Today's blog is about two organisations that I value hugely that have taken a big hit funding wise due to the latest announcement from the Local Health Authority or Clinical Commissioning Group as they are now called. The activities I talk about in my blogs often reference these organisations either directly or indirectly, eg about the awareness raising event Mad Pride in2016 , my own creative endeavours with the writing for the Mental Health celebrations in October 2015 or indeed friendships formed with other people like myself who found a safe haven in this community of kind creative, quirky people.
The Liverpool Mental Health Consortium has been hit hardest; a 75% cut to its income this year and no promises of any moneys in the near future. This is dire and has caused us, the trustees, to decide to close up the organisation all together when are current lot of funding runs out in about 9 months time. Such dilemmas will be being faced by many organisations in the Voluntary Sector; charities and the like, as the diminishing funds nationally are being directed to the NHS services. Our particular problem is that as a service that doesn’t offer a direct service to people in distress- we do more research and education around the issues affecting people mental health, we have been consistently knocked back from applications to grant givers to fund our work.
My first very vague recollection of the Consortium was making contact with them while in a very dark place; my doctors had very little to offer. I had sometime previously had psychotherapy and group counselling without much joy and my doctor who I had a lot of respect for really didn’t know what else was available to respond to my crisis. It was while searching the Yellow Pages, a section on Welfare Organisations, that I was trying to work out who might be able to help. This is back in 2008 or 9 maybe, and the woman on the end of the line suggested PSS mental health services to me. This turned out to be a great piece of advice.
It was some years later when a threat to the funding to PSS services, that a number of volunteers/members from the PSS service where involved in trying to lobby on behalf of the service that the Consortium were seen as a go to place to argue our case. At one of there regular meetings I found a mix of existing service users scattered among other regular attendees that represented a wide span of service providers and commissioners. At the time the Consortium had been a part of the NHS, with a brief to collect the views of as many stakeholders in mental health and had been in existence for about 15 years. They also had a service user group that helped people new to this world to understand some of the processes that were at work in the funding and decision making that goes on in planning services for people with mental health support needs.
The Consortium actually launched as a charity a short while after i got involved in this time- I was so taken with the people I had met there I applied for the then vacant post of development manager. Fortunately it went to a woman called Claire who is incredibly capable, and together with another long standing worker Sarah, have created strong team around them to produce some ground breaking work. Its an experience that has been a privilege to be a part of; but don’t take my word for it and check the website for the evidence of this, their research, the events have influenced many hundreds, thousands of people across the city and further afield.
Its at this point that I am getting emotional as write this- deep breath; like so much involving public moneys the important decisions are in the hands of people very removed from the reality of what is happening. The reality of mental health problems are so complex and difficult to put across in sound bites that resonate with policy makers, debates often take place across the media where sound bites simplifying the issues have a great deal of sway. My experience of support from the NHS services over the decades has made a negligible affect on my wellbeing yet they are being promoted as the body that will help this nation who are in a very bad way mentally, their funding is currently ring fenced while organisations that I rate so much higher are deemed disposable. Its insane! And I should know, it’s my specialist subject!
The Liverpool Mental Health Consortium has been hit hardest; a 75% cut to its income this year and no promises of any moneys in the near future. This is dire and has caused us, the trustees, to decide to close up the organisation all together when are current lot of funding runs out in about 9 months time. Such dilemmas will be being faced by many organisations in the Voluntary Sector; charities and the like, as the diminishing funds nationally are being directed to the NHS services. Our particular problem is that as a service that doesn’t offer a direct service to people in distress- we do more research and education around the issues affecting people mental health, we have been consistently knocked back from applications to grant givers to fund our work.
My first very vague recollection of the Consortium was making contact with them while in a very dark place; my doctors had very little to offer. I had sometime previously had psychotherapy and group counselling without much joy and my doctor who I had a lot of respect for really didn’t know what else was available to respond to my crisis. It was while searching the Yellow Pages, a section on Welfare Organisations, that I was trying to work out who might be able to help. This is back in 2008 or 9 maybe, and the woman on the end of the line suggested PSS mental health services to me. This turned out to be a great piece of advice.
It was some years later when a threat to the funding to PSS services, that a number of volunteers/members from the PSS service where involved in trying to lobby on behalf of the service that the Consortium were seen as a go to place to argue our case. At one of there regular meetings I found a mix of existing service users scattered among other regular attendees that represented a wide span of service providers and commissioners. At the time the Consortium had been a part of the NHS, with a brief to collect the views of as many stakeholders in mental health and had been in existence for about 15 years. They also had a service user group that helped people new to this world to understand some of the processes that were at work in the funding and decision making that goes on in planning services for people with mental health support needs.
The Consortium actually launched as a charity a short while after i got involved in this time- I was so taken with the people I had met there I applied for the then vacant post of development manager. Fortunately it went to a woman called Claire who is incredibly capable, and together with another long standing worker Sarah, have created strong team around them to produce some ground breaking work. Its an experience that has been a privilege to be a part of; but don’t take my word for it and check the website for the evidence of this, their research, the events have influenced many hundreds, thousands of people across the city and further afield.
Its at this point that I am getting emotional as write this- deep breath; like so much involving public moneys the important decisions are in the hands of people very removed from the reality of what is happening. The reality of mental health problems are so complex and difficult to put across in sound bites that resonate with policy makers, debates often take place across the media where sound bites simplifying the issues have a great deal of sway. My experience of support from the NHS services over the decades has made a negligible affect on my wellbeing yet they are being promoted as the body that will help this nation who are in a very bad way mentally, their funding is currently ring fenced while organisations that I rate so much higher are deemed disposable. Its insane! And I should know, it’s my specialist subject!