Within two years, by 2013, the Personalisation Programme is set to be rolled out across UK health and mental health services.
In June 2010 Eight Primary Care Trusts began roadtesting direct payments for personal health budgets.
'Patients will be offered more choice and control over their healthcare' announced Care Services minister Paul Burstow. 'The launch of the first direct payment scheme is an important step towards putting patients at the heart of everything the NHS does' he added .
The Coalition government has pledged its 'commitment to extend access' to direct payments. As Paul Burstow reasons, direct payments 'is a step away from the rigidity of the Primary Care Trusts deciding what services a patient will receive'.
Quite how the PCTs are going to be less rigid with their budgets is still unclear. Some formidable outcomes have already been achieved in some of the areas where the scheme is being piloted ( testimonial videos at NMHDU). Nonetheless, the PCTs are still holding the budgets for direct payments. Where direct payments is not being piloted or simply not understood, patients and carers are still being denied their rights. The 'rigid' approach is still being applied and clients wishing to access mainstream activities of their own choice are being turned down.
The Care Services minister has announced that direct payments 'will stop healthcare from slipping back to the days of one-dimensional, like-it-or-lump-it services'.
It is a great pity and possibly a legal scandal that clients wishing to determine their own recovery journeys are still being turned down by PCTs for direct payments.
'One-dimensional, like-it-or-lump-it services' are still around.
Showing posts with label personalisation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label personalisation. Show all posts
Wednesday, 17 November 2010
Friday, 30 July 2010
Derbyshire's personalisation champion
Personalisation, individual budgets, direct payments have all been around for some time. The particular significance for mental health and recovery is highlighted by some of the action that has been taken by service users.
Tony Martin has been speaking up for people with mental health problems since he started using services 15 years ago. In 2006 he took up a direct payment and became a convert to personalisation.
When the Department of Health started piloting individual budgets in 2005, he was appointed as a citizen leader tasked with promoting self-directed support.
Becoming a Mind personalisation champion was an extension of what he was doing already, though the cachet of saying he was working for Mind helped open more doors.
Martin aimed to increase the number of mental health service users with a direct payment in Derbyshire. As champion, he used his established links with the local primary care trust, the county council, government and with service users and service user forums.
He even held a conference on personal budgets to disseminate thinking. Attended by 140 people, including professionals, carers and service users, all groups felt they had learned a great deal.
Tackling professionals' attitudes and levels of knowledge about personalisation was key.
Martin says: "The real crux of it is ignorance in the service teams about how a direct payment can be used differently in mental health compared with in other groups, such as people with disabilities.
"It's no good thinking about how you can get people out of bed. It's about being able to give us new focuses and new interests in life and improving our quality of life."
Martin's analysis of 'ignorance in the service teams' is probably no longer as relevant as it was when he made the original comment. Mental health teams are very clued-in with the importance of direct payments as a potential route to mainstream above and beyond simple arrangements for care provision.
Service users like Martin and user groups are also pioneering creative uses for direct payments. Also, independent brokers working alongside mental health teams can help to ensure that direct payments and personalisation go hand-in-hand. Ultimately, personalisation can only exist for the sole purpose of enabling individuals' dreams, hopes and aspirations in the mainstream world.
Tony Martin's championing of direct payments for mental health led to a dramatic increase in take-up. By March 2010 there were 52 mental health service users with a direct payment in Derbyshire, up from 16 in September 2009, when Martin started his work as a champion.
Tony Martin has been speaking up for people with mental health problems since he started using services 15 years ago. In 2006 he took up a direct payment and became a convert to personalisation.
When the Department of Health started piloting individual budgets in 2005, he was appointed as a citizen leader tasked with promoting self-directed support.
Becoming a Mind personalisation champion was an extension of what he was doing already, though the cachet of saying he was working for Mind helped open more doors.
Martin aimed to increase the number of mental health service users with a direct payment in Derbyshire. As champion, he used his established links with the local primary care trust, the county council, government and with service users and service user forums.
He even held a conference on personal budgets to disseminate thinking. Attended by 140 people, including professionals, carers and service users, all groups felt they had learned a great deal.
Tackling professionals' attitudes and levels of knowledge about personalisation was key.
Martin says: "The real crux of it is ignorance in the service teams about how a direct payment can be used differently in mental health compared with in other groups, such as people with disabilities.
"It's no good thinking about how you can get people out of bed. It's about being able to give us new focuses and new interests in life and improving our quality of life."
Martin's analysis of 'ignorance in the service teams' is probably no longer as relevant as it was when he made the original comment. Mental health teams are very clued-in with the importance of direct payments as a potential route to mainstream above and beyond simple arrangements for care provision.
Service users like Martin and user groups are also pioneering creative uses for direct payments. Also, independent brokers working alongside mental health teams can help to ensure that direct payments and personalisation go hand-in-hand. Ultimately, personalisation can only exist for the sole purpose of enabling individuals' dreams, hopes and aspirations in the mainstream world.
Tony Martin's championing of direct payments for mental health led to a dramatic increase in take-up. By March 2010 there were 52 mental health service users with a direct payment in Derbyshire, up from 16 in September 2009, when Martin started his work as a champion.
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