Briefing for Members of the Scottish Parliament- November 2000
NSF(Scotland) is a national charity providing support and direct services. The current session of
parliament is considering a number of issues which have a direct impact on the well-being and quality
of life of those with severe mental illness and their carers. We would like to bring these to your
attention in this briefing note.
As a member of the Scottish Parliament we are asking you to
-
be aware of the decline in support for care in the community
-
recognise the disappearance of support for carers
-
the need to have better care and clinical standards
Care in the Community
It was great news earlier this year to hear about an inflation-based increase in Specific Mental Illness
Grant for the first time in 5 years. This funding through the local Social Work Departments supports
many of our projects throughout Scotland (Highland, Dumfries and Galloway, Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Aberdeenshire, Fife, Tayside).
With stand-still budgets in many areas, the last 5 years have seen a
decrease in the services we can offer - fewer new activities, closure in times of staff shortage, and a
lack of funding for the essential infrastructure to maintain a good service.
As a result we have a
deficit in the last year alone of £40,000 for our efforts to support these services. Other organisations
are in a similar situation. This cannot continue and we will be talking to councils throughout the
country to explain the situation.
We do hope that you in the Scottish Parliament will recognise that restrictions on local authority
funding means that the councils have less money for the community services provided by voluntary
organisations. Social care for the most vulnerable and stigmatised needs to be a priority and the
services provided by organisations such as ours need to be resourced adequately so that our service
users can enjoy a reasonable standard of accommodation.
Susan Deacon said this month: "Nowhere
are modern dignified surroundings more important in the NHS than where patients with mental
health problems are concerned." That applies equally to community facilities. /
Carers Support disappears
For three years we had lottery funding to run services in most of Scotland to support Carers of those
with severe mental illness. In spite of great efforts by the project leader over the last 18 months of
the project, and the praise given to our Carers Officers - not one was "mainstreamed" at the end of
the project.
The announcement of Carers Strategy money about the time of the project ending, in
fact meant that decision makers postponed considering our proposals until they knew what money
from that source was available.
While we are now hopeful that there will be two part-time posts in different parts of Scotland, we
are concerned that the national commitment to supporting carers is not translated into real support
where it is required - one-to-one support with families who are coping with the emotional, draining
and frightening experience of the person who has schizophrenia or other severe mental illness.
Care Standards and Clinical Standards
We welcome the effort and consultation put into developing the Clinical Standards for
Schizophrenia. We hope that training and resources will be put in place to support implementation.
We also hope that the main focus will be on using the Standards to directly improve care, rather than
repetitively refining the standards in each area.
National, UK and international standards must be sought to ensure that anyone anywhere in Scotland
gets the best care.
Understanding severe mental illness
Listen to the words of those who have the experience. We have recently helped a "Voices" group to
publish their description of what it is like. A copy of this booklet can be provided on request or
you can read it on this site if you click here.
The NATIONAL SCHIZOPHRENIA FELLOWSHIP (SCOTLAND) is a member-led organisation which
works to improve the wellbeing and quality of life of those affected by schizophrenia and
other mental illnesses, including families and carers.
We represent the interests of our
500+ members, and our service users, and promote meaningful involvement and
empowerment of service users and carers in all support services.
NSF (SCOTLAND)
provides community based services to carers and service users, provides
information/education and promotes greater public understanding of schizophrenia.
Contact:
For general information: Ian Harper, Information Officer
To be put in touch with our projects: Paddy Carstairs, Operations manager
For information on EUFAMI: Susan Kirkwood, Chairman
Address:
NSF(SCOTLAND) Claremont House 130 East Claremont Street Edinburgh EH7 4LB
Email: [email protected]
Web site: www.nsfscot.org.uk
Phone: 0131 557 8969
Fax: 0131 557 8968
