A NEW 12-point Mental Health Charter for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland was launched 4 March at the NSPCC Training Centre in Beaumont Leys. The launch was supported by carer and service user forums, voluntary sector support groups and service providers.

Gabby Briner, chair of the Voluntary Sector Partnership and director of Network for Change, introduced the work of the Multi-agency Recovery Group, a subgroup of the local NHS Trust’s Local Implementation Team who had been primarily involved in producing the Charter. She believed the document was “optimistic” and reflected the cultural diversity of the city and county. Briner emphasised the extent to which the establishment of self-advocacy groups such as Open Assembly@Genesis (covering the city) and People’s Forum (covering the county and Rutland) had encouraged carers and service users to take ownership of the process of recovery. She argued that the Charter was a challenge to ignorance.

Albert Goddard, a service user and member of Open Assembly@Genesis, spoke about how in the past involvement in local NHS policy forums had not seen concrete results. He believed that the Charter was something different and not just another example of tokenism. Producing the Charter had involved talking and working with carers and service users about what they wanted.

Goddard commended the Local Implementation Team for recognising new service user-led projects and cited research work with De Montfort University’s Faculty of Health and Life Science as a totally unique example, believing that it showed the way that “things should develop in the future”.

“Negotiation is the way forward.” He said that in the past “consultation” often amounted to little more than “ticking the right boxes”. Carers and service users clearly want influence over policy.

PDF files of the Charter are available from lampdirect.org.uk

R Wood, Leicester
04/03/08