Royal College of Psychiatrists Action Plan For

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Royal College of Psychiatrists Action Plan for

Sustainable Mental Healthcare

The Royal College of Psychiatrists is committed to sustainable mental health care and the Council approved the Statement of Intent for Sustainable Mental Healthcare at their meeting on 22nd July, 2011 (Appendix 1).

This Action Plan takes each item in the Statement of Intent and suggests what the College might do over the next three years. The accompanying table identifies a lead, a timeframe, an outcome, any training needs and monitoring for each item (Appendix 2). A Taskforce, headed by the Specialist Adviser in Sustainable Health Care, will be established to oversee the implementation of the Action Plan.

Funds will also be sought to recruit Sustainable Mental Healthcare (SMH) Fellow probably a senior psychiatric trainees, to carry out relevant tasks in the Action Plan. The Fellow will be supervised by the Sustainability Specialist Adviser and externally by an appropriate individual from the Campaign for Greener Healthcare. If funds are not forthcoming then the Taskforce will identify relevant College members.

·  Participating in public debate on climate change by working with external organisations at the centre of the climate change agenda

1. College Statement on sustainable mental health care

The Taskforce will work with the College’s Policy Unit, and appropriate experts, to prepare a College Statement on climate change/sustainable mental health care. This Statement will then be put on the website and used by the College in its response to all relevant consultation documents This will ensure that mental health issues are included in the public debate on climate change and sustainable health care.

2. Conference Sessions

The College will include sessions on climate change/sustainable mental health care at its International Congress and other College conferences. It will involve other relevant external organisations as necessary.

The Taskforce will identify a small group of expert College members to participate at external events.

·  Engaging the wider College membership and College staff in promoting sustainable mental health care at local, regional and national levels.

1.  10:10 Campaign

Work with college staff to achieve the goals of the 10:10 campaign (Appendix 3).

2.  Webpage and enewsletter

Create an inter-active webpage on the College website to campaign both for greener health care and for sustainability at home. Ensure that members have up to date information on, for example, the carbon emissions of medication and other forms of mental health care. Include a green tip in the monthly enewsletter

3.  Discussion Forum

Set up a discussion forum on the College webpage so that College members can have easy access up-to-date information relevant to their particular services.

·  Facilitating the sharing of good practice around sustainable mental healthcare between members, associates and trainees

1.  Nottingham Project

Evaluate the work of the General and Community Faculty’s project in Nottingham which is developing a natinal carbon footprint benchmarking tool and disseminate its findings to College members.

2.  Identification of good practice

The Taskforce to work with other organisations, such as the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the NHS Confederation, the DH Sustainability Unit, Campaign fo Greener Healthcare to identify good practice around the country – and then disseminate through the discussion forum and webpage and articles in scientific journals and the media.

·  Establish the principle that core training and continuing education of members, associates and trainees embraces the importance of sustainable mental health care

1.  CPD Materials

Prepare online modules on sustainable mental health care for CPD online and produce articles for Advances in Psychiatric Treatment

2.  MRCPsych exam

Develop examination questions for MRCPsych examination

3.  Curricula

Include sustainable mental health care in curricula for core and specialist training

4.  Develop a Special Interest programme for advanced trainees with a specially designed project.

5.  Develop a structured education programme on sustainable healthcare for psychiatrists and other healthcare disciplines to be delivered at International Congreses and Faculty, Section and Division Residential Conferences.

·  Consulting and engaging with service user and carer groups to explore ways of promoting sustainable mental health care.

1.  SURF and Carers’ Forum

Work with Service Users Recovery Forum (SURF) and the Carers Forum to produce a College report on promoting sustainable mental health care from the user perspective.

2.  Further work with Users and Carers

Meet with SURF and Carers Forum to identify additional initiatives.

·  Working with ethical committees to establish the principle that research projects in psychiatry routinely consider environmental issues

1.  Research projects and sustainability

Explore the possibility of working in a collaborative way with the AcademicFaculty and the Special Committee on Governance and Ethics to produce a report for ethical committees establishing the principle that research projects routinely consider environmental issues in ethical proposals.

·  Reviewing specified functions of the College, such as meetings, to identify opportunities to reduce the College’s carbon footprint.

1.  College meetings

Identify how meetings and other College events can reduce their carbon footprint and produce a report with clear recommendations. Circulate the report to College Officers and College staff to monitor how the recommendaitons are carried out.

2.  College Buildings

Continue to support the staff in their work relating to the 10:10 Campaign and continue to calculate and reduce the carbon emissions produced by the College during 2012 in the four key areas: Grid electricity; Gas; Vehicle fuel (mainly taxi use); Air travel

·  Considering the impact of the College buildings on the environment when purchasing new property and facilities

Prepare practical advice on how buildings can reduce their impact on the environment. This advice should be followed when the College changes any of its buildings (Divisional Offices, Standon House, 17 Belgrave Square). The Head of Facilities will use the guidance when making these building decisions

·  Co-ordinating Role

A small Sustainability Taskforce of College members and staff has been identified to co-ordinate these activities and to report back to Council. They are as follows:

Dr. Phil Davison (Specialist Adviser onSustainable Mental Health)

Dr. Michelle Hampson

Dr. Neil Deuchar

Mrs. Vanessa Cameron

Candace Gillies Wright

SMH Fellow if appointed

·  Finance

We do not anticipate incurring any expenses during 2012. The Taskforce will do most of its work by email or teleconference.

Vanessa Cameron

Phil Davison

October 2011

Appendix 1

Statement of Intent or Sustainable Mental Health Care

Approved by Council 22 July 2011

The Royal College of Psychiatrists is committed to the promotion of sustainable mental health care. We recognise that climate change is the greatest threat to health this century. We endorse the statement made by the Centre for Sustainable Health Care that we have a window of opportunity to act now and make sustainable changes to healthcare practices and to our own lives

The commitment to sustainable mental health care has been endorsed by Council and is care in which the carbon footprint cost (*see below) is taken into account in all aspects of patient care.

Whilst recognising that this a long-term commitment the College is developing a series of work programmes over the next three years including:

·  Participating in public debate on climate change by working with external organisations at the centre of the climate change agenda

·  Engaging the wider College membership and College staff in promoting sustainable mental health care at local, regional and national levels.

·  Facilitating the sharing of good practice around sustainable mental healthcare between members, associates and trainees.

·  Establish the principle that core training and continuing education of members, associates and trainees embraces the importance of sustainable mental health care.

·  Consulting and engaging with service user and carer groups to explore ways of promoting sustainable mental health care.

·  Working with ethical committees to establish the principle that research projects in psychiatry routinely consider and limit their carbon footprint as far as this is possible.

·  Reviewing specified functions of the College, such as meetings, to identify opportunities to reduce the College’s carbon footprint.

·  Considering the impact of the College buildings on the environment when purchasing new property and facilities. The College Council will ensure that this statement and the workplan which will follow are developed, implemented and monitored on an annual basis.

·  *The Carbon Trust defines a ‘carbon footprint’ as measuring the total greenhouse gas emissions caused directly and indirectly by a person, organisation, event or product.

·  The footprint considers all six of the Kyoto Protocol greenhouse gases: Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous oxide (N2O), Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6). A carbon footprint is measured in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e).

Phil Davison

Elizabeth Fox

Vanessa Cameron

July 2011

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Appendix 2

Item / Lead / Timeframe / Outcome / Training / Monitoring
Statement on SMH Care / Policy Unit / During 2012 / Clear policy Statement / None / Taskforce

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Appendix 3

RCPSYCH 10:10 CHARTER

The College has signed up to the 10:10 Campaign. This commits the College to try to reduce its carbon footprint by 10% over a 12 month period, starting in January 2011. The Campaign will focus on the following four areas (the figures in brackets show our current consumption in CO2 tonnes):

·  Grid electricity BS (123.38) SH (64.71) = (188.09)

·  Gas BS (21.07)

·  Vehicle fuel College (1.73)

·  Air travel College (1.66)

In order to achieve our target we are going to need the help of all College staff and those College members involved in College activities. We are seeking your support in the following areas and in return we will provide you with regular suggestions for action and information about our collective progress.

Step 1

Turn off equipment and lights at night and when out of the office for more than 15 minutes. Things on standby use nearly as much energy as when they are in use: Turn off your pc monitor and your printer when you are away from your desk for more than 15 minutes. Unplug your chargers when they are not in use. Equipment and lights are on for many more hours than they need to be and waste considerable amounts of electricity. Following these suggestions will make a significant difference.

Target: Reduce our energy consumption for lighting by 10%.

Step 2

Use heating sensibly. Heating is a tricky subject – some like it hot, some like it not so hot, but, by keeping the temperature at a steady 230C (the accepted ideal working temperature), and we can help to reduce our energy consumption. We recommend office radiators are set at a constant level 3. We need to dress for the season and keep the heat at a steady 230C to maximise energy efficiency. The College will be carrying out a programme of draught proofing for windows and will be buying a new, more efficient boiler, to help meet this target.

Target: Reduce our energy consumption for heating by 10%.

Step 3

Air conditioning is a great consumer of energy. In summer, try opening windows as much as possible to avoid using the air conditioning but, if you do need to use it, make sure that you close windows and doors. Please do not adjust the temperature setting which is set at an optimum 210C to make the most energy efficient use of air conditioning system.

Target: Reduce the use of air conditioning in offices and try to only use in summer months.

Step 4

Paper consumption. On average each College staff member uses 1.25 reams (625 sheets) of paper per month which results in an annual total figure of 4375 reams of paper for 17BS and SH. This means each person is responsible for over 44kg of CO2 a year just from the amount of paper they use. We want to significantly reduce this total. Please consider whether it is necessary to print and if it is please only print the text you need and always print double-sided. Please consider alternatives such as e-mails.

Target: Reduce paper purchased by 10%.

Step 5

Recycle as much as possible – it is easy to just throw stuff in the bin when in fact many items could be recycled. The College will be continuing to improve recycling facilities, so before you go for the bin please think about whether the item you are throwing away could be recycled.

Target: Continue improving recycling facilities so that all used paper, card batteries, bulbs and printer toner cartridges are sent for recycling.

Step 6

Telephone and video conferencing facilities are being improved. As a College, we need a large number of meetings to enable us to do our work. By thinking a bit more creatively about how we can hold these meetings we can reduce the need for excess travel – this is both for us travelling outside the College to meetings and for those who would normally come to us. We already have a teleconferencing system and the IT and Web teams are working towards introducing video conferencing facilities at College offices throughout the country.

Target: Aim to increase the use of telephone and video conferencing by 10% year on year.

Step 7

Public transport not taxis. We want to discourage the use of taxis as much as possible and limit their use to those occasions when staff are carrying heavy equipment or there is no public transport to their destination. We urge staff and College members to use public transport wherever possible. This is an excellent way of reducing your carbon footprint. Travelling by taxi/car creates 43% more emissions per kilometre than travelling by bus and shorter car journeys are particularly polluting.

Target: Decrease the use of taxis.

Step 8

Environmentally sustainable packaging. We shall work with our caterers to source environmentally friendly packaging materials in the staff dining room. We shall work with our other suppliers and cleaning contractors to move towards using environmentally friendly cleaning products and paper

·  Target: To stop the use of polystyrene and introduce eco-friendly packaging for food and drink products.

Step 9

Food: We would like to reduce the carbon footprint for our catering, and the overall consumption of meat. We therefore propose to introduce one meat-free day per week in the staff dining room.

Target: to reduce meat consumption by 20%

Step 10

We would like Step 10 to be suggested by the College staff and a prize will be given to the staff member who produces the winning idea.

Green Action Group

January 2011