Programme Activity

Last update

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:50:00 GMT

Dear all I just wanted to let you know that this will be my last blog update on this site. I have a new role working elsewhere in NHS West Midlands. I will be supporting the management of NHS performance across the region.

The end of 2010 and a change in role for me provided a great opportunity for some reflection. Over 2010 we have established this site, we expect it will continue as a repository of offender health and social care information.

Within the West Midlands we also significantly improved our provision of places of safety. A colleague who spent some of Christmas out on a night patrol in Birmingham, witnessed at first hand the need to take a member of the public to a place of safety for a mental health assessment. He reported back that the process worked very well, the member of public got the care and treatment they needed and the police were very pleased with the real difference the NHS facility makes to their work.

For everyone continuing in offender health there will be some key challenges ahead, budgets of health and social care providers and custody/criminal justice partners will all reduce over the coming year(s).

If I could leave everyone with one piece of advice from my 5 years doing this role, I would say. Ask your self what can you do to ensure you are doing your job to the best of your abilities?

Very few people are amazing at what they do, I am certainly not! But if we can all seek to do the best we possibly can then we should continue to make a big difference to the health and well-being of people in contact with the criminal justice system.

I will retain an oversight of offender health performance, so for some we will continue have contact, but it will be in a different way.

Good luck and thanks for a very enjoyable and challenging 5 years. David

More ...

You Tube, experience living with schizophrenia..who is Peter?

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 11:52:00 GMT

Ivan Riches has found our pod casts on our YouTube Channel thewmrdc. He suggested that we may be interested in his short film Who is Peter? This film, provides an opportunity to meet Peter. Peter explains that he is going to stay in a crisis centre. Peter talks through his experience of lving with schizophrenia.

Tags: you tube,mental health,patient experience,schizophrenia

Doing Offender Work Locally..

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 18:34:00 GMT

This week we published 2 documents, Working in West Midlands' Prisons and Supporting Women with Mental Health Issues.

The first document, provided information from a staff survey and data analysis, the second case studies showing how 3rd sector organisations support women to improve their mental health and well-being.

The challenge for us all, is to plan how to turn these reports into local actions. It will be local actions that will be the only way to ensure changes happen over the coming months and years....

Tags: offender healthcare,future,change

Successes and difficulties with blogging...

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:16:00 GMT

It is difficult to blog and share with you our plans for the future when there is such great uncertainty about the future within the NHS. We anticipate that the feedback from the consultation of the governments white paper on Equality and Excellence: Liberating the NHS will provide more information. This is due in earyl December.

However it does not mean we are doing nothing. Last week we got some good informal feedback from West Midlands Police about the place of safety work following an unannounced inspection from the police and health inspectors, we also received feedback from the National Police Improvement Agency about a programme of mental health and learning disability training that they are rolling out to police officers.

Tags: offender healthcare,future,white paper,police

The funding fence around the NHS

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 11:44:00 GMT

In this week's blog, a quick chance to share some of the information about what this means for the offender healthcare.

The RCN has identified that in the NHS 10,000 jobs would go, from recruitment freezes, not replacing retiring staff and redundancies. HM Treasury highlights about 500,000 jobs to go in the public sector, the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development feels this is an underestimate and 750,000 jobs will go. (See here)

We are working on a 0% flat cash approach to prison health budgets, taking into account the staff pay freeze, drug costs increase and other external cost increases this will be a budget cut in real terms.

All I can urge you to do, is to think and take action now, procrastinating until another day could make the changes you will have to make even greater.

Tags: offender healthcare,future,white paper,workforce,resources

How good are your numeracy skills?

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 08:52:00 GMT

Working in healthcare it is important to have good numeracy skills, when prescribing, administrating and recording information in patient files. Why not spend 10minutes and click on to this site and check your numeracy skills, 20 questions, it won't take long...

I undertook the tablet dose quiz. 18 out of 20 from me. Probably shows why I am not a clinician. The site provides a whole range of quizzes and support, you can access the wider site here.

Joking aside, numeracy skills are important and it is always worth checking that our skills are up to date.

Tags: prison healthcare,workforce,numeracy,careers

Offender Health and Social Care Award Winner Announced

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 10:45:00 GMT

Later this afternoon the region will announce its first ever winner of the Offender Health and Social Care Award in the West Midlands.

Not everyone can win an award, and we only run this once a year, but everyone can make a difference.

We'd be quite happy to hear your thoughts on how you have made a difference, we'd be happy to share what you have achieved with others on this site. Do get in touch and let us know.

Tags: offender healthcare

Wanted Steady Eddies, not Superheroes

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 18:54:00 GMT

Somedays we forget about the day job and concentrate on new developments, if I could choose what to see, each day in prison health, I would like to see people doing the day job well, all day, every day, not flying off to the next crisis.

Tags: prison healthcare,workforce,service improvement

How many agencies can you get in a one stop shop?

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:56:00 GMT

Baroness Corston advocated the one stop shop, all the services in one place to assist women in addessing all their needs to prevent future offending. In Birmingham we are working with Anawim, a charity working with vulnerable women. The Mental health team who provide a weekly surgery at one of their centres, are one of 27 different organisations delivering services in the centre.

Is it any wonder individual patients can be confused and fed up with the amount of organisations they have to contact to get the support they need?

If you are at NACRO's annual conference next week, Anawim, Revolving Doors and the Mental Health Trust are presenting their work. If you are not hang on a couple of weeks and we will have their report on our website.

Tags: women,3rd sector,one stop shop,mental health

Reasons to be cheerful...1...2...3

Fri, 10 Sep 2010 06:17:00 GMT

This week, we should describe as a good week for offender health in the West Midlands, we do have reason to be cheerful, sometimes we forget this. I finish this week knowing we have made some significant improvements. Have a good weekend.

Tags: places of safety,mental health act,S136,birmingham