Communitydialogue

Date With The Doctor

...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.

A Night At The SAFTAs

We had a great night at the SAFTAs last week, with Karen Pickering and our volunteers from Keeping Saffron in Mind.  The awards ceremony was held at the Samworth Enterprise Academy, which is an impressive new school located in the Saffron area.  It appeared to be a respected and well-liked landmark in this community, which is crucial for us to explore.

The SAFTAs celebrated local volunteers that were really making a difference, and also included a detailed participatory budget (PB) excercise.  I'd learnt about PB in a recent empowerment training course - but it was exciting to see it in action.  It's a wonderful example of communities taking ownership of funds and resources. (If you would like more info on how this worked, feel free to contact me).

Young people from the area were invited to perform dance and drama as part of the event, which gave the night a fun and uplifting feeling.  

Alison Kirk and I had the opportunity to present our work in Saffron, this was great as there were around 300 residents in the audience.  We encouraged more people to get involved.  It will be interesting to see how many people join the project, as a result of the SAFTAs and to develop some of the valuable partnerships that we made on the night.

It's worth sharing the comments of one of our Keeping Saffron in Mind volunteers, on the night; This person is severely affected by anxiety in his life and to our amazement stood up on the stage and addressed a  huge crowd of strangers, to tell them about the impact that volunteers in Saffron have had. When I congratulated him on the speech, he told me that watching the video clip of Ryan at our last meeting, had inspired him to stand up and speak out.  WOW!

Keeping Saffron in Mind: Meetings 2 & 3

We have just had our third meeting in Saffron and our group of residents and community workers are proving to be dedicated and enthusiastic.  This just goes to show that it's not always about giving people financial incentives to 'sign up' to focus groups;  if we offer ongoing support and enthusiasm as well as a real chance to make a difference, people are keen to get involved.

The first two meetings had given us the chance to get to know each other and build trust, providing a fluid and open forum.

The third meeting took a more structured approach, to allow us to steer the project forward and demonstrate to the group how we were starting to manifesting change.  I chose two relevant clips from the Saffron Carnival interviews, to stimulate discussion and share the feelings of other local people.

RECURRING THEMES

Mental Health Map

We can see the idea of a mental health map, emerging.  A 'web' of contacts, all of whom know about and can offer signposts to each other.  There is already a 'bank' of fabulous projects such as the Chill Out Club and Sow and Grow allotment projects that just need a bit of promotion and linking-up. A 'directory' of mental health and well-being services for Saffron, could be a possible tool for the tool-kit.

This map should also aim to improve communication with partners such as the Incapacity Benefit Office, local schools and councils so that we all have a better understanding of individual people.

Ministry of Mental Health

We could use and build on the wealth of skills and experiences that our Saffron residents have, to roll out to other members of the community.  This could be through training our passionate volunteers in therapies such as massage, reiki and relaxation techniques (perhaps offering a recognised accreditation as a bonus). 

Members of the group have enjoyed and valued therapies that have been offered as part of the Chill Out Club and feel strongly that this is help that they would benefit greatly from, ongoing.  They would be keen to share these feel-good therapies with friends and family.

Feelin' Groovy

Strictly speaking, this wasn’t a part of the Community Dialogue Programme, however I think this is a perfect working example of the motto be the change you want to see.   New ways of thinking and communicating often have to start within the organisation, and then roll out to members of the public.

The feel good workshop was held at NHS Leicester City recently and looked at the importance of mental health and well-being to us all.  Through a series of interactive exercises, we focused on what made us feel good in our day-to-day lives (and what made us feel not so good).

Our facilitator talked us through some simple relaxation techniques, and as a group we shared ideas about meditation, exercise and even had a go at laughter therapy!

We also got the chance to see a new technique called ‘Graphic Recording’ in action;  this is a simple, visual technique that can be used to plot the journey of a forum or event whilst overcoming certain communication barriers.  It is helpful for people with learning difficulties, or for whom reading and writing is a challenge.  We were all excited by this technique and the opportunities to use this for recording our community resident meetings were obvious – so much so, that many of my NHS Leicester colleagues are now being trained to be in-house graphic recorders.

I feel that workshops like this will be a valuable tool in the Keeping Saffron in Mind tool-kit and a positive, practical step towards the prevention of low-level mental health problems. 

Keeping Saffron in Mind: 1st Meeting

In Saffron, we now have a lively and enthusiastic group of volunteers that meet every two weeks to discuss mental health and pathways to well being. Many of the group members are local residents with first-hand experience of a mental health challenge, such as depression or anxiety. 

Karen Pickering, the Saffron Community Health Development Worker, said

“The community dialogue project is beginning to pick up pace in Saffron and is generating a lot of interest with residents and organisations alike, who are delighted to influence decisions and to be asked their opinions regarding NHS services…..”

All of the group members are keen to make a difference to Saffron, and it's exciting as we discuss shared hopes and possibilities.  The first discussion captured the following points:

CHALLENGES                                             

• Setting up social networks                           
• No continuity of projects                              
• Sustainability                                                
• Access to information                                  
• No robust system to refer to                        
• Local projects                                              
• Funding                                                         
• Do not parachute things into the                
• Community                                                   
• Relationships

SOLUTIONS

• Train local people
• Social courses
• Talking therapies
• Saffron women’s group
• Allotment Project
• Volunteers in the community
• Trust
• Commitment from community

The second meeting will aim to develop connections and rapport in the group and continue to capture ideas and feelings, which is a key part in our co-production process.

Saffron Carnival: Residents speak out

Watch local resident Ryan tell us about his own experiences in Saffron, here:

Ryan at Saffron Carnival 2008

Local resident Carol shares her views with me, here:

Carol at Saffron Carnival 2008

There are many more related videos from the day,  uploaded to Youtube.  As you will see, we gained a wealth of information from just being out and about talking to local people.  These comments and views act as a valuable benchmark for our Community Dialogue Projects, and it will be interesting to re-visit the area in 2009 to see how public opinion has evolved.

Leicester: Talk, learn and plan

Knowledge is power, as they say and that's where we are with the Saffron and Highfields Community Dialogue projects in Leicester.  We are in our scoping phase, getting to know Leicester people; what makes them tick?  What are their concerns?  How do they feel about healthcare in their area?  How can we best support them? 

Karen and Naim (our Community Health Development Workers) are rallying around, bringing residents, practitioners and NHS staff together, to talk, learn and plan.  How can we really begin to co-design healthcare solutions with the community for the community? 

In late summer, we joined the Saffron Summer Carnival to begin our research.  It was important to us to move away from questionnaires and form-filling, knowing that this in itself may create a barrier to sharing, for some people. We chose instead to create a 'roving reporter' vibe, with a small camera crew and myself and Alison as 'interviewers'.  This created a buzz, and a lot of interest from local people of all ages.

I was amazed at the openness and enthusiasm of Saffron people.  It occurred to me that most people are willing to talk, if we are willing to listen. 

The carnival was the perfect starting point to talk to residents and find out what was on their mind.  And, this is exactly what we discovered!  Mental Health challenges such as depression and anxiety seemed to underpin many of the residents concerns, and were also effecting matters indirectly with links to smoking, substance abuse, teenage pregnancy and Incapacity Benefit.  So now we are officially 'Keeping Saffron in Mind'.

Keeping Saffron in mind?

This may become the title of the project we plan for this area; "may" because it really is for the community team to decide this and they are being identified and invited by Karen Pickering right now.

Whatever it's called, it will take as its starting place the high prevalence of mental health issues in Saffron; of all those people claiming incapacity benefit in the area, almost half are claiming it because of poor mental health. Our aim is simple - to work with people in the community, to help them to design a service that helps improve mental well-being, so that the PCT can commission a service on that basis.

Hence Karen is talking with local people and trying to get a group of 5-10 who care about this issue and will be prepared to work with us. Once we've got them together and discussed the project I suspect the first task will be for them to do a bit of user research - talk to people who have used the existing services and find out what are their 'lived experiences' of them.

Saffron patch walk - extra

This is a photo of Tick Tock park as it is locally known, the whole estate was built around the design of a green lung in the centre of the estate, which is shown on aerial maps of the estate.   

This is photo of the railway bridge that connects the local secondary schools and the estate.  Although many people find graffiti offensive here it is hidden from public view unless you go under the bridge itself.    

This is the famous Porkpie library that is registered as grade two listed building and is conected to the porkpie island that learner drivers have for generations feared because of the amount of traffic that uses the roundabout.

Saffron patch walk, 23 July 08

Saffron is a tight little community hemmed in on one side by the train tracks to London and a main road on the other. A real mix of owner-occupied and council properties, overseen by a fair few CCTV cameras.

We walked the patch with Karen Pickering; from the vibrant Linwood centre through Tick Tock Park, past the railway line, through the school fields left totally unmanaged and back through quiet streets to the centre.  Along the way we met one of the local police officers on his bike; if it wasn't for his uniform and technology it would have seemed almost a scene from the 60's.

Modern health issues, however - high rates of drinking, smoking and teen pregnancy, cardiovascular diseases and mental health issues - and just one general practice within the area.

The challenge, it would seem, is to help Karen maintain and develop the things she's doing within the community; to mainstream that activity and assist the community to get more engaged in the PCT's work.