The royal wedding and the art of distraction

Before I start, I should just say that I have nothing against the British royal family, I really don’t, but that said, I have to ask – what’s the big deal with the up-coming wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton?  Let’s face it, he is an upper class, privileged toff and she’s an upper middle class woman.  This is hardly the class-breaking event that it is made out to be.  If it were a match between William and a single mother on benefits, that would be something to read about.  I also don’t see why it should be a cause for celebration for the whole country at a time of austerity measures not seen for decades with services being cut, benefits being cut or reduced and people losing their jobs left, right and centre.

Surely, at a time of economic hardship, this wedding is being used by the Government as a way of distracting us from more important matters such as the destruction of the National Health Service, the closing of public libraries, tackling global warming and the increasing rise in the cost of fuel.  It makes no sense to me that the media is jumping on the royal wedding bandwagon by giving us a blow by blow account of every second and every possible detail the general public shouldn’t really care about but does simply because we’re told that we should care.

From the moment the royal wedding was announced, the Active Citizen Entitlement Partnership group in Thurrock, that provides free training courses for people who wish to become active citizens, advertised a course on how to organise your own street party, based solely on the royal wedding.  I could not believe my eyes when I saw it and have become angrier with every piece of coverage this wedding and its preparations are getting.

There are much more important things to be worrying about at the moment than a stupid royal wedding.  I am more concerned with whether the NHS will become an increasingly privatised organisation leading, inevitably, to a two-tier health service where the best treatment is given to those who can afford it and the dregs being left to those on low incomes.  I am more concerned with the poor state of the mental health provision in my local area.  I am more concerned with the widening gap between rich and poor.  I am more concerned with the fact that the UK is giving billions of pounds to other countries whilst the Coalition Government cut our services to the bone.  And lastly, I am concerned that people are being distracted by an insignificant one-off event by the Government and the media so that more important matters that affect everyone in the country are left unexamined and unquestioned by the public at large.

I am left to wonder – am I the only person in the UK who sees what is happening and is scared at the public’s inability or unwillingness to care?

Doing what's right

Last night, I came under some criticism for having posted a link on my Facebook page to a film on YouTube that contained scenes of animal cruelty at a research centre hired by Iams, the pet food manufacturer.  I was told that I had been “bloody irresponsible” to post the footage, which is technically inaccurate as I only posted a link to it but we shall move on.  I clearly annotated the link with the following message - “Look at this film. The abuse of these animals is disgusting. Iams should be shut down for such deplorable acts.”  This annotation should have been warning enough about the contents of the footage and will have given the reader the option to move on without watching it.

What I find offensive is the idea that warning people of the cruelty being performed on helpless animals is being “bloody irresponsible”.  Now, I know that I am not a professional journalist, merely a reasonably talented amateur, but I have always, in all the magazines I have written for and edited, acted in the best traditions of journalism – to find the truth and report the facts, to uncover injustice and to try to do what is right for the public good.  I believe that posting a link that I have been directed to that highlights such a cruel injustice to animals that we, as a race, have domesticated for our benefit, for companionship, is the right thing to do.  The irresponsible thing to do would be to ignore the terrible treatment being inflicted on these poor animals for if we ignore historical events and refuse to learn the lessons they teach us, we will be forever doomed to repeat them.

I do not lecture on the cruelty faced by farm animals because I eat meat and therefore benefit from that cruelty, despite the fact that I deplore the cruelty they face as well.  I would be the most gigantic hypocrite if damned the cruelty faced by farm animals whilst still continuing to eat meat, wear leather, etc, although I do try, as far as possible to avoid products that have been tested on animals.  Domesticated animals such as dog and cats, however, are not food animals and have been domesticated for our selfish need to have companionship and, therefore, we have a duty to them beyond our duty to all animals because we took them out of the food chain and made them our pets.

If cruelty happens, it is the duty of all animal lovers to disseminate the relevant facts and video evidence so that action can be taken against the companies or individuals who perpetrate that cruelty.  In the case of the footage I put a link to on my Facebook page, the only action that I, as an individual, can do is to disseminate the link and immediately stop purchasing the Iams products that I buy for my cat.  As a group, animal lovers can stop buying Iams and can launch a protest movement but only if they have the information disseminated by individuals like myself.

I do not feel as though I have to defend my actions regarding what I do or do not post on my Facebook page as long as I do what I think is right and what is in the public interest.  After all, isn’t doing what we believe to be right what we are supposed to do?

Iams (pet food maker) EXPOSED

On The Assessment Ward

I was going through some of my papers at home and I found this unfinished account of my stay in the Mental Health Unit’s Assessment Unit following my suicide attempt in February 2010.  It was actually written while I was still in the Assessment Unit so the events were fresh in my mind at the time.  It is presented here for your consideration.

You’d think that people who are in the middle of a mental health crisis would be treated with a bit of respect and compassion and you’d be right…up until you’re transferred to the Mental Health Unit for assessment.  Suddenly, you become a prisoner with few, if any, human rights.  Your possessions are rifled through and you are put in a room and interrogated, albeit gently.

I had the dubious pleasure of being sent to the Mental Health Unit after I took an overdose on Friday 12^th February although my first port of call was the Accident and Emergency Department where I may have been kept waiting for hours but I was always checked on and treated with a little common decency.  I was in and out of consciousness for most of Friday night, being brought around every so often to answer questions or have my blood pressure, pulse and temperature monitored.  I was also, to all intents and purposes, hallucinating wildly, sometimes coming around to find myself talking to people or reaching out for things that I could have sworn were there just seconds beforehand even though I knew that I had been unconscious.

I was transferred to another ward during the night but was only there for a short while before being transferred again to my final destination before the Mental Health Unit, Kingswood Ward.

Kingswood is a series of connected rooms with around four beds in each and I was in a room with three other men, the youngest of which couldn’t have been younger than fifty.  I was slowly spending less time unconscious and was thus able to get a better impression of the staff.  The nurses, overworked as most are, remained surprisingly cheerful and were very friendly with the patients which made for a pleasant atmosphere, something you really need when you’re stuck in an environment full of sick people with the beeps, buzzes and clicks of various machines.  The other support staff were of a similar disposition and it was a pleasure, if a stay in hospital can be called a pleasure, to stay in that ward.  However, just as I was settling into Kingswood, I was transferred to the Mental Health Unit.

It was here that the transformation of patient in crisis to prisoner took place.  I was bundled into a room where I was made to go through the questions I had already answered several times before – did I smoke, do drugs, drink alcohol, why did I try to kill myself? – giving the same answers each and every time.  I was taken to another room to have my blood pressure and pulse checked and my weight measured before going back to the first room to go through all the questions again, this time with a doctor.  The doctor then took me to the other room again to check my blood pressure before returning to the first room where I was left by myself for what seemed like hours.

When I was finally shown to my room, I was made to empty my bags and pockets and the contents scrutinised.  My dressing gown’s belt, my suitcase, my MP3 player and my deodorant were taken from me as contraband.  The whole process left me feeling violated and persecuted.  And to add insult to injury, once you’ve entered the Assessment Unit, you’re not allowed to leave, even for just a short walk accompanied by a member of staff.

So what kind of treatment do you receive?  In a word, none.  You end up just sitting in the combined dining and activity room, watching television with the other inmates, occasionally being called out to answer the same old questions.  The staff may be around but they don’t seem to be doing much in the way of observing the patients.

The only disruption to the constant watching of television are the meals and the talks with people who have obviously not read the copious notes that have been made by all the other people you’ve answered questions for, which is both a massive duplication of effort and extremely traumatic for the person in crisis.

© Myles Cook, 14/02/2010

As you can see, this account is unfinished and doesn’t cover some of the other points that it needs to, such as being locked out of your room during the day, the meals that were of a much lower quality than the one I got on Kingswood, the lack of activities suitable for male patients and the fact that the television is in a sealed cabinet on the wall making it impossible to change the channel.  I could go on but I won’t because, at some point, I will finish this account, either as part of a book or as a follow up to this column.

SEPT - A Well-Oiled PR Machine

A few months ago, I was interviewed on Your Thurrock about the accusations levelled at South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (SEPT) by Dr Blandford and I was said to be “defending” them.  Thanks to that interview, I have been told stories that would make your hair stand on end and the service I have received from Grays Hall Outpatients Department have led me to reconsider my opinion of the mental health provision in Thurrock.

Until recently, I was associated with local voluntary organisations and interest groups and, as such, couldn’t speak my mind as freely as I can now, without my opinions and comments reflecting badly on those groups.  Released from those associations, I can now give my honest opinions of SEPT.  Hold tight, it’s going to be a bumpy ride from here on in…

SEPT are a mental health provider who seem to be more efficient at Public Relations than they are providing a good service to the service users of Thurrock.  A well-oiled PR machine, SEPT publish a magazine called One In Four News that is really nothing more than a SEPT love-in and seems predominently concerned with the newly aquired areas of Bedfordshire and Luton rather than the South Essex area for which it is primarily responsible.  If you read their magazine, you would believe that SEPT has no problems but that is a false impression.  If you look more closely at the provision in Thurrock, you will find an alarming inconsistency of care.

SEPT make the claim in an advertising poster that they aim to have service users seen by the same doctor each and every time they go for an appointment.  This is a claim that they cannot back up in Thurrock as, for Grays Hall Outpatients Department at least, the staff turnover is horrendous.  Some service users are lucky in that they do see the same doctor each time but for an increasing number of service users, that is just a hopeful fantasy that will probably go unrealised because SEPT do not pay attention to the concerns raised.  And raised they were, at a “Take It To The Top” meeting, where the Chief Executive listened to the concerns service users had.  He said that there was a staffing problem in Thurrock and that a review was going to be set up but, months later, has anything changed?  Of course not.

I attended a SEPT Public Members meeting last month and I again raised this concern.  I was dumbfounded when the Trust’s Public Governor for Thurrock did not seem to know that there is a staff turnover in her area that would be comparable to the patient turnover in a hospital dealing with an outbreak of Ebola.  I have to wonder if she really is as worried about the quality of provision as she says she is.

At that same meeting, a service user, who always seems to be pulled out to support SEPT, said that she always saw the same doctor and that she got that through complaining to the Complaints Department.  She seemed to think that addressing the concerns of service users to the Chief Executive was a waste of time so why is SEPT so intent on running their “Take It To The Top” meetings?  The answer is clear – because they are nothing but another PR stunt.  I tried to put the point across that the concerns I was raising on behalf of service users had been put through the complaints procedure with no results but, as deaf to the sound of my voice as the people at SEPT I have talked to, my concerns were ignored and, most patronisingly, made out to be the ravings of a disgruntled individual.

The service that SEPT provide in other areas is not all that bad and I can say that from experience as I have to get most of my services (group therapy and access to the Employment Specialist) from the new Community Resource Centre, located in the Mental Health Unit at Basildon Hospital, due to the fact that, having worked with service users in this area, it would be almost impossible to be in a group that did not contain at least one person who already knew me.  In fact, I have to say that the service I get there is fantastic; however, for my outpatient appointments, I get my service through Grays Hall where, and I am not alone in this, I very rarely seem the same doctor twice before they are replaced with someone else.

It is this discontinuity of service that affects the chances of service users to recover or, at least, to live with their condition if recovery is not an option.  Going over the same story over and over again because the doctor seems to have neglected to read the notes or because they are a new doctor, just makes the problem worse rather than better.  A service user needs to be able to build up a relationship with a doctor so that they know each other and the doctor becomes someone the service user can trust, a tall order when the staff turnover is so high.  And when a good doctor comes along, they either leave due to burnout or because they are only assigned to this area for a short time.

Another problem is that of appointments.  When follow up appointment dates are agreed in a session between the service user and the doctor of the week, they are very rarely actually made by the Appointments Department.  I know from personal experience that agreed upon dates can be booked as it happened to me – once.  Most of the time, the service user has to chase appointment times, which is not always good for their mental health.  Why is this a problem?  Well, to put it in terms that a tabloid journalist would love, it means that there are some people who might not be taking their medication because they are not being monitored as often as they should be and, if even one of them is a possible danger to themselves or others, you are looking at a nasty headline.

SEPT has not dealt with the problems the problems in its provision in South Essex and, already, they have taken over Bedfordshire and Luton and are looking into providing Community Health services.  Is this a case of SEPT trying to control an ever-increasing slice of the power and funding in the NHS?  The answer has to be – yes.  Will they sort out the problems, the cancer growing in the heart of its empire?  Possibly, but how many service users will they be failing in the meantime?  That question has yet to be answered and it is one on which so much hangs, so many lives, so many broken psyches.  I await the answer with much anticipation.

Budget Day

The UK waits with baited breath to find out just how screwed we are going to be by the Government.  The poorest will more than likely bear the brunt of any hikes in taxation and various other charges with the upper and middle classes being considerably less hit.  I, for one, don't think it's fair that the poorest are worst hit all the time, call me an old softie if you like, but I feel that the better off in society should shoulder more of the burden.  Of course, the Government is run by a bunch of public school dicks who are so out of touch with the 'real world' that they might as well be considered a different species (somewhere between single celled organisms and pond scum) and, as such, have a warped view of the world as it is.

It's interesting that one of the current Government's strategies is to encourgage wealthy people to come here by fast-tracking their immigration applications - the more money they agree to house here, the faster they get through the process - but these wealthy people don't have to pay the UK any money, just have it in a bank in this country.  David Mitchell, on last week's 10o'Clock Live (Channel 4), likened this to the UK whoring itself out to the highest bidder and he felt that the wealthy people who want to take advantage of the UK in this manner should have to pay £1 million a year direct to the Treasury like a kind of rent with a £2 million deposit to cover breakages.  I can't see why this would prove to be a problem.  Under the current strategy, the Treasury would only get a fraction of that from the tax on the money these people would be obliged to keep here.  As David Mitchell put it - if we're going to act like a whore, we should take the money up-front before we get fucked.

Mitchell's idea is the way this Government should be working - making the well-off pay the most and leaving the poorest alone.  What we need are proper Robin Hood taxes.  'Boy George' Osborne should give the poorest people in the country a break.

It's lonely at the top

It's funny to think that, until a while ago, I didn't think that the cliche "it's lonely at the top" was true but now I know that it is.

I was the Chair of the Thurrock Mental Health Service Users and Carers Forum until last Wednesday when I quit at the March meeting.  It seemed to come as quite a shock to people.  I don't know why.  I had had enough of the stress of carrying the group as I had no Vice Chair to carry the load with me despite numerous requests for one.  It may seem that there wasn't a lot of work to do or worry to be had but there was.  I had had enough of taking other's problems on when no one was helping me to sort my own problems.

What surprises me is, that people seem to think that I should continue to carry the burden of other people's problems, the Forum and my own problems as if my doing so somehow means that they don't have to take responsibility for helping to 'fight the good fight' so to speak.  That it's my duty and no-one else's.

I can appreciate "Call Me Dave" Cameron's position now, although he does have something I did not - a deputy in the form of Nick Clegg to curl up at the feet of his master so Cameron can unload the stresses of the day while scratching Cleggy behind the ear.

So yes, it is lonely at the top.