The Acute Mental Health Care Forum: A Journey Towards Inclusivity and Partnership
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13619322200300019 |
| Date | 01 June 2003 |
| Published date | 01 June 2003 |
| Pages | 34-38 |
| Author | Roy Butterworth |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
The Acute Mental Health
Care Forum: A Journey Towards
Inclusivity and Partnership
Roy Butterworth
Practice Development Nurse
Guild Lodge Secure Services, Preston
Extra curriculum
Introduction
The recently released mental health policy
implementation guide, Adult Acute Inpatient Care
Provision (Department of Health, 2002), is the latest in
a series of initiatives designed to address the
inadequacies of acute mental health care. For some
years now there has been an increasing lack of
confidence in acute in-patient care in particular. This
was highlighted in 1998 in a report by the Sainsbury
Centre for Mental Health, followed by the Standing
Nursing and Midwifery Advisory Committee response
(SNMAC, 1999). Prior to the release of these reports
the Centre for Mental Health Services Development
(CMHSD) and the King’s College School of Nursing
(both based at King’s College London) had embarked
upon the establishment of a national mental health
acute in-patient practice development network. The
background to the network, its operation and the
lessons learned have been articulated by Howell &
West (2000). It is within the context of membership of
this network that the evolution of an acute care forum
took place within a recently merged NHS trust in the
north west of England.
Network membership
Central to network membership was the requirement
to design a practice development project that would,
among other objectives, ‘engage service users and staff
at all levels in identifying priorities for change’
(Howell & West, 2000). In addition, each member
trust would recruit a practice development postholder
who would link the trust with the network and act as a
local change agent within the trust. Supplementary to
this the local project would have a management group
and a local steering group.
Practice development postholders
One of the purposes of the network was to facilitate
effective service development based on certain
assumptions:
■the need for people to be identified to facilitate
practice development ie the postholders
■that support and authority to change services
would be provided by the trust’s senior
management
■the need for multi-professional collaboration and
active service user involvement
■the need for a systems approach to
organisational development.
The postholders were to act as a fulcrum for
facilitating change within the localities of their
respective trusts. The CMHSD team provided
ongoing personal development and supervision
workshops for postholders in change and project
management, negotiation and facilitation, and
influencing, presentation and group skills.
Supplementary support visits to each trust by a
CMHSD representative involved meeting with the
postholder and the respective senior management
team to discuss progress being made with the
respective change project.
34 The Mental Health Review Volume 8 Issue 2 June 2003 ©Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) 2003
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