Lanarkshire 'see me' Partnership meeting
Monday 28th April 2008
Present: Ann-Marie Newman (AMN,Lanarkshire Links), Anne Docherty (AD, NHS Lanarkshire), Gayle Henderson (GH, NHS Lanarkshire), John Brodie (JB, Richmond Fellowship Scotland), Kevin O’Neill (KON, NHS Lanarkshire; there for initial part of meeting only), Maruska Greenwood(MG, 'see me'), Ruth Kelly (RK, LAMH), Stuart Turnbull (ST, HAVOC).
Apologies:Brenda Vincent, David Wharrie, Greg Burgess, Hina Sheikh, Joyce Mouriki, Linda Smith, Paul Comley, Stuart Baxter, Alana Cowan.
Welcomes and introductions
The meeting started with an informal networking lunch, followed by welcomes and introductions.
'see me' toolkit
KON gave a brief presentation about the 'see me' toolkit, which is designed to support individuals, organisations and planning partnerships across Scotland to plan, deliver and evaluate effective local anti-stigma activities.
There are currently great variants in relation to the anti-stigma work being undertaken locally across Scotland. The toolkit aims to be a resource to support current champions as well as stimulate local action in areas where developments are at early stages.
KON is currently seconded for a day a week to 'see me' to work on the toolkit. The toolkit will be available on the 'see me' website and on CD (initial print run of 1,000). The plan is to launch the toolkit with a series of roadshow events across Scotland.
The Lanarkshire 'see me' Partnership will get a chance to provide feedback on the toolkit once the project is nearer completion.
Presentation of both the toolkit and the 'see me' national campaign update to be circulated alongside the minutes of the meeting.
TAMFS
KON has submitted the Towards a Mentally Flourishing Scotland Lanarkshire response. The Scottish Government action plan is expected in June. This will set out the commitments and shared objectives for MH improvement over the next three years.
The Scottish Government is placing an increased emphasis on evaluation and on what can be measured. This is likely to pose new challenges for partnership organisations, as many positive outcomes can be hard to measure.
AMN suggested Lanarkshire might want to set its own local implementation targets that would look more at some of the qualitative data, rather than just at numbers. Felt it was crucial to view mental health very much as part of health and wellbeing agenda, stressed the importance of positive messages and to work at raising a more positive profile of mental health.
TAMFS report to be circulated alongside the minutes of the meeting, as not all those present had seen the final report.
National 'see me' update
MG gave a national 'see me' campaign update. The last five months, since the Partnership last met, have been a time of taking stock and setting in place the campaign plans for 2008-2011. We have seen the national Programme come to an end, although the funding for a number of the key national initiatives looks set to continue. The Scottish Government’s health and wellbeing agenda will continue to be crucial in shaping these campaign plans. Some of the outcomes expected from the TAMFS consultation are a greater expectation on HBs & LAs to work on the issue of stigma, alongside a greater focus for ‘see me’ on national work.
One new area of work undertaken by 'see me' is the dementia Stage Zero campaign. This work is about informing a Scottish Government funded dementia anti-stigma campaign. The campaign has been asked to look at two separate areas of work: general public attitudes and health care professional attitudes.
Issues were raised around the lack of dementia services for U65s. Concerns were also voiced about the poor response and lack of awareness that is prevalent in acute services.
ST also raised the issue of those U16 with dementia (much to MG’s incredulity – apologies but this was a new one on me!). A flier for a DSDC conference on dementia in childhood, for those interested in finding out more, will be circulated with the minutes.
Discussion around local anti-stigma activity
LAMH’s 25th anniversary celebrations
LAMH are launching their year of celebrations with a big event on Friday 16th May at Airdrie Stadium. RK gave an update on what is planned. The morning is aimed at board, advisory groups and service users and is by invite only. A 80s themed disco, for staff and service users, is planned for the evening.
The afternoon is a general public event, open to all staff of LAMH and other organisations. The new LAMH website will be launched and there are a range of activities planned, many focusing on physical health. There will be a range of agencies represented, around 20-30 stalls, and high 'see me' visibility is planned.
Elament website
A quiet launch of the Lanarkshire MH resources website is planned -just to some of the local agencies - for the first couple of weeks in May. This will provide a window to iron out any potential problems identified before the more public launch by Simon Bradstreet on 25th June. Lanarkshire Links are also planning to launch their new website the same day.
The elament website will have a Lanarkshire 'see me' Partnership page and scope for regular updates on local work.
Scottish MH Arts & Films Festival
The Festival was a great success in Lanarkshire in October 2007. This year Lanarkshire are hoping for a more targeted and co-ordinated series of events. The only cinema venue is in Lanark. This was used free of charge, but screenings had to be fitted in around the bingo sessions, which happen most evenings. Much of the focus in Lanarkshire was therefore on arts (& comedy!) events.
This year Lanarkshire has 15K available towards the festival. Avril Thomson is the key contact, with Lanarkshire Links helping to host the events. The first planning meeting is scheduled for early May.
MG reported the Festival is expanding hugely this year and becoming much more national, with large scale programmes planned for both Glasgow and Edinburgh, but also many more local areas becoming involved and running events.
HAVOC
ST spoke about HAVOC’s plans for a sponsored walk in the Western Isles! HAVOC’s vice chair Alan is raising funds for the organisation, whilst Norrie from LAMH is walking for The Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice, Glasgow, in memory of his wife. Alan and Norrie plan to raise a 'see me' goalie flag at the highest point. They have had a tremendous amount of support from local businesses in the Clydesdale area.
ST reported the YP school programme continues to grow from strength to strength.
Mental Health Week
The first local planning meeting is taking place on 7th May. Usually local agencies do their own event, as well as a co-ordinated multi-agency event that everyone gets involved in. Historically health promotion has led on this, but budgets are now devolved with funding available for each locality.
A separate programme for the Lanarkshire events is planned (as last year), as well as inclusion of the events in the national Arts & Film Festival programme.
Secondary schools event
KON is planning a large Lanarkshire-wide secondary schools Pledge signing event – possibly also to include primary schools - to showcase local mental health initiatives, which will hopefully attract media interest and buy-in. AD expressed a keen interest to be involved with this event.
MG explained 'see me' are moving towards being much more strategic with Pledge signings to maximise on the opportunities these partnerships afford. The plan is to work with the Pledge signing organisation to draw up a programme of anti-stigma actions and initiatives that they sign up to undertake at the same time as signing the Pledge.
PMA pack
The plan is for the Positive Mental Attitudes curriculum pack to be rolled out to all schools in Lanarkshire for the 2008-09 school year. Although the pack is felt to be very good, there is some resistance from teachers who feel they lack the necessary knowledge about mental health to present the lessons.
There also appears to be concerns about the back-up available once the subject of mental health is brought into the open. Because of this it is felt delivery of the pack is likely to be patchy, with those schools where there is support from head teachers being more likely to introduce it.
Developing the Partnership
The group are keen to determine the remit of the group and set clear objectives. Broad aims and objectives were drawn up in the early days of the Partnership. AMN will try to locate these and circulate these to the group.
Membership should be opened up so that all those interested in local anti-stigma work have the opportunity to attend. It was agreed that the email flier for the next meeting would be circulated by each member to 10 organisations.
Lanarkshire Links agreed to convene the next meeting, which will be in August.
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