At the end of the second Hunger Games novel, the heroine, Katniss escapes from the arena with her fellow victor, Fennick. Unsurprisingly, given their experiences, they both suffer mental breakdowns. I am struck by how the author, Suzanne Collins, deals …
Last week, I was privileged to speak at the 'Making a difference to children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing' session at the National Children and Adult Services Conference in Bournemouth. The session, and the preparation leading up to …
Thursday 15 October 4.15 – 5.15pm, Solent Hall One of the privileges of my role is the chance to be involved in a number of projects dedicated to improving lives for some of society’s most vulnerable citizens. Co-chairing the Children …
None of us are immune to the possibility of suffering mental illness in our lifetimes. If we or those close to us ever experience psychological problems, our initial distress should at least be mitigated by knowing how and where to …
Government-led reviews, reports, memorandums of understanding – concordats even – are all for nothing if they can’t actively lead change and challenge others to do the same. If they lack the ambition to raise standards and improve outcomes they will …
2014 was both a challenging and productive year for those of us engaged in the development and promotion of better mental health services for the young. The launch of the Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat, the Government’s five year plan …
My previous post reported on the progress being made by local areas as they make their commitment to improve mental health crisis services in line with the principles set out last February in the mental health Crisis Care Concordat. I …
When health and care conversations turn to ‘the NHS and winter pressures’, the tendency is to focus on familiar issues: A&E capacity, flu vaccine provision, ambulance response times etc. This year, we want to give equal emphasis to the provision …
I can’t remember often in my career feeling quite the degree of responsibility that I do as co-Chair of the Taskforce set up to review children and young people’s mental health provision. We have now had the first meeting of …
For legislation to work, we have to know it’s there. More importantly, we have to know how to apply it and be reminded of the consequences if we fail to do so. We also need to recognise the passage of …
