A Happy New Year to you all. I hope to be able to keep writing a blog every week, and hope you
will continue to support me and read each weeks musing. I don’t usually have
any problems about what to write, but as I was thinking about this week’s blog,
I had a strong sense of having had similar thoughts before. And although it was good to
see Fergus was back with his mates last week, spending the winter months in the
woods and fields around Rockcliffe, there was something more to this feeling.
Partly this sense of déjá vu was
prompted by the weather. In last week’s blog I mentioned about the folks in the
South who had suffered power outages and flooding. Well on Friday we had our
own flooding here. The high tide was 9 meters, higher than it had ever been in 2013.
As the rain fell, and the wind blew, the sea broke through the wall between us
and the estuary, and rushed upwards towards the house flooding the fields next
door.
Thankfully we were fine, unlike our friends at the Anchor Hotel. There
the sea came right over the wall and straight into their front bar. By
yesterday they were back in business operating from the bar with the real log
fire at the rear of the pub.
Also yesterday, I read with interest
the Government’s announcement that they were to spend £25 million on placing more
mental health nurses in police stations and courts. It’s hoped that the scheme will be fully rolled out to all
of England by 2017. I think this approach to ensuring good mental health care is long overdue proper investment. Similar
schemes have been operating previously, but have often been limited in scope and reach by a lack of funding. Indeed was part of a Diversion (out of
the criminal justice system) when I worked for a mental health trust and sat as
a Magistrate in Bolton – and that was nearly 20 years ago.
The Department of Health reports
that many people in prison have a mental health problem, a substance misuse
problem or a learning disability. One in four lives with a mental health
illness such as depression or psychosis. It has been estimated that police
officers spend 15%-25% of their time dealing with suspects with mental health
problems often with very unsatisfactory outcomes for all those involved.
Whilst having more mental health
nurses working in liaison and diversion services will hopefully improve these
outcomes it will also help support the polices public protection work. Which is
somewhat ironic given that police put on extra patrols at many of the Emergency
Departments in hospitals around Greater Manchester over the Christmas and New
Year period. In the Trust I am currently involved in there had been 200 assaults
reported by staff over the past 24 months. There is both a need for a police and
a mental health nursing presence in many A+E departments, which sounds like a
scheme waiting to be announced.
And announcements there were aplenty of those
who received a New Years Honours. It was great to see David Dalton, Chief
Executive Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust receive a knighthood. Many
congratulations to him and all those who received recognition for their
contributions to creating a better society.
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