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Richmond Fellowship to be part of Home Office trial to reduce the use of police cells as a place of safety

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We’re to take part in a Home Office scheme to trial alternative ‘places of safety’ to police custody for individuals in mental distress.

Home secretary Theresa May announced the pilot during her speech at the Police and Mental Health Summit today.

She told delegates of the plans to provide a number of alternative places of safety over the course of the three month pilot to give a better experience for people who are detained pending a mental health assessment and to save police time and resources.

As part of the pilot, Richmond Fellowship will be exploring options with Sussex Police and Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to use alternative accommodation to police custody as a ‘place of safety’ to take someone in distress to for a mental health assessment.

Richmond Fellowship chief executive Derek Caren said: “The evidence shows that a police cell is not the best place to take someone to if they’re in mental distress. As a voluntary sector organisation we’re keen to explore what part we can play in providing alternative ‘places of safety’ for individuals in crisis when they’re at their most vulnerable.”

Richmond Fellowship is already signed up as a supporter of the Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat. It already runs a number of crisis services across England, providing support for people in the community as either an alternative option to an admission to hospital or as a step-down between an inpatient stay and returning home.

Richmond Fellowship to speak about diversity, crisis care and person-centred approaches at university event

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London Metropolitan University is running a ‘Connect Week’ in order to engage with local organisations and communities and, as Richmond Fellowship’s head office is just down the road from its campus, we’ve been invited to take part.

As part of the week, Thursday’s theme (23 October) is ‘Thinking about mental health?’ and representatives from Richmond Fellowship and our partner My Time will be discussing the challenges of addressing complex needs in a diverse community.

Richmond Fellowship director of performance, quality and innovation Grazina Berry said: “We live and work in a diverse community, which brings with it a rich flavour, dimension and, at times, complexity. Every day we support people with increasingly complex mental health issues on their journey to recovery and help them discover routes back into the community.

“The London Met event offers us an opportunity to strengthen our connection with a colourful range of organisations local to us in North London so that together we can build more bridges to recovery.”

During the event we’ll be promoting our excellent work and strengthening existing relationships between researchers, organisations and students involved or interested in the mental healthcare sector.

Emma Greenough, employability and placements officer at London Met, said: “There are lots of exciting things happening in the local area and Connect Week is all about joining them up.”

Our presentation and panel discussion will kick off the mental health themed day, which will also include presentations from other mental health organisations and performances from London Met students and alumni, and local arts organisations.

Richmond Fellowship to run new community cafe in Blackpool hospital

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The running of a new community café based at The Harbour, Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust’s new state of the art mental health inpatient development located in Blackpool has been awarded to the Richmond Fellowship.

The Richmond Fellowship, a charity that provides advice and support for people with mental health issues, will be managing and running the café when the Harbour opens in Spring 2015. Their vision for the café is that it will provide a community hub where people can go for a relaxing chat with friends, as well as providing people with health and wellbeing advice ranging from healthy eating to dementia awareness sessions. The Richmond Fellowship will also be working with local colleges to provide apprenticeships and employment opportunities for individuals with lived experience of mental health problems.

Alistair Rose, Project Director for The Harbour at Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are very pleased to announce that the café at The Harbour will be run by the Richmond Fellowship. The charity does some outstanding work supporting people with mental health issues and we really feel this partnership will provide a positive environment for people in the community to not only come and enjoy the refreshments, but also have an opportunity to work together to help reduce stigma around mental health issues.

“We look forward to working with the charity and setting the foundations for what will be a promising and successful partnership.”

Richmond Fellowship regional manager Wendy Baylis-Wareing said: “We’re really excited to be working with the local NHS to provide this community café in their major new hospital development. It’s an opportunity to truly put the wellbeing of our staff and customers at the heart of running a successful enterprise. We want the simple act of having ‘a snack and chat’ to be a way to challenge mental health stigma and help people feel a valued part of their community.”

The Harbour will provide a total of 154 beds and building work is due to be completed in November with occupation due in early 2015. The development is part of the Trust’s on-going commitment to modernise inpatient mental health services and improve the quality of care it delivers. The new unit will achieve a more therapeutic environment for the people who use the service and better working conditions for staff.

You can find out more information about The Harbour by visiting www.lancashirecare.nhs.uk/TheHarbour.

​New non executive director joins our Board

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We’ve been keen to strengthen our clinical representation at Board level so we’re delighted to announce the appointment of Michael Holland as a non executive director.

Michael is currently associate medical director, chief clinical information officer and consultant psychiatrist at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. He has lead responsibility for quality improvement across the hospital.

As a consultant psychiatrist, he also works with cancer patients and their carers at clinics within Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s College hospitals.

He lectures in quality improvement in mental health both nationally and internationally and has published many reports and audit analyses since 1998. In 2008 he achieved an MBA from London Business School.

We welcome him on board.

At the same time two of our non executive directors have stepped down after coming to the end of their terms of office. We’d like to thank Nigel Goldie and Ian Hughes for their valuable contribution over the years.

Popular Bailey’s café saved thanks to new partnership

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We’re joining forces with the Water Lily Project to give the popular Bailey’s café a new lease of life and save it from closure.

The Water Lily Project (WLP) is a Christchurch based charity which offers outreach support to local and vulnerable women to help them cope with and overcome whatever difficult situations they find themselves in.

WLP will be taking over the running of Bailey’s Café from Richmond Fellowship’s East Dorset Community Service.  Due to a change in the contract to provide services from the premises in Barrack Road, Richmond Fellowship needed to find a partner who could take the café on.

WLP project manager Lynn Chisadza said: “In addition to this venture that we have taken up, WLP is also pleased to have the opportunity of opening its first residential home in early 2015. We’re so excited about the potential that running the café will bring. This will enable the project to give training opportunities and provide a useful resource for local residents.

“We are so grateful for the support we have received thus far from Dorset County Community Fund, Round Table, Seedbed Christian Community Trust, local churches, local people and the local borough council who share our dream.”

Richmond Fellowship will continue to run its mental health community services from the Barrack Road offices and will be extending the groups and activities it runs in the Christchuch, Purbeck and Wimborne areas, under the terms of its new three year contract with Dorset County Council.

RF locality manager Doug Low said: “We’re delighted to be working with the Water Lily Project to keep the café open to the general public, including those people with mental health issues, and to be taking our services out to local people through our new community service contract.”

Making a splash – RF holds anti-stigma event at Europe’s top waterpark for World Mental Health Day

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Richmond Fellowship’s Blackpool Employment Service is marking World Mental Health Day with an evening at Sandcastle Waterpark.

This innovative event aims to raise awareness of mental health issues and the stigma around them, support employers in understanding mental health in the workplace, and offer anyone with any questions about their own mental health to come and meet support group – all while having lots of fun.

It’s one of many awareness-raising activities that our services are taking part in across the country to mark World Mental Health Day today (10 October). Now in it’s 22nd year, the day aims to highlight the importance of good mental health, and this year’s focus is ‘Living with schizophrenia.’

Other activities Richmond Fellowship is taking part in includes:

  • For Take Notice Day, Stockport Home Support is holding an information stall
  • Trinity St care home is holding an information stand at Heckmondwike with a bran tub and lots of promotional goodies on offer
  • A stall in Sudbury Market Square, with a live local band and promotional material to give away, is being run by Suffolk Recovery
  • Peterborough Employment Service is running an event at Peterborougn Football Ground to support managers and employers in understanding and assisting employees with mental health problems
  • A Take Time to Talk artworkshop is being run by Face2Face Dorset at Bournemouth University with etching and badge-making, as well as information about mental health problems and support
  • Art Matters, our community art studio in Redhill, Surrey, is holding three workshops at TheLightbox Gallery in Woking while our East Surrey Community Connections team is holding a ‘Feel Good Day’
  • 2Care Trevayler is having aful day of ativities, startigwih a breakfast cluband followedbyworkshos and dicussons bout stiga,a theatre production and dinner
  • Our services in Liverpool are running an information stand in Williamson Square and Our Time will be promoting our tim-bank and showcasing some of its activities, all as part of Liverpool’s World Mental Health Day Festival.

Richmond Fellowship chief executive Derek Caren said: “Every year we support more than 9,000 people with mental health problems and it’s really important to us to raise awareness about good mental wellbeing for everyone. It’s great to see so many of our services working in their communities to bring positive attention to mental health and the support available.”

 

 

 

We’re named as provider of new crisis services in Leicestershire

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Richmond Fellowship has been awarded the contract by Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT) to provide mental health crisis services to support people in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

The service will provide short-term intensive support for individuals who need additional help during times of mental health crisis.

Service user and members of the public were consulted in shaping the specification for the new service which will provide:

  • Access to telephone and face-to-face support in times of crisis
  • Facilities to accommodate short residential stays for people who might otherwise be admitted to hospital because no alternative is available.

Our crisis support will enhance the NHS Trust’s existing acute mental health care pathway and forms part of wider service development plans to increase access to timely and effective care in the community, and help avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.

LPT project manager Zayba Joondan said: “The evaluation panel was very impressed with the submission from Richmond Fellowship. Their organisational commitment to recovery and inclusion and the innovative ways in which these values will underpin their model of service delivery for the crisis house stood out in their bid.”

Richmond Fellowship locality manager Christine Lawrence said:”We’re really excited to be working with Leicestership Partnership NHS Trust to provide this new crisis service. We’re commited to playing our part in creating joined-up services that can truly provide the best possible care to people with mental health problems, especially in a crisis situation when individuals ae at their most vulnerable.”

The new service is due to launch in January 2015.

We launch new services in Leicestershire and Bristol

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Today we launch two new services which means we’re able to help make recovery a reality for even more individuals.

Our new Leicestershire Life Links community based service will provide drop-in, inreach and peer support services across the county.

And our new Bristol Mental Health Employment Service has also gone live as part of an innovative new integrated mental health system in the city.

A broad range of integrated services is being provided by nearly 20 organisations with specialist expertise and experience, coming under the umbrella of Bristol Mental Health. This includes community mental health (including assessment and recovery, crisis support, early intervention in psychosis and complex psychological interventions), community rehabilitation, dementia wellbeing and assertive engagement.

Our employment service is one of the first elements of the new system to go live. We’re working in partnership with Mental Health Matters, Windmill Hill City Farm and the Bristol Somali Resource Centre to provide specialist employment support to people with a mental health problem that is affecting their ability to retain, or seek, employment.

 

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Richmond Fellowship is part of Recovery Focus, a group of charities with the shared aim to Inspire Recovery Together www.recoveryfocus.org.uk

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