Dates for your diary!

There are a couple of dates for your diary, if you can make them!
Firstly, Friday 11th Feb, lobby/protest outside Civic Hall, 12 midday, to ensure the councillors know the strength of feeling as they go in to vote on the future of these essential services.

Also, there will be another lobby of councillors on 23rd Feb, as they go into a full council meeting. Again, a show of strength is needed here, so if you can get there, please do! (Time to follow soon!)

On 26th March there is a march against the cuts in London, organised by the TUC. Let us really get our voice heard, and make sure that the government know that these kind of cuts are not acceptable. Unison has some transport, details to follow soon!

Thats the lot for now, hoping for more soon. Please come along to as many of these as you can!

Public Meeting

The public meeting is today, 2pm at the Civic Hall. There will be a demonstration outside from 1pm. Please come along if you possibly can, we need to show the council how much these services mean to everyone.
There will also be a demonstration on Friday for the Executive Board meeting, to encourage the councillors to stop these ridiculous proposals.

Outcomes rather than process

The proposals state that the "creative solutions" service will have a sharper focus on "Outcomes rather than process, which will distinguish it from traditional day services". Do they really think that the current services offer activities as just a process? Each activity is researched and planned, with evidence to show that it will help people to recover.
All of the elements of the new service are already on offer through current services, so the change is purely that people will be expected to go from Acute services straight into their local community. This is not appropriate for the vast majority of service users, people are still struggling with their illness and need more intensive support than can be offered in a community setting.
The staff and the service users are not adverse to change, we are fully aware that people are missed by the current system, but taking away vital support will only increase this problem. The higher management who come up with these ideas are not in touch with the people on the front line. Come and talk to us, lets have a discussion about how we can improve the service, not reduce it!

Part of the response to proposals

Now the proposals are published, we can respond properly. This is just one paragraph from one of the responses seen so far!

In all, these proposals will damage the mental health day services provided by Leeds City Council. The vulnerability of service users has not been taken into consideration, and the vast majority of service users have not been given the opportunity to have any input into their own support. There are no changes to the aims and objectives of the mental health system, these aims have been worked towards for many years. It is very clear that despite what the report claims about it not being a cost-driven exercise, these proposals have only been recommended due to financial difficulties. The NHS is unable to fill the gaps in the service that these proposals will cause, which will leave many vulnerable and ill people without appropriate support to recover.

Do let us know if you have any responses to these dangerous and life-threatening proposals!

Proposals published

The council have published the proposals regarding the day centres and the crisis centre. Very little has changed, apparently though it is now much more about cost, they do not seem to care much for the people involved. There will be a response very soon!
http://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=52959

John Lennon visits Vale

John Lennon attended the Vale day centre yesterday, in order to see what it is that people want to save. Although this did little to change his opinion, he was in no doubt about the strength of feeling about his proposals. More points about this will follow, but congratulations to everyone in the meeting for making some excellent comments, and making him answer some very uncomfortable questions!
Also there was Lucinda Yeadon, a surprise visit from her. At least she has actually seen one of the centres that she is supposed to represent in the council!

Gertrude has many more friends!

Gertrudes friends on Facebook grew yesterday, to 61 people! Not bad for a toy!!
We have also been in touch with Stephen Fry's agents, asking for him to extend hiws support to the compaign for the day centres as well as the crisis centre. Please, ask your friends, family and eveyone else to join the compaign to save these vital services!

Another press release by a misled councillor

Councillor Lucinda Yeadon, executive board member with responsibility for adult social care, said:“These changes are about finding more meaningful alternatives for people, based on how citizens and staff have said they would like support to be delivered in the future." We would welcome news on how many staff have said that the day centres should close! None have said this publicly, and none are known to have said this!

“Our day centres have provided a good service for years, but many people are telling us they would like to be supported in other ways.  Increasingly, people want services which are more tailored to their needs.  After all, what works for one person might not necessarily work for someone else.  The future of mental health day support is about individuals, not institutions." How do day centres compare to institutions? The choice of language is interesting, would Councillor Yeadon care to tell us how what happened in the institutions is similar to the activities of the day centres please!

The current service also tailors to individual needs, this is central to the ethos of the day centres, and has been for many years!

“Making these changes will ensure services are available to help people to recover, or to better manage their condition, and enable them to take part in activities which are available to everyone – like education, training and employment." So the new service will enable people to do exactly what they can in the day centres! Seems like a lot of work to do the same thing! This shows that Councillor Yeadon, the Executive Board member for Adult Social Care, does not know what happens in an adult social care centre!

“Good mental health day support should be a bridge back into the community.”

Leeds’ adult social care department will be asking the council’s executive board to agree these plans in February 2011.  If the changes are approved, the council will work with the NHS to commission a wide range of modernised mental health services, focused on recovery and supporting people to access mainstream opportunities." So it will focus on the same things that the current service has for years!

 

(Of course, the comments in red are not quotes from Lucinda Yeadon!!)