The East Cheshire Mental Health Forum was founded more than twenty years ago. Initially its function was to represent the views of service users and carers in the Macclesfield area.  Mostly it was a self help group where service users and carers talked about their views on the standard of care they received and how they were coping.  Today The East Cheshire Mental Health Forum is very different.  We are a group that focuses on service provision, engaging with the main service providers, Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (CWP) and the East Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).  We are a “Watchdog” attempting to hold service providers to account.  As well as representing the views and concerns of service users and carers we also engage with various “Third Sector” organisations sharing views and opinions on service provision.  These include those representing ex-servicemen and women, Community and Voluntary Services (CVS), Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB), Disability Information Bureau (DIB) and many others.  We also campaign with CWP and the local CCG to support Government initiatives designed to raise the profile of mental health and end stigma and discrimination.  We hold meetings bi-monthly at the Jocelyn Solly Resource Centre in Macclesfield where visitors over the last year have included; David Rutley MP for Macclesfield and Wesley Fitzgerald The Mayor of Macclesfield.  Through our local MP we have also opened up a dialogue with Nicola Blackwood MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary Of State, whose responsibilities include mental health.  Our aim is to influence Government policy on mental health, especially given the recent statement by The Prime Minister about the priority being given to this topic by her Government.  We are seeking a change from rhetoric to reality!

 

Our main campaign at the present time is to hold the local service provider CWP to account for its proposed service redesign, which includes the possibility of closing the Millbrook inpatient unit in Macclesfield.  The ramifications of these proposals would be severe if they go ahead not least because the Millbrook unit is the last remaining acute care inpatient facility in Cheshire East.  Patients requiring such support would in future be sent to hospitals in Chester or on the Wirral. The journey times involved for both service users and their carers would be unacceptable.  On this particular issue we have produced a positioning paper in conjunction with “Open Minds”, a similar mental health forum representing the views of service users and carers in the Crewe and Nantwich area.

 

East Cheshire Mental Health Forum are proud to be associated with ChangesPlus Ltd collaborating on service user contribution to further education.

 

If you wish to know more about “The East Cheshire Mental Health Forum” please contact: Mike Heale telephone: 01625 431690.

Crewe and Nantwich Open Minds is a charity forum established in March 2000 that takes an active interest in mental health matters, covering all age groups, that impact on service users and carers in the South Cheshire area around Crewe and Nantwich.  Its members include service users, carers, social workers, healthcare professionals, members of various religious beliefs, representatives from Citizens Advice and many others.  Within the last year invited speakers at our meetings have included local MP Edward Timpson (Minister of State for Vulnerable Children and Families), representatives of other political parties, Third Sector service providers;  Making Space, Alternative Futures, Cheshire East Council Members and Officials, South Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Group representatives, Cheshire Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust representatives (Clinical, Strategic and Governors), Cheshire East Reablement Services, Citizens Advice representatives, Drug & Alcohol support service providers (Emerging Futures etc), Independent Therapists, YMCA and over the years many others.  The group looks to promote better healthcare by raising the profile of mental health with the general public, highlighting local issues as they arise and where necessary lobbying for change and fairer funding.  Within this framework the group will always look to consult and cooperate with local providers wherever possible.  We encourage service users and carers to become as actively involved as they feel able with the aim of reducing any feelings of stigma and isolation and enabling such persons to participate fully in society.

 

Crewe and Nantwich Open Minds meet monthly at the Y.M.C.A. building on Gresty Road in Crewe. We would welcome any new members who in the first iinstance should contact our secretary/treasurer Brian Bayley.

Telephone: 07955 169415

Email: brianbayley1@sky.com