Letters
Send your views by email to [email protected], the letters editor @RogerEvansE1, post on the Nursing Standard Facebook page or visit www.nursing-standard.co.uk
Please keep letters to a maximum of 200 words, and include your full name and a daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited
I hope the memory café initiative takes off in hospitals across the UK What a wonderful ‘Tea and sympathy’ piece from staff nurse Katy Hope and assistant practitioner Jo Pope (Reflections December 3) about the ‘memory café’ for patients with dementia at the West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance. I hope this initiative takes off in hospitals throughout the UK, as well as in the community, and that plans for another café, at the larger Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, come to fruition. Patients with dementia are often lonely and desperate for social interaction and support. Memory cafés enable people with dementia and their families and carers to share experiences, laughter and stories from the past – and enjoy a good sing-along. My mother spent the last three years of her life in a nursing home where the staff made every effort to keep the residents engaged and stimulated. It made such a difference to their wellbeing. As many residents as possible were wheeled and walked to the main lounge for the regular afternoon ‘piano hour’ sing-alongs, armchair aerobics sessions, quizzes, bingo and pass the parcel. The Sunday afternoon film screening of old musicals was particularly popular, as everyone seemed to remember the songs and would join in. Hymns were surprisingly popular too, with the TV room being packed for Songs of Praise. For the last year of my mother’s life, she gradually lost her power of speech. But she would hum along with the best of them to ‘All things bright and beautiful’ and ‘Singin’ in the rain’. Bridget Ryan, by email
TRUSTS CANNOT WIN ON MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE PROVISION I am shocked that not only has there been a significant drop in the number of available beds in mental health services
in recent years, but that there are now 3,265 fewer mental health nurses in England than in 2010 – a drop of 8 per cent (News November 26). Poor mental health is the largest cause of disability in the UK. The government says that it takes this seriously and wants public services in England to reflect the importance of mental health in their planning – making it as important as physical health. Mental health service provision is expensive. But there is simply not enough investment. The reality is that lasting change can take months or years to achieve and specialist, experienced staff are needed to bring about these improvements. The Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health, substance misuse and learning disability services across the two counties. Michael Scott, who was appointed chief executive at the trust
earlier this year, has long argued for more money for mental health services. The trust is now being investigated by Monitor. The foundation trust regulator is concerned that the trust has breached its licence by spending £2 million more on its mental health services than was approved. Trusts cannot win. Those that rein in or cut services are letting down the public, with ever-longer waiting lists and deteriorating service provision. Those that spend additional monies on improving services are penalised. Christine Clark, by email
BEING TURNED AWAY WHEN SEEKING HELP ONLY ADDS TO THE PROBLEMS It is a disgrace that a police assistant chief constable had to take to Twitter to get something done about a 16 year old with mental health issues held in a police cell for more than 36 hours because no hospital bed was available for her in the UK.
NURSING STANDARD Nursing Standard 2014.29:34-34. Downloaded from journals.rcni.com by University of British Columbia on 11/13/15. For personal use only.
34 december 10 :: vol 29 no 15 :: 2014
Send your views by email to [email protected], the letters editor @RogerEvansE1, post on the Nursing Standard Facebook page or visit www.nursing-standard.co.uk
Please keep letters to a maximum of 200 words, and include your full name and a daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited
I hope the memory café initiative takes off in hospitals across the UK What a wonderful ‘Tea and sympathy’ piece from staff nurse Katy Hope and assistant practitioner Jo Pope (Reflections December 3) about the ‘memory café’ for patients with dementia at the West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance. I hope this initiative takes off in hospitals throughout the UK, as well as in the community, and that plans for another café, at the larger Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, come to fruition. Patients with dementia are often lonely and desperate for social interaction and support. Memory cafés enable people with dementia and their families and carers to share experiences, laughter and stories from the past – and enjoy a good sing-along. My mother spent the last three years of her life in a nursing home where the staff made every effort to keep the residents engaged and stimulated. It made such a difference to their wellbeing. As many residents as possible were wheeled and walked to the main lounge for the regular afternoon ‘piano hour’ sing-alongs, armchair aerobics sessions, quizzes, bingo and pass the parcel. The Sunday afternoon film screening of old musicals was particularly popular, as everyone seemed to remember the songs and would join in. Hymns were surprisingly popular too, with the TV room being packed for Songs of Praise. For the last year of my mother’s life, she gradually lost her power of speech. But she would hum along with the best of them to ‘All things bright and beautiful’ and ‘Singin’ in the rain’. Bridget Ryan, by email
TRUSTS CANNOT WIN ON MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE PROVISION I am shocked that not only has there been a significant drop in the number of available beds in mental health services
in recent years, but that there are now 3,265 fewer mental health nurses in England than in 2010 – a drop of 8 per cent (News November 26). Poor mental health is the largest cause of disability in the UK. The government says that it takes this seriously and wants public services in England to reflect the importance of mental health in their planning – making it as important as physical health. Mental health service provision is expensive. But there is simply not enough investment. The reality is that lasting change can take months or years to achieve and specialist, experienced staff are needed to bring about these improvements. The Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust provides mental health, substance misuse and learning disability services across the two counties. Michael Scott, who was appointed chief executive at the trust
earlier this year, has long argued for more money for mental health services. The trust is now being investigated by Monitor. The foundation trust regulator is concerned that the trust has breached its licence by spending £2 million more on its mental health services than was approved. Trusts cannot win. Those that rein in or cut services are letting down the public, with ever-longer waiting lists and deteriorating service provision. Those that spend additional monies on improving services are penalised. Christine Clark, by email
BEING TURNED AWAY WHEN SEEKING HELP ONLY ADDS TO THE PROBLEMS It is a disgrace that a police assistant chief constable had to take to Twitter to get something done about a 16 year old with mental health issues held in a police cell for more than 36 hours because no hospital bed was available for her in the UK.
NURSING STANDARD Nursing Standard 2014.29:34-34. Downloaded from journals.rcni.com by University of British Columbia on 11/13/15. For personal use only.
34 december 10 :: vol 29 no 15 :: 2014
