Editorial
| Date | 01 March 2004 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322200400001 |
| Pages | 2-2 |
| Published date | 01 March 2004 |
| Author | Elizabeth Parker |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
Editorial
A new initiative for the Review, but one that we
plan to continue, is the publication of an inaugural
lecture. The first in the series is by Jenny Secker,
professor of mental health at Anglia Polytechnic
University and South Essex Partnership Trust. She
challenges three assumptions about mental illness
relating to diagnosis, recovery and ability to work and
draws on a wide range of research to support her
argument. Her conclusion (you have to read the article
to find out how she moves seamlessly from
challenging assumptions to underpinning principles) is
that ‘our work needs to be underpinned and
constantly informed by three principles: humility,
humanity and hope’. Or as Alison Faulkner would say,
focusing on ‘the central role of human relationships’.
By now, many of you will know that the Centre for
Mental Health Services Development, formerly part
of the Institute for Applied Health and Social Policy at
King’s College London, has merged with the Health
Advisory Service to form the Health and Social Care
Advisory Service (HASCAS). The rationale for the
merger and the anticipated future direction of the new
organisation are set out in an article by the director of
mental health, Karen Newbigging, and Hilary
Rowland, chief executive of HASCAS. The Mental
Health Review will continue to be published as a joint
venture between HASCAS and Pavilion Publishing
and will maintain its editorial independence in
supporting service development and delivery. It will
aim to present a broad range of perspectives, including
issues relating to Scotland and Wales.
I hope that you will continue to find it informing,
relevant and stimulating.
Elizabeth Parker
2The Mental Health Review Volume 9 Issue 1 March 2004 ©Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) 2004
he government has long promoted
the concept of involving service users in all aspects of
the planning, development and delivery of mental
health services and has set in hand various initiatives
to ensure that this is achieved. In the Framework
Feature, Toby Williamson gives an overview of this
‘dramatic shift from passive recipient to active
participant among people who experience mental
distress and have contact with mental health services’
and, later on, Rachel Perkins and Kim Goddard
describe an imaginative and radical approach to
putting this into practice.
But what do service users themselves want? Alison
Faulkner in the Personal Perspective writes of ‘the
central role of human relationships’ and the need of
mentally distressed people to have someone to talk to
who will listen to them with respect. And it is
noticeable that services devised and run by service
users do just this. The Wokingham & West Berkshire
Mind crisis house, described by Pam Jenkinson, and
the ENeRGI project, described by Elaine Fox, both
started off as drop-in centres run by service users for
service users. The drop-in services continue as part of
expanding programmes of user-led services specifically
designed to meet the needs of their members.
Can this grassroots spontaneity be initiated or even
emulated by a statutory organisation? The South East
Development Centre certainly thinks so and Alleyn
Wilson reports on the project it has launched to
support and strengthen user organisations in the south
east of England. But tensions can develop between
user-led groups and the statutory services. In the Case
Study Pam Jenkinson gives an unusually frank
account of how one service set up and run by service
users and their carers needed to protect itself from the
predatory attentions of the statutory agencies.
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