...no, not a sci-fi adventure in the Tardis! 
Something far more exciting; a meeting with Dr Kerbel of the Saffron Group Practice. This was a positive step forward in the project and it is essential that we have insight into all the people involved with mental health in the area.
Dr Kerbel kindly talked me through some of his patient scenarios and the pathway that people might expect to follow, if they come to surgery with symptoms of depression and anxiety.
A key thing that I wanted to ask him about was the resources available to GPs for signposting to community groups and therapies. Dr Kerbel spoke favourably of LAMP http://www.lampdirect.org.uk/ , though the withdrawal of funding for this resource was an obvious barrier (can anyone out there elaborate on this?)
Interestingly, when I passed on the positive feedback from our residents group about the benefits of treatments like massage and reiki, Dr Kerbel made the connection between affluence and access to such treatments.
Could we look at an initiative to get therapists involved on a voluntary basis? And there's our idea of training our locals in some of these therapies too....
All in all a very good meeting and Dr Kerbel said that he (and hopefully some of his colleagues) would be willing to come and do a practical workshop / role-play excercise with our Keeping Saffron in Mind residents group. This aims to improve understanding of local views and aspirations and fill in the gaps in service and resources that Saffron people want and need.
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