Parental Mental Health and Child Welfare Network
December 2008 Newsletter
Lessons in Child Welfare?
Child welfare is in the headlines again…and for all the wrong reasons. The extraordinary events in Haringey are subjects on which strong views have been expressed often without letting facts get in the way! But all of us concerned with mental health and child welfare need to be aware of some of the lessons emerging from Serious Case Reviews. OFSTED have published its report, which has a separate section on mental health.
Learning together to safeguard children
SCIE has recently published a very timely multi-agency systems approach to learning from practice based on lessons learned in other sectors (transport and health), which it has skilfully applied to cooperative learning in the safeguarding children’s arena. Read an article on this approach with more information.
Safeguarding Children Event
The London Safeguarding Children Board has a conference on 12th December on the theme of Mental Health and the Family so the message of the links between parental mental health and safeguarding is getting through.
Mental Health and the Family Study Day
Not all the news from DCSF as we are at last getting used to calling it is bad. The recent study day in Birmingham heard about many of the new developments flowing from the social inclusion agenda. Family, Partnership, Pilots were recurring themes but what was impressive was the scale of resource going into evaluation of these initiatives. Many flourished in the USA and we need to establish whether the land is equally fertile for innovative approaches in the UK.
The publication will be available early in the New Year. Keep an eye on the website for information and we will put up the overheads used by presenters on the site as soon as possible.
CAMHS Review
The CAMHS review was published a couple of weeks ago. The full report is available here (Executive Summary page 8-13). Way to go is the key message of the Review as “ services are not as well known, accessible, responsive or child-centred as they should be”; “When problems arise, parents, carers, children and young people and the people who are working with them on a daily basis need swifter, more effective input from practitioners who are able to address the full range of needs, to ensure that a holistic approach is taken”; “Administrative and legal processes, unhelpful thresholds for access to services and some entrenched professional views can ‘parcel up’ children into individual services and prevent their needs being met in a holistic, flexible and responsive way”; and unacceptable geographical variations in access to services are highlighted,
Young Carers' Mental Health Research
MyCare is an innovative research project by the Mental Health Foundation and the Princess Royal Trust for Carers investigating the needs and experiences of young carers (aged 10 – 21) of adults with severe and enduring mental health problems. The research will specifically examine how age, gender, and culture affect these children and young people’s perceptions of caring, resilience, and coping strategies.
The project is currently gathering evidence from practitioners and other stakeholders regarding views of young carers’ own mental health needs, and we would urge you to submit your views as the team is keen to hear from Network members. Guiding questions are included in the consultation leaflet. The full consultation runs until May 2009 but we would like to submit a Network response early in the process based on an analysis of members’ views. Please therefore send your responses both to the MyCare team and to PMHCWN team at spn@scie.org.uk, by the end of January 2009.
Personality Disorders Study Day
The steering group met last week and decided that the next Network study day will be on Personality disorder and the family. We would love to hear from you if you would be interested in joining the planning group. Email: Vicky.Nicholls@scie.org.uk
Local PMHCWN Networks
The Network wants to encourage the development of local networks and is able to give some limited financial support for room hire, publicity and refreshments (Hold the Chablis- its tea/coffee /juice only!). Key criteria agreed by the steering group were:
- Any events of local PMHCWN must be open to all disciplines
- Any events should include service users
- Those attending need not be members of PMHCWN although we should encourage this
- A short account of expenses incurred should be submitted to SPN on behalf of the Network after the event.
If you want to discuss holding a local Network meeting contact Vicky Nicholls on Vicky.Nicholls@scie.org.uk
And finally
Enjoy the holiday break with your friends and family, recharge your batteries because we can be sure it will be a busy year ahead!
Terry Bamford and Vicky Nicholls
