Last week turned out to be a bit
of a Spirograph working week. I would normally say at this point that younger
readers wouldn't know what I was talking about. However, as Spirograph was re-launched
as a toy in 2013, I guess all will know what a Spirograph is. It was Toy of the
Year finalist in 2014 nearly 50 years after it won this accolade in 1967. This
was the year my parents gave it to me as a birthday present. I can remember
being fascinated by the cogs, wheels and little pins with red plastic caps (now
replaced with H+S compliant sticky putty) which when used with care, could produce
fascinating line drawings.
The drawings were created by
having a circular fixed point, around which one could rotate different size
wheels with offset holes drilled in them which produced pictures where the
connecting lines formed the most amazing hypotrochoid and epitrochoid curved
pictures. It was these happy memories that came to the fore when I was thinking
about the lifetime connections that featured in my week’s experience.
It was a week of travel. From
Scotland to Manchester, Manchester to London and back to Manchester before
going to Frankfurt and then Tallinn. It was then off to Brussels and then back
to Manchester. And today I travel to Dundee before returning once more to Manchester
on Monday evening. I was in London for a meeting of the Health Education
England Transforming Nursing for Community and Primary Care; Workforce Project
Steering Group. This is an exciting group to be part of, a group committed to changing
the face of community and primary care nursing and importantly for me, open to
rethinking the educational preparation of the future workforce.
The spirographical connection
here was in the discussion around community mental health nursing – where data underpinning the workforce
planning trends appeared to suggest a possible reduction of such nurses in the future,
something that was counter intuitive to the way in which many international mental
health services are developing. Some great examples of which I came face to
face with in Tallinn. I was there for the 3rd European Conference on
Mental Health. It was a good conference, made more so by the number of
colleagues and friends of many years who also attended.
There were papers on the rhetoric
of recovery, the use of technology in mental health care, and mental health
care education, what makes for effective child and young people’s mental health
services, nursing in the Caribbean (which did seem a little different from
Salford). There was one paper I particularly liked. It was a paper presented by a geneticist
who seemed to suggest that the reason I like to have the occasional glass of
wine in the evening was all down to my Mother and her genes J
I enjoyed a number of papers of
how we perhaps need to rethink our approach providing services to military veterans
– and these papers were not all about Post Traumatic Stress Disorders by any
means. Several of the speakers provided valuable insight into the culture and personal/shared
context of those who have served in the military and may now be living with
mental health issues. I am glad we are engaging with this work in the School.
There were papers on forensic
mental health but I didn't
get to these. There was a spirographical connection to forensic mental health nevertheless. I picked up on Twitter that a fire had
taken the lives of 60 dogs at the Manchester Dogs Home, and that a 15 year old
had been arrested (and subsequently released on bail) in connection with the
fire. Whatever emerges about the involvement or not of this this young man, it's
a sad fact that arson is the single largest cause of fires in the UK. On
average 3500 fires a week are the results of arson, with arson related fires
costing us all over £1.5 billion pounds a year, and resulting in over a 1000
deaths a year. Children and young people aged between the age of 10 – 19 are
responsible for over 50% of all arson related fires in the UK. A high proportion
of these fires are fires started in Schools.
In 1984, spirograph in hand, I started
working at the Gardener Unit, the only NHS forensic mental health service for adolescents.
One of the early patients we cared for had been sentenced for the offence of
arson. It seemed the offence was related to the young person’s response to a
life threatening condition that was acquired through no fault of their behaviour,
or action on their behalf. The desperation of that young patients experience came to mind when I thought
about the young man somehow connected to the Manchester Dogs Home fire.
It also brought to mind, with
great fondness. the formidable Professor Dame Sue Bailey (who until recently was
the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists) who still works a Consultant
Psychiatrist at the Gardener Unit. She is an amazing mental health professional
who has campaigned tirelessly for the UK government to spend more money and
resources on the areas that might ensure children and young people don’t
development mental health problems in the first place.
And for me this thought was the
final spirographical connection. Yes it is sad that 60 dogs died in the fire, but
what kind of society are we, where because of our actions we still need dog
homes. In 2011, the Stray Dog Survey (undertaken by the Dogs Trust, the UKs
largest dog welfare charity) reported that 126,176 dogs a year were being taken
into Local Authority care a year. The Manchester Dogs Home takes in 7000 dogs a
year. Most of these dogs are dogs that have abandoned by people who for whatever
reason can't or don't want to look after them any more.
Perhaps not surprisingly, since the news of the fire
hit Twitter last Thursday over £1 million has been raised in response to the
fire. I am sure much of this money will be used to re-build the dogs home, but wouldn't it be great if we could create a society where young people don't need to experience
mental health problems and we don't need a home for abandoned dogs – that indeed
would be a perfect Spirograph picture.
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