Viewpoint

Service User Involvement

The Hertfordshire Perspective

Support Viewpoint! You can text a donation using the code VIEW11 followed by any amount in £ to 70070 to help support us. e.g. VIEW11 £5

How we began

Viewpoint’s origins (2001) Herts Mind Network (one worker) Funded by Hertfordshire County Council

(Joint Commissioning Team) Current Structure (User led Charity) Covers the whole county Staff & Volunteers

Aims of Viewpoint

Objects of the charity:“The promotion of Mental Health in the County

of Hertfordshire, in particular, but not exclusively, by the involvement of users and former users of mental health services in the planning, development and monitoring of those services and the advancement of the education of the public in all aspects of mental health”

Involvement Method

600 Members on our data base Forums throughout the County Representatives at various mental health

meetings Links to other organisations and their

members such as Mind, Guideposts Trust, Rethink and many service user led groups

Involvement in Commissioning

Representation on Strategic Commissioning groups for Mental Health and Drugs & Alcohol.

Service users in the development of Personality Disorder service, Practice Based Commissioning, IAPT and Early Interventions in Psychosis and many more.

Training Group

Group came into Viewpoint four years ago Funding provided to support group Training Group support worker Presentation Skills course Pool of 30 to 40 service user trainers Co-Facilitating Training with various agencies Courses have included mental health awareness,

mental health first aid, police training and confidence building, the Transgender Journey

What people want in a crisis

Crisis Services should: React swiftly and appropriately to people who feel that they are

in a crisis, even if ‘traditional’ crisis services would not define it as a crisis due to their criteria.

Consider the use of peers to help guide and support others in a crisis and reduce the uncertainty and anxiety created by a complex and new system.

Include a range of options for people which provide social as well as medical interventions to resolve a crisis. This should include ‘pre ward’ options. CATT staff (or whoever is applicable) need to be fully aware of the choices available to clients to ensure their usage.

What people want from Recovery Services

The aims of these services are to help people start to regain confidence, self belief and control on their lives and illnesses and building up connections. People identified 6 main areas which were important for recovery. It has highlighted that the fulfilment of basic needs such as accommodation, finances and transport were essential for people to even start the other aspects of their recovery. The areas identified were:

Basic Needs • Leisure for me With others • For others Learning & self development • Mental health related

What people want in the community

Support within the community is about accessing activities used by the general public rather than those based within services e.g a going to a local swimming group rather than accessing a statutory service swimming group and so ‘normalising’ life.

These opportunities should be available for anyone, regardless of their level of wellbeing. Many of the activities play a part in self support and taking a responsibility for our own health and wellbeing.

It is important to remember that people may need support to get to a point where they feel confident to take on these roles.