the County Council on various Mental Health projects as well as some “one off” events with Time to Change, Centrica, Rethink Mental Illness and Nicky Morgan MP.
I also work devotedly with my two groups, Carers’ Action and Labelled, where we take a pride in working with the rust and service providers, advising, helping and supporting, and always putting the interests of our carers first, always working to be sure the service provider know what carers want and need, and working with them to provide it.
I work with th groups to engage fully with the service providers, we have seen the benefits coming through already, there is a definite improvement in the attitudes and performance within the Trust, generated I think by the new management team, which is slowly sowing dividends at all levels within the Trust.
I have also been to meetings with other groups purporting to support carers, but I cannot support them, their attitudes are disgraceful, even now, all they want to do is to gather ammunition to criticise and condemn the trust. They have no understanding, nor indeed interest, in the marked improvements we have seen, nor the brilliant initiatives in places and working to fully revolutionise the service, to fully embrace the needs of the patient and carers and to provide fully holistic treatment to everyone involved in mental illness.
These moves are so positive, they promise so much to ease the burden of carers that I can only step back and admire what the Trust are now doing.
In my career supporting mental illness, I have worked with individuals who it sickens me to think of as being mental health campaigners… they are negative, spineless fools who want only to impress their local womens institute or golf club, some are so old that they just aren’t living in this world, they cling desperately to the Uriah Heap principal of campaigning… ie ask a question, but only if it wont embarrass the service provider and not ask for an answer.
Even worse are the groups that persist in allowing these pathetic specimens to dominate the group.. the are a number of these groups locally, and I will continue to support the LPT in their efforts against these useless destructive bodies as long as they continue to launch and develop the fabulous initiatives that they are currently working on.
I will not name the individuals or groups here… but anyone who knows my campaigning stances will know exactly who I am talking about, if you don’t know, ask me privately, off the record, I may just tell you.
So, I know the LPT is in very good hands now, the improvements will not be seen at ground level immediately, there is a culture of wrong to be overcome, but the LPT is going exactly the right way to change things, and I for one will celebrate with them when the lot of the carer is improved by their efforts.
Here I will name names… after the crap we took in the LPT a few years back, I had no hope for them ever giving a damn, let alone getting it right, but through the fabulous efforts of a large group of people, not only is the a huge compassionate heart within the Trust, but a huge will to get it right, I would therefore like to thank a number of people I have, and am, working with, for their commitment, compassion, and above all for what they have done for me, as an individual, to raise my spirits and self esteem… so I toast John, Paul, Richard, Sam, Becky, Nicky, Kate, Terri, Debi, Chris, Dawn, Mark, Jules, Girish and all of those whose names I have missed for the support, kindness compassion and help and for giving a damn and helping carers.
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