A Positive Blog! By Me!

As most people who know me will know all too well, I have never been the biggest fan of the Adult Mental Health Service within Leicestershire. However, I have to say that right now I am full of admiration for the work done over the last couple of years to improve things.

What we, as readers, need to remember is that much of the bad press the Trust have had lately relates to incidents 18 months to a year ago, incidents that were so serious and tragic that they must be highlighted and dealt with. However, the Trust have not simply hidden their heads in the sand they have responded very positively, understood the problems and responded to them.

As a representative of Carers Action and Labelled Young Carers, and having done a lot of voluntary work around the training programme with the Trust I have seen at first hand not only the commitment to improvement and the practical steps taken but also the quality of the staff I have been working with in the projects.

I believe the reporting we have seen in the local press is both irresponsible and damaging, concentrating solely on the negatives and not even highlighting the fact that the incidents are not current.

I am not advocating that the issues are not covered and reported, of course they must be, but the story should be complete, it should acknowledge not only that the incidents were in the past, but also that the Trust have already responded positively to the issues, and continue to do so.

I have had two really positive experiences with the Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust - Mental Health Service provider (LPT) in the last two days.

The first one I was privileged to be invited to attend their Celebrating Excellence award ceremony, This was a chance for the Trust to really recognize and acknowledge the quality of many of the staff and teams. And yes, the stories we heard, from the LPT, from patients and carers, reflects a wonderfully compassionate, dedicated highly motivated team working towards improvement, working towards greater excellence, and all the time focused on the needs of the patient and carer. I heard the word carer used so often during the day… two years ago that would have been unthinkable.

Today, with my colleagues from Carers Action and Labelled we had a 2 hour meeting with the senior service management, where we were able to offer some carer support to the trust, and discuss the truly inspiring developments currently transforming the LPT into a truly empathetic caring organisation, treating patients in a holistic and empathetic way centred on the needs of the patient.

As carers we have called for this for so long, under the current management of the LPT it is so reassuring, so positive, that they are listening, keen to engage patients their casers and families other service provider teams to make a fully joined up caring service for those with mental illness.

In the past Carers have always left meetings at the LPT, when invited, feeling short changed. I am delighted to be able to say that over the last year or so that has changed, and today we all left full of confidence, enthusiasm, and yes, pride in the progress the LPT has made towards patient/carer support.

Thank you so much everyone involved in this wonderful turn-round