Bromley User Group
| Pages | 28-30 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322199600041 |
| Published date | 01 December 1996 |
| Date | 01 December 1996 |
| Author | Irene Challoner |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
28 The Mental Health Review 1:4 © Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) 1996
Bromley User Group
CASE STUDY
Irene Challoner, General Manager
BROMLEY USER GROUP
You have to be mad to work for Bromley User
Group (BUG), and I am not joking. Everyone
from volunteer to chair has a history of
mental ill health in one form or another. I lost my
job as a nurse because of a breakdown in my mental
health. I joined BUG in 1993, (two years after its
foundation) as a part-time development worker.
BUG was formed, like many other ‘user groups’, by
a group of people who wanted a say in what mental
health services were providing for their care. BUG
originally ran with no funding and after two years a
small grant was secured. At about this time, the local
mental health provider, Ravensbourne NHS Trust,
became interested in forming a Consumer Outlook
Group and BUG met monthly with middle managers
from the Trust to exchange ideas and information.
We were paid a small consultation fee. In 1993, the
group secured MISG funding for three years. As a
result, I was employed to develop the organisation
and we began by opening it up to general member-
ship. By the end of the first year we had nearly 100
members. Three years later we have 400 members
and an additional 150 people on the mailing list.
A service level agreement
Bromley Health Authority expressed an interest and
we started negotiations for a service level agreement
(SLA) to produce a Mental Health Service Directory.
This funding helped to pay for an additional full-
time co-ordinator’s post, although it meant writing a
business plan, finding larger offices and appointing
staff ready to fulfil the next part of out agreement.
The second part of our SLA was a year’s contract to
provide: an information service; an education and
training service; and to monitor local service
provision — all from a user’s point of view. The
group decided to appoint a part-time worker for
each project.
While we were working on the Directory, the
Trust was about to introduce the Care Programme
Approach. We were asked to join their project
worker to draw up a contract for monitoring the
introduction of this process. We finally came to an
agreement to monitor the CPA over an eighteen-
month period and appointed a project worker to
carry out this monitoring. We spoke to 50 users
who had three or more professionals involved in
their care and gave expenses to each for their time
and views. A report of these interviews was sent to
the Trust. After negotiation, it was decided that we
should have an increased input into professionals’
training on their understanding of CPA. We were
disappointed that we were not asked to re-monitor
the CPA at a later date.
To return to our SLA with Bromley Health, the
information service is run at our office, through a
database of all information held by us and many
other local organisations. Users can visit or call our
help line, which is open Monday to Friday from
9am until 5pm. All calls are audited. As a result,
we proved that demand is steadily increasing and
persuaded social services to pay for a free phone
line. More professionals were calling us on behalf
of users and we wanted to encourage users to call
for themselves: this trend has now reversed. All
enquiries are handled confidentially and we train
staff and volunteers that we offer information, not
advice. We see our role as signposting and as
providers of accurate information. We make no
charge for our services to local residents. Even our
membership is free. The information service runs
a monthly newsletter, distributed free to over 600
people locally. It is used purely as an information
tool and not as a campaigning aid. We now receive
many articles from users and professionals and cover
issues such as users’ poems, telephone number
changes and free prescriptions for sun cream for
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