Ministry of Injustice

A disappointing letter this morning from the Ministry of Justice in response to Hafal’s call for an end to disqualification of people receiving treatment for their mental health from serving on juries even though the vast majority are perfectly competent to perform this basic civic duty. Our sister charity Rethink has proposed a simple test based on the Mental Capacity Act but the Ministry has not acted on its promise to reform the system and proposes to go on insulting about 9,000 people a year by excluding them. The Ministry tries to evade the accusation of discrimination telling me that jury service is “foremost a duty not a civil right”: this intriguing argument could be used to exclude all sorts of “inconvenient” people from serving their community. Come on, Mr Straw, this is an old-fashioned, nasty little rule which is offensive to a lot of citizens and sets a rotten example to everybody else. If you are saying people can’t serve on a jury just because they are receiving some kind of treatment for their mental health then you are effectively telling employers that they should not employ such people in any job requiring a modicum of reliability and judgement . . . but of course that would be against the law . . . which your Ministry is there to enforce . . . er . . . work it out, Jack!

Elephant

I enjoy a productive training session today with senior managers responsible for our local services. Chief Executives have a duty to project a rounded, corporate mission comprising services, campaigns, information, etc but we all know that if you have a significant service-delivery arm then it is that which will keep you awake at night if things are getting difficult and give you the sleep of the righteous if matters are going smoothly. I’m mainly sleeping pretty well at the moment and the more so I suspect following today’s session. We have a very focused and grounded team with a mix of long experience and new promotions to manage that critical interface between projects and Head Office. They know they will need to be ready when the elephant in the room (the massive public spending deficit) is finally confronted after the election. We will have to work hard to avoid nibbles and even big bites as commissioners look for savings. Will mental health’s “priority status” count for anything when the axe is wielded? Will commissioners be honourable with the Third Sector or just cut us first rather than their own statutory services? We will of course work cooperatively with commissioners looking for fair efficiencies but we are ready to fight our corner alongside other voluntary organisations if we have to.

Newsflash - Shakespeare was Welsh

Fellow Shakespeare enthusiast John Gilheany, a tireless denizen of Hafal’s own Grub Street - I mean our industrious media and publications department - presently working on a Young People’s Information Hub (see the fruits of his labour in the Autumn via Hafal’s website), draws my attention to a new book Shakespeare and Wales exploring Welsh connections in the life and works of the Bard of Avon (there are two anglicised Welsh words for starters). Apparently he may have had a Welsh granny, thus qualifying to play for God's Own Country under WRU rules, and it’s certainly true that there is quite a lot about the Welsh in the plays. But I’m not at all sure that Shakespeare had a respectful view of the Welsh. I have a personal insight having once played the “Welsh Captain” in Richard II, appearing in one brief scene where I refuse to assist the embattled king because the star signs aren’t right (my acting career was mainly downhill after that but for the record I dragged up to play Mrs Drudge in Stoppard’s “Real Inspector Hound” and dragged up again to play the Archbishop of Canterbury in Gordon Daviot’s “Richard of Bordeaux” – that’s Richard II again coincidentally). Superstition and unreliability also characterise Owen Glendower in Henry IVi so a worrying theme may be detected though Fluellen in Henry V is valiant enough. Sir Hugh Evans in Merry Wives of Windsor is a risible parson with a silly Welsh accent. All these Welsh characters are sent up for their excessively colourful turns of phrase. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that WS saw the Welsh about town in Tudor London as objects of derision not least for their odd use of English. But nobody should get too upset about that: there is a tradition of Celts using flamboyant English with a relish which the English themselves would not characteristically employ – James Joyce and Dylan Thomas come to mind, both extraordinarily respected but also often sent up for their unrestrained (unenglish?) use of words.

Back to School

Last week we recruited two Expert Patient Trainers (assisted by funding from Comic Relief - thank you) to join Hafal's Learning Centre: this exciting project is a major step forward for Hafal's pioneering work in delivering high level training from the perpective of our mass membership - people with experience of serious mental illness. The expansion has prompted planning of a new phase in the Centre's development and today we decided to recruit a Centre Coordinator to organise our whole programme of training and to support our excellent Principal Irene Hogan (picture). That brings to five our staff dedicated to training supplemented by many sessional inputs by staff from other departments and freelances. We seem inexplicably but delightfully to attract teachers to work for us in all sorts of capacities: they may try to keep it a secret but Irene always finds out in the end.

The Centre has grown from strength to strength and is now able to assess and award City and Guilds, Institute of Leadership and Management, and Agored (Open College Network) qualifications. Customers include the Assembly Government, NHS, local authorities, and private sector hospitals. Hafal's services also experience the great mutual benefit of large numbers of nursing and social work placements in our projects, supervised and assessed by our qualified teachers with personal experience of illness. It will be great to expand this so that we can influence decisively the culture of mental health services in the future.

I have also rather rashly decided to manage Irene directly myself to give a little more independence to the Centre from our service management - I say "rashly" as I have so far managed to keep my head down in the face of Irene's (quite proper of course) "training for all grades" mission but will now I suspect be exposed as lacking some basic IT or similar skill and be sent back to school...unless of course I can keep her too busy to notice my shortcomings: if you would like to give Irene some work contact her at dysgu@hafal.org.

On Your Bike

Got the bike out, dusted it down and pumped up the tyres for my first ride this year. Thinking it best to start slowly I cycled around Swansea Bay in warm sun with just a little haze. Quite as good as the Bay of Naples but without the slums and gangsters (cynical Jacks tell me Swansea has some form too but Wales' second city is like leafy Surrey in comparison with the scary Neapolitan suburbs straggling along the coast). The reward for cycling past the unremarkable cafes and ice-cream shops in Mumbles and all the way to Bracelet Bay is a "Get real, Nick" Trident-missile-sized bacon and egg roll at 1950s throw-back Forte's with a large, strong tea overlooking the small beach and watching the boats sail past. Nirvana.

Back in Swansea I visit Waterstones to see what to order from Amazon and succumb to an offer of chocolate cake with jam filling in St Mary's (not much to look at since the Luftwaffe called but worth a visit for the refreshments). A meat pie on the way back to the car means calories expended on gym, swim, and cycle are all "cancelled out" by snacking - ho hum.

Up North

The end of a long but very satisfactory week. Following the big launch on Tuesday off to meet staff and Trustees on Thursday at our N Wales Centre in Colwyn Bay. Before the meeting took a phone call from Sue Barnes who had just finished giving evidence to the Legislation Committee: she feels she and Lee McCabe had got the key messages across and this is confirmed enthusiastically by many who saw it streamed on-line.

My meeting went very well - fantastic plans for "Road to Recovery" events when the bus tours N Wales from mid June. Trustee Ceinwen Rowlands gives me a microbus key-ring (picture) with the legend "Happy Hippie" (does she mean me?) which I will cherish. In the evening motor up to Llandudno for a stroll on the prom with Chair Elin Jones and then fish supper at Enoch's in Llandudno Junction (recommended for food, service, and price).

On Friday visit our base in Porthmadog including the prospective new "Recovery Centre", currently a bit of a wreck but plans are in hand for 9 en-suite bedrooms. This unique new project, inspired by Trustees with personal experience of illness, will provide therapeutic short stays where patients from all parts of Wales can methodically plan their path to recovery. Watch this space next Spring.

We're Off

Warm sunshine and warm words of support from Edwina Hart at the excellent launch of our "Road to Recovery" campaign. The Minister gave an up-beat speech praising Hafal for our work on the LCO and Measure and wishing bon voyage to the microbus and all who sail in her. A big crowd attended including many AMs curious to see the fusion of 1960s German engineering with 21st century touch-screen technology.



Jonathan Morgan, who kindly sponsored the event, welcomed the campaign in a short speech and privately tells me he's fortunate that his better half wasn't with him as he would have come under pressure to make an offer for the bus - might see if we can flog it to him next year. Jane Hutt is looking forward to seeing the bus again when it reaches the Vale on 14 May: I introduce her to Hafal's Vale organiser Rikki Withers who is planning a Caribbean picnic - sounds like one for the diary. Lib Dem Peter Black seems very happy for some reason - he says it is the sunshine while chatting to our North Wales contingent on the videolink. Mark Isherwood remembers a time when there was more public engagement in election campaigns - posters in the windows and so on: he is right I think - is it because people are more wary of displaying their allegiances? I get Dai Lloyd to chat with Sue Barnes (see blog on the Measure below): he is looking forward to hearing her evidence on Thursday. Good to see Phil Chick and we agree we must chat soon as we are co-presenting at the Science of Care conference in June. The two Andrews Mulholland and Macintosh, who will be on tour looking after the bus and its technology, look justifiably pleased with the ensemble they set up earlier in the day. Fresh from giving radio interviews Hafal Chair Elin Jones and Trustee Collette Dawkin are on form networking with the legislators, as are Valleys Trustee Jazz and Vicechair Chris Eastwood who motored down from Gwynedd to check out the bus and press the flesh.