Contents
Prepared for the newsletter of EUFAMI - the EU Federation of Family Associations of Mentally Ill People
NSF(Scotland) have projects in many parts of Scotland. In this issue we describe projects which supply services in Edinburgh (city of the ERC conference, July 1998):
The Stafford Centre - opens daily to provide activities and meals for users. Over 300 people use the centre over a year resulting in an annual average of 13,140 attendances.
Stafford Publications - trains users in desk top publishing - including producing our own newsletters and annual report (next one due out soon).
Employment support service - gives one-to-one advice and support to move into employment, including supporting trainees from Stafford Publications.
Outreach service - visits people in their own homes and supports them in finding appropriate services. The support may be required for 6 months or up to 2 years.
For more information: Paddy Carstairs at the Edinburgh office.
The residents of Scotland voted overwhelmingly for a Scottish Parliament with 74% voting YESfor the parliament and 63% voting YESfor the ability of the new parliament to vary tax.
The Members of the Scottish Parliament will be elected 1999 and the new parliament will be in operation in 2000. The parliament will have responsibility for health and social work and will have the power to change the laws in Scotland.
For more information: Susan Kirkwood at the address on the next page.
A recent project reviewed the use of Community Mental Health Teams in Scotland.
Community Mental Health Teams consist of Community Psychiatric Nurses, social workers, occupational therapists, psychiatrists and support staff, and often clinical psychologists working together to support a geographic group or a group of General Practitioners (GPs). On average each team supports 27 GPs and 38% of the people they care for have severe and long-term mental health problems.
The main issues for the teams are reported to include the difficulties of "user involvement" and the critical nature of the relationship between the teams and the General Practitioners.
For more information contact the Health Services Research Unit, Drew Kay Wing, Polwarth Building, Foresterhill, Aberdeen AB25 2ZD. Scotland, UK.
Project workers from Germany (Paderborn), Austria (Vienna) and Italy (Bari) gathered in Southern Scotland (Dumfries) in early September. Photos:
The projects seek to assist people into vocational training and employment. In August we heard that NSF(Scotland) can continue employment support projects in the "LADDER" project: we have obtained further EU Horizon funding for two years starting 1 January 1998. We are seeking to identify new partners - are you interested?
Contact Chris Sleight, NSF(Scotland) Dumfries 00 44 1387 255072.
One of our members living in Paisley (near Glasgow) recently reminded us that her daughter Sabine attended the first meeting of EUFAMI. Julia Lauder (who comes originally from Belgium), was glad to hear about the progress made in Strasbourg and wishes EUFAMI all the best for the future. Contact: Susan Kirkwood - see below.
