PAPER SEC/16/14
MINUTES OF THE FIRST MEETING OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PSYCHIATRISTS IN SCOTLAND PUBLIC HEALTH GROUP HELD ON FRIDAY 28 FEBRUARY 2014 IN THE RCPSYCH OFFICES , EDINBURGH
- PRESENT
Dr Alastair Cook (Chair); Dr Roch Cantwell; Dr Moira Connolly; Dr Maire Cooney; Dr Beth Crowe; Dr Rabia Ellahi; Dr Judith English; Dr Caroline Fell; Dr Emma Hargreaves; Dr Ajay Mirakhur; Dr Nicola Naven; Dr Prem Shah and Dr Adele Warrilow.
RCPsychiS Staff In attendance
Ms Karen Addie (Minutes)
Ms Rebecca Middlemiss
- APOLOGIES
Apologies for absence were received from: Dr Daniel Smith; Dr Michael Smith; Dr Ama Addo; Dr Jane Morris; Dr Alastair Palin and Dr Julia Rawstorne.
- REMIT AND MEMBERSHIP OF GROUP
Dr Cook confirmed that the invite to join the group had been circulated to all members in Scotland and the intention is to bring together individual members with an interest in Public Health rather than try to represent all Specialties and geographical areas. The group is intended to replace the previous Public Affairs Committee of the College in Scotland and some members of that have joined the new group. Karen Addie explained a bit of background about the PAC, the role of which had been to look at the College’s public education, political and policy activities. It had not met for some time.
Dr Cook went on to explain that the Executive Committee had identified some issues for the College in Scotland to take forward in the next couple of years and he thought a group of members interested in Public Health would be well place to drive some of the public and policy interface work.
- HOW DOES THE COLLEGE LINK TO OTHER ORGANISATIONS
There was some general discussion about the role of the College in the broad mental health field in Scotland and its role in working with other professional groups and third sector organisations. The College in Scotland is meeting on March 7th with the main mental health organisations in Scotland to explore the possibility of establishing a Mental Health Alliance.
Dr Cook acknowledged that members will work with third sector organisations in their own right. The group went on to consider groups like the Perinatal Mental Health Forum and the Scottish Eating Disorders Network where professionals, patients and carers work together to raise awareness of these conditions. Another area where this is in early development is neurodevelopmental disorders. It was agreed it is much easier to do this with some of the smaller sub-specialties.
- CROSS PARTY GROUP(S) & PARTY CONFERENCES
The College in Scotland has a presence at various Cross Party Groups in the Scottish Parliament and also provides the Secretariat for the CPG on Mental Health which is a very large group of representatives of mental health organisations and professional bodies as well as individuals and MSPs. The other relevant groups are Learning Disability; Health Inequalities; Drugs and Alcohol; Children and Young People; Older People; Dementia. Dr Cook emphasised it would be good to get members along to some of these groups and if anyone wanted to give a presentation at any of the meetings they should contact the staff.
The College in Scotland also attends four Party Political Conferences each year covering Scottish Labour; Scottish Conservatives; Scottish Liberal Democrats and SNP. For some of these the College organises a Fringe event, these are usually well attended and well received. A variety of topics have been covered in the last few years including Alcohol; ADHD in Adults; Dementia; Research in mental health; Early Years and self harm in children and young people.
In advance of the Scottish elections in 2016 the College would be looking to develop some themes with a view to influencing party manifestos.
Suggestions for themes were: how mental health services can contribute to early years; to improving physical health and to improving the mental health of people with long term conditions and comorbidities.
The aim would be to produce work that might influence and educate College members but more widely to politicians and the public.
- POTENTIAL WORKSTREAMS
Health Inequalities –Physical Health of Those With Serious Mental Illness
Dr Cook suggested one piece of work for the group would be to lead on raising the profile of health inequalities in terms of the poor physical health of people with long term mental illness. Dr Connelly drew attention to a College document, “Improving the physical health of people with mental illness; what can be done” It was agreed KA would send this round.
Health Scotland did a mapping exercise a few years ago but most members are not aware of it. KA to circulate. It was agreed it would be better to try and pull together work already done rather than start from scratch.
Dr Connelly spoke about the Clozapine Monitoring standards now developed and a letter from the CMO was issued. Beth Crowe is now looking at the next stage of this work which is to cost out how much Boards will have to spend on this. A consultation will go out soon from the Scottish Government. (KA to circulate when available). Nicola Naven added that herself and Danny Smith are doing some work on this too .
The Scottish Government are also focussing on physical activity for people in psychiatric inpatient units. Dr Cook went on to say a huge issue is the smoking rates for people with mental health problems and patients view that the usual smoking cessation methods often don’t work for them.
GPs would be an important group to engage with this work. In England the physical checks on people with mental health problems was dropped from the QOF but in Scotland it was retained. Dr Cantwell added that reproductive health should not be forgotten about and there should be standard for checking whether patients are pregnant.
Dr Connelly updated the group on work that has happened in Glasgow whereby 2 questions on co-morbidities are included in the PH9 and the GAD2 forms. Chris Williams has developed this, Dr Cantwell said he would contact him outwith this meeting as he would be interested in this.
The group also noted work done by the Long Term Conditions Alliance on bed days that showed people with mental health problems stayed longer in hospital for physical problems than those without.
Health Inequalities – Early Years Impact
Dr Cook asked if the group would agree to the College producing a multi-faculty consensus statement on the impact of early years on mental health problems later in life and the different ways mental health services can contribute to child development and family health. Dr Connelly added it would be good to do this as an Academic meeting at some point to draw members’ attention to why it is so important. The group noted that CAP and Psychotherapy Faculties in Scotland are doing a joint conference in November this year on attachment and families
Dr Hargreaves suggested circulation to the group of the College document “Thinking Cradle to Grave; Developing Psychotherapeutic Psychiatry”. The group also discussed the whole issue of prevention of mental ill health and the contribution of a research base to this.
Dr Warrilow talked about one group that are often “lost” to the system and that is children who don’t have a diagnosis but who have problems, it is hard for them to get access to a service. Dr Cook agreed this is an important issue and it would be good to have early identification of families or children who are at risk. Dr Cantwell pointed out a lot of work has been done on this already and it would perhaps be a role for the group to bring this together.
It was agreed Dr Cantwell would lead a working group on this with input from other College Faculties as needed. The trainees present suggested some trainees may want to help with this in their special interest/research sessions. The group would also not restrict itself to psychiatrists but the focus would very much be on the role of the psychiatrist in improving this agenda. It was also agreed there may be a role in providing professionals like health visitors and community paediatricians with education on psychotherapy and other interventions that can help families. The role of parental mental health was acknowledged.
Media and Communications
The group discussed the current arrangements for responding to the media. Some requests for media input come via the College press office in London and some directly to Karen Addie who then asks a College member to respond. It has already been agreed that media training should be arranged for the officers and perhaps Faculty chairs and others who are regularly asked to comment. It would be about increasing members’ confidence to respond. Part of the training would cover members’ responsibilities about informing their employer’s press officer that they would be speaking on behalf of the College.
Stigma/Parity of Esteem
There was some discussion about College campaigns and it was agreed the College in Scotland is not big enough to run a stand-alone campaign but its role would be to feed into other campaigns. See me was discussed a key area of engagement and Dr Cook agreed he would set up a meeting with the new head of See me as soon as possible. The group were keen that See me looks at the stigma within health services and among health professionals. Dr Connelly agreed this is topical and would naturally link with the work the Government are doing on distress and self harm.
Dr Cook informed the group that the College had met with both Johann Lamont (Labour) and Aileen MacLeod (SNP) before Christmas and talked about parity of esteem. It would be good to include more about this in a College manifesto in advance of the 2016 Scottish elections.
Other Public Health issues
The group considered whether it could address the issue about improving services for those with Personality Disorders. Dr Cook thought the College could say it supported the different way of improving services for this patient group and perhaps consider the links between prevention, early years and personality disorders. There is already a lot being done by the Forensic Network and the Personality Disorders Network.
- AOCB
No items raised.
- AGREE ACTIONS AND LEADS
It was agreed a Working Group should be established, led by Dr Roch Cantwell to look at ways mental health services can contribute to early years, parental mental health and prevention. A snappy title for this report would need to be agreed. As a starting point Dr Cantwell will pull together policy documents in this area. Important people to link with would be: Dr Helen Minnis in Glasgow and Kate Mackay, Scottish Government. Dr Caroline Fell is hoping to do a Policy attachment to the College in Scotland for a time and she agreed to be involved.
The wider Public Health group would link to those people involved in physical/co-morbidities work to see if there are areas to feed in to.
The College will foster improved relationships with all of the mental health organisations in Scotland.
Media training will be set up for a small group of College members. The College in Scotland will endeavour to be more pro-active about media and communications work.
- FREQUENCY AND TIMING OF MEETINGS
A date and time of the next meeting would be notified by email.
final approved minutes April 4 2014Page 1