World Mental Health Day: 10th October, 2010
As previous blogs have mentioned, Parkhaven Trust has developed an array of services to support the increasing numbers of people with dementia. We take great pride in the personalised and innovative services that have been developed. The latest contribution to this menu of services is an extra care housing scheme specifically designed and developed for people with dementia.
The building is nearly complete and now we are in discussion about the number of hours required to support the new tenants and what the cost of those hours will be to the local authority. The number of hours was a fairly amicable discussion resulting in a high degree of agreement which was reassuring. Although there was a discussion as to whether one member of staff on at night would be sufficient. I am absolutely clear that this is not acceptable and certainly to begin with social services accepted this view. The most interesting facet of the negotiation took place when we were discussing rates. We indicated that the rate would be the same as that which had been agreed to support people with learning disabilities. The social services representative suggested that this was possibly too high because the needs of older people with dementia are not as complex as those for people with a learning disability. The Trust is clear that this is a misguided view. People with dementia need a skilled and committed staff team to support them. People with dementia need continuity. Staff need to know how to support and enable people, what their backgrounds and interest are. Not just anyone can go in and support someone who is not able to articulate their likes and dislikes. People need to be respected and treated with dignity. People with dementia need to be accorded the highest respect and skill and this requires employers to pay staff good rates and in turn commissioners of services to pay acceptable rates for the domiciliary support of people with dementia. This cannot be bought on the cheap. It would seem that yet again people with mental health problems are not being afforded the priority they warrant.
The World Mental Health day is to raise the profile and priority of people with mental health problems and our recent local discussion would indicate that there is still work to do.
Hilary Rowland
Chief executive
As previous blogs have mentioned, Parkhaven Trust has developed an array of services to support the increasing numbers of people with dementia. We take great pride in the personalised and innovative services that have been developed. The latest contribution to this menu of services is an extra care housing scheme specifically designed and developed for people with dementia.
The building is nearly complete and now we are in discussion about the number of hours required to support the new tenants and what the cost of those hours will be to the local authority. The number of hours was a fairly amicable discussion resulting in a high degree of agreement which was reassuring. Although there was a discussion as to whether one member of staff on at night would be sufficient. I am absolutely clear that this is not acceptable and certainly to begin with social services accepted this view. The most interesting facet of the negotiation took place when we were discussing rates. We indicated that the rate would be the same as that which had been agreed to support people with learning disabilities. The social services representative suggested that this was possibly too high because the needs of older people with dementia are not as complex as those for people with a learning disability. The Trust is clear that this is a misguided view. People with dementia need a skilled and committed staff team to support them. People with dementia need continuity. Staff need to know how to support and enable people, what their backgrounds and interest are. Not just anyone can go in and support someone who is not able to articulate their likes and dislikes. People need to be respected and treated with dignity. People with dementia need to be accorded the highest respect and skill and this requires employers to pay staff good rates and in turn commissioners of services to pay acceptable rates for the domiciliary support of people with dementia. This cannot be bought on the cheap. It would seem that yet again people with mental health problems are not being afforded the priority they warrant.
The World Mental Health day is to raise the profile and priority of people with mental health problems and our recent local discussion would indicate that there is still work to do.
Hilary Rowland
Chief executive
