Well, I'm back from my holiday and attuning myself again to the world of work. It feels a long time until next summer as I'm swimming outside in the dark each morning (in the heated pool at my gym I hasten to say) until the hour change at the end of the month - but there's no escape as that will herald travelling home in the dark for the next few months.
It's not really natural to spend all the daylight hours indoors but (on the bright side) working outside isn't much fun in the winter and I suppose it's better than working down a mine where, if you had a day shift, you might not even see daylight for days at a time.
This seems like a good moment for taking stock of what we've achieved this summer. The "Taking the Wheel" campaign has really caught everybody's imagination. In particular our messages about putting patients at the heart of services - for real I mean, not just as a stale old mantra - have really landed and I have some optimism that the Government's new Mental Health Strategy will be built on the individual Care and Treatment Plans at the core of the Measure which Hafal Members instigated several years ago. Those Plans will need to focus systematically on the eight holistic "life areas" which Hafal pioneered and which are included within the law itself.
Of course there is more to do. the Regulations for the Measure will be published shortly as will the draft Code of Practice - we need to ensure that the Code is at least as clear and prescriptive as the Government's Interim Guidance on CPA currently in force - so make sure you get to one of the consultation events (details available from Hafal if you haven't got them).
See our report from "Taking the Wheel" here.
