Thursday 16 October 2014

The Care Act 2014: Implications for Sec.117 After-care

The Care Act 2014 is already partly enacted. Receiving Royal Assent on 14th May 2014, some of the provisions came into force from 1st October, while most of the rest comes into force on 1st January 2015.

Some sections of the Care Act actually amend the Mental Health Act 1983. These changes principally affect Sec.117 after-care arrangements. They seem to be explicitly designed to resolve the disputes that local authorities often have over who is responsible for providing Sec.117 aftercare, in particular by bringing the definition of “ordinary residence” into line with other legislation, such as the National Assistance Act.

Sec.39(1) gives a clear definition of “ordinary residence”. Essentially, this applies to adults requiring residential care. “Ordinary residence” is either “in the area in which the adult was ordinarily resident immediately before the adult began to live in accommodation of a type specified in the regulations”, or for adults with no fixed address, “in the area in which the adult was present at that time.”

Sec.39(4) then explicitly applies this to Sec.117 after-care, stating:

“An adult who is being provided with accommodation under section 117 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (after-care) is to be treated for the purposes of this Part as ordinarily resident in the area of the local authority in England or the local authority in Wales on which the duty to provide the adult with services under that section is imposed.”

Sec.75 of the Care Act is all about Sec.117 after-care. Besides changing some of the wording and inserting some new clauses into Sec.117 of the Mental Health Act, Sec. 75(6) of the Care Act also inserts an entire new section, Sec.117A.

Sec.117A is concerned with “preference for particular accommodation”. Subject to regulations to be issued by the Secretary of State, it will place a duty on the local authority not only to take into account a person’s preferences, but “must provide or arrange for the provision of the person’s preferred accommodation” as long as the preferred accommodation meets the identified aftercare needs. However, it is likely to allow the local authority to charge for the difference between the actual cost of this preferred accommodation and “the usual cost of providing or arranging for the provision of accommodation of that kind”.

This section of the Care Act also clarifies the definition of after-care under Sec.117. It inserts a subsection (6) into Sec.117 which states that after-care should have “both of the following purposes”:

“(a) meeting a need arising from or related to the person’s mental disorder; and
(b) reducing the risk of a deterioration of the person’s mental condition (and, accordingly, reducing the risk of the person requiring admission to a hospital again for treatment for mental disorder).”

 Finally, Sec.79 of the Care Act rather ominously allows for the delegation of local authority functions, stating: “A local authority may authorise a person to exercise on its behalf a function it has under…section 117 of the Mental Health Act 1983 (after-care services).”

I am not at all sure what this means. Does it simply permit staff not employed by the local authority, but who may be nurses or occupational therapists employed by local mental health trusts, to discharge LA functions relating to the provision and supervision of aftercare? Or does it permit the full scale privatisation of these functions?

Monday 6 October 2014

Is it Useful to Differentiate Between Different Types of Service User?


Charlotte Walker (@BipolarBlogger) and I appear to have had a minor disagreement.

Charlotte writes the excellent and highly regarded Purple Persuasion blog, about her experiences of living with bipolar affective disorder. A few days ago she tweeted: “Working on a post about what identity as "a service user" means to me and how it can set me apart from non-SUs. What are your thoughts?”

I thought about it. It made me think about the broad concept of “service user” from a professional “service provider” perspective, but it also made me think about it from a personal perspective.

So I replied: “Mental or physical health -- we're all service users in one way or another. Just made appt to see practice nurse -- I'm an SU.”

Charlotte responded: “If you can't see how being a MH SU is fundamentally different, then you really need to read my article!”

I’ve read her post. It is an articulate analysis of her largely negative experiences of being a mental health service user. She writes forcefully about the “thousand little indignities” of being a service user, which include the power differentials between professionals and service users, the side effects of medication, the powerlessness to control a severe mental illness, the undoubted stigma which still accompanies a mental health diagnosis, and insensitive or incompetent professionals.

I have no argument with what she says in her post; as a mental health professional I am very aware of the indignities she writes about, and although I have always striven to minimise the negatives of mental illness in the people I have worked with over the years, I am sure that there have been times when I may have contributed to them.

The post concludes that she reserves the right “not to be judged or advised by those who have never seen the trenches”. Having only experienced “the thousand little indignities” of mental illness from the outside, as a professional, I am certainly not going to try to judge or advise.

However, I think that Charlotte misunderstood the point I was making in my tweet in response to her comments relating to how the experience of being a service user can set someone apart from those who are not service users.

As it is not possible to argue my case in the 140 characters permitted by Twitter, I am going to try to respond here.

The point I was trying to make in my 140 characters relates to the overall definition of “service user”, and the varying experiences of being a “service user”. Charlotte herself agrees that “not all service users have the same experience”, although she is referring only to mental health service users.

I would certainly contend that someone self referring to a Wellbeing Service for psychological therapy for a mild mental health problem is likely to have a different perspective, and experience, from someone who has been forcibly detained under the Mental Health Act and has been given powerful psychotropic medication.

There are inevitably going to be as many experiences of being a user of services as there are service users. But while I agree that some of the “indignities” of being a mental health service user are unique to mental health, there are also many which are shared by the users of social services and physical health services. Equally, their experiences can be easily as negative (as well as positive) as those of mental health service users.

Several years ago I had a routine eye test, and the optician advised me to have a check up with my GP as he had detected a slight bleed in my eye, which may or may not indicate a more serious physical health condition.

Not unduly concerned, I saw my GP the following day. She took my blood pressure, and found it to be frighteningly high (it certainly terrified me). She tested my blood glucose levels, arranged for the nurse to give me an ECG, and then bluntly and, I thought, rather triumphantly, gave me the diagnosis that I had hypertension and type II diabetes.

I went into that consultation believing myself to be a reasonably healthy individual who never needed to take medication, and left with the knowledge that I had two serious, chronic health conditions which sooner or later could seriously affect my ability to lead a normal life, and would be likely, in time, to kill me.

I had something of an adjustment reaction. I went through a period of mild panic. Apart from being given some leaflets, which I found more alarming than reassuring, and a prescription for a range of medication, I was left pretty much to it.

I was suddenly on the other side of the fence, being a service user rather than a service giver. I was suddenly at the mercy of health professionals to whom I was just another case of a middle aged man with middle aged ailments. I felt disempowered. I didn’t like it very much.

Now, I am not trying to compete in any way with Charlotte, and I am not trying to compare my experience with hers. As a service user, I am probably on the same level as a self referrer to the Wellbeing Service.

But there is a spectrum of experience, and those with serious physical health issues can easily have as difficult a time as those with serious mental illness.

If you are suddenly diagnosed with cancer, it is easy for doctors and other health professionals to “take over” your body, dictating what invasive, dangerous and hazardous treatments you should have. They may be insensitive to your emotional needs, fail to explain things adequately to you, and treat you as if your entire identity is suddenly subsumed into that of the disease you have.

They may stop seeing you as a human being at all, and treat you as nothing more than an interesting “case”. You may be admitted to hospital with little real choice in the matter, and then receive terrifying treatments of doubtful effectiveness and with side effects that may seem worse than the condition itself. And on top of it all, you may develop a severe depressive illness which is not acknowledged or treated as it’s “to be expected”.

A parent accused of physically abusing their child may suddenly find themselves having no control over their family or their own life. They may be subjected to child protection case conferences, attending meetings in which large numbers of intimidating professionals are making decisions which could have lifelong consequences for themselves and their children. They may be treated as a criminal, and become marginalised or even excluded from decisions regarding their children.

So I suppose my argument is really that it is not necessarily relevant to compare different types of service users, whether mental health, physical health or social care, and to assume that one type is going to have a better, or worse, experience.

But we will all, in one way or another, and at some time or another, become service users. That’s why it’s important for all professionals to understand the full implications of that, and at all times to think “how would I like it if this happened to me?”

Saturday 4 October 2014

The Masked AMHP does Stand Up!


The Masked AMHP is doing stand up! He’s got a special guest spot on the amazing @SUFSWs Stand Up for Social Workers tour. I’ll be at the Cambridge gig on Thursday 4th December 2014! I'm more scared than if I was standing at Luis Suarez's door with a Sec.135 warrant!
STAND UP FOR SOCIAL WORKERS!
Robert James Theatre,
Comberton
Cambridge
Thursday 4th December 2014
Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool sold out
Reading looks to be going the same way!
PLUS 5 EXTRA SHOWS IN DECEMBER ADDED
“It’s what the doctor ordered!” Eddie O’Hara – Independent SW/Consultant
“One of the best nights out we’ve had as a team” T. Braithwaite, Team Leader, Wolverhampton
“This was as good as Live at the Apollo” KeepSafe,UK
WOW!!!!!!! I.Gould
GET YOUR ONLINE TICKETS FOR THIS EXCELLENT NIGHT OF FUN – PUTTING THE SOCIAL BACK INTO SOCIAL WORK!!!
ONLINE BOOKING ONLY
Fund Raising Event for the Social Workers’ Benevolent Trust.
FOR BOOKING INFORMATION CLICK Here
A night of Comedy and Music for Social Workers, Colleagues, relatives and friends.
Jim McGrath and Debstar
Debstar is an experienced Aussie Social Worker who combines stand-up comedy with song, loose facts, stereotype and ever-so-slight exaggeration to tackle issues such as structural oppression, office politics and presents her version of "what is the greatest risk to social work today?" She will do this in a less than lady-like way that should bring a much needed smile to your face but absolutely won't compromise her or you Social Care Registration.
"My jaws were hurting from laughing.... brilliant!" "Very funny, clever stuff" "What a great night out- our team is still talking about it"
Jim McGrath is a social worker and trainer. Jim has returned to Stand-Up after a two year break. He has performed his eclectic view on topics such as: Social Work experience, adolescents, racism, men’s health and 25 years of marriage, to audiences throughout the UK and Ireland from Plymouth to Aberdeen, Dublin to Derry and has supported some of Ireland’s best comedians including; Kevin McAleer, Tim McGarry, Colin Murphy and Micky Bartlett.
“A great performance...laugh out loud material” Torquay Gazette
“I don’t know about his stand-up routine but his files were always a joke!!” Every line manger he’s had
Social Workers, those who work with social workers (or live with them) should come along.
Book early to avoid disappointment by clicking on the link below
Booking details for CAMBRIDGE Click Here
For rest of the UK tour dates click HERE