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Undercover Care : The abuse exposed – A Review of Panorama

I sat down to watch Panorama yesterday and the trailers and name of the programme were something of a giveaway so I wasn’t exactly unprepared for what was shown. Panorama had been alerted to abuse within Winterbourne View near Bristol, which is a private...

Published 1 Jun 2011 6:57 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social work, work, mental health, MCA, discrimination, learning disability, local authority, politics, long-term care, health, nurse, hospital, mental health act 1983, mental capacity act, Disability, personal, Abuse, Care Quality Commission, cqc, panorama, burstow, abuse exposed, abuse of vulnerable adults, bristol, castleview, private hospital, section 44, undercover care, winterbourne, winterbourne view
Hospitals

Today, the Telegraph printed a letter sent to them by the Chair of the NHS Confederation which states that The NHS Confederation has expressed concern that cuts to local government could have a knock-on impact on NHS services. Less support … Continue...

Published 23 Oct 2010 9:13 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, social issues, older people, work, mental health, local authority, old age, politics, long-term care, health, nhs, local government, hospital, National Health Service, bed blocking, patient, personal, daily telegraph letters, NHS Confederation
Reconnecting

Last week, while trying to organise a hospital discharge, I was called into a hospital MDT (multi-disciplinary team) meeting to try and gauge/update the status of a particular service user. This particular hospital and this particular ward hold a few...

Published 13 Oct 2010 7:56 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social work, older people, work, old age, london, health, hospital, Medicine, personal, hospital social worker, multi-disciplinary meeting, ward round
Rising Detentions

Community Care have a short report about figures were published yesterday by the NHS which indicate that there has been an increase in detentions under the Mental Health Act over the last year. As the article says The numbers of … Continue reading...

Published 6 Oct 2010 5:56 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, work, socialcare, mental health, uk, health, mental health act, hospital, psychiatric hospital, mental capacity act, personal, AMHP
A hiatus

This is my penultimate day at work before I go into hospital. I’d been considering what I would say to the service users I see regularly and after initially thinking about being a bit vague about ‘going away for a while’, I felt that didn’t sit comfortably...

Published 2 Jun 2010 6:20 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social work, work, hospital, personal, Sick leave
Sectioned – A Quick Review

Probably not the most in-depth review as I haven’t had a lot of time to process the programme shown on BBC 4 on Wednesday called ‘Sectioned’ as a part of the ‘Out of Mind’ season about mental illness. The programme’s aim was to allow a greater insight...

Published 21 May 2010 6:45 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: work, mental health, health, hospital, Mental disorder, patient, sectioned, AMHP, BBC Four, bbc4 out of mind season, Involuntary commitment, Janet Street-Porter, tv programme, tv review
Into the Night

Image via Wikipedia Although the nature of AMHP work is that it will be crisis-orientated, I have found that assessments are usually planned to some extent. Last week, we received a referral to our team at about 3.30pm. For reasons that smack of ageism...

Published 8 Feb 2010 7:12 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, older people, work, carers, ASW, mental health, old age, elderly, london, long-term care, health, carer, hospital, social worker, mental health act 1983, approved mental health professional, Add new tag, personal, AMHP, Ambulance
Dementia and Hospital Stays

Today, Community Care reports that the Alzheimer’s Society has called for patients with dementia to be discharged earlier from hospitals as this would save a significant amount of money. They conducted a survey of 1300 carers of people with dementia,...

Published 17 Nov 2009 7:01 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: residential care, social care, social work, social issues, older people, dementia, work, mental health, old age, elderly, long-term care, health, social services, Alzheimer's disease, hospital
A Gentle Man

I had arranged an assessment on the ward this week. I was assessing a man I had known for a few months in my capacity as his care co-ordinator. He has been on the ward under Section 2 of the Mental Health Act (for assessment – up to 28 days) for a few...

Published 7 Aug 2009 6:54 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social work, older people, work, ASW, mental health, old age, elderly, health, hospital, sectioning, psychiatric hospital, mental health act assessment, social worker, section 2, ward, AMHP, section 3, to section, compulsory detention in hospital
Father’s Day

Image by Denis Collette…!!! via Flickr Yesterday, I , with my siblings, went to see my father. I’m sure that is nothing remarkable. I have been to hospices a few times for work-related matters. I know how they work. What kind of work they do and...

Published 22 Jun 2009 6:03 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: older people, carers, old age, elderly, london, long-term care, uk, health, carer, hospital, Medicine, personal, father, Hospice, father's day, help the hospices
Repeat Assessment

I was at work early yesterday in order to carry out a Mental Health Act Assessment. It needed to be completed early in order to ensure that Mr F was in. He liked to go out for walks and we wanted to make sure we caught him in – quite literally. It always...

Published 5 Jun 2009 6:37 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, social issues, older people, work, mental health, old age, elderly, health, mental health act, police, hospital, mental health act 1983, approved mental health professional, AMHP
Ginger

My duty as an AMHP (Approved Mental Health Professional) is fundamentally to co-ordinate and carry out assessments according to the Mental Health Act (1983 – as amended 2007). So in the case of a community assessment, I will request the doctor’s attendance...

Published 28 May 2009 6:15 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, work, ASW, mental health, local authority, health, animals, mental health act, hospital, approved social worker, mental health act 1983, cat, national assistance act, approved mental health professional, AMHP, pets, animal warden, cat trap, mha 1983, national assistance act 1948, national assistance act section 48, s48
Drowning in Paper

I was on the ward yesterday morning. For a substantial chunk of time. Our borough had a rush of applications for assessments for authorisations of deprivation of liberty in the last few days in April. Just in time to take advantage of the extended April...

Published 14 May 2009 7:02 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social work, older people, work, mental health, local authority, old age, assessment, health, hospital, psychiatric hospital, Best Interests Assessor, best interests assessment, best interests, dols, deprivation of liberty safeguards
Second thoughts

I struggled at work yesterday. It was a long day built from unexpected eventualities over the long weekend. The nature of the job is very much to expect the unexpected and plans put together aren’t always able to pan out the ways that they should. For...

Published 15 Apr 2009 6:54 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, social issues, older people, work, socialcare, mental health, old age, elderly, long-term care, uk, health, hospital, Home Care, hospital discharge, second thoughts
Crisis and Discrimination

We had a meeting with our crisis team a couple of weeks ago. There is a general perception that they don’t like taking referrals for over 65s. It has increasingly developed into something of an ‘us and them’ situation so an attempt at some kind of reconciliary...

Published 31 Mar 2009 6:13 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: work, mental health, ageism, health care, health, hospital, Mental disorder, Healthcare Commission, Care Quality Commission, crisis resolution team, health care discrimination, crisis team
An Assessment

I mentioned in passing that I was out at an early morning assessment earlier in the week. I wanted to reflect on some of the issues that arose without mentioning too much of the detail. It was the second attempt to assess as the first visit, Mr A had...

Published 27 Mar 2009 6:20 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social work, older people, work, ASW, mental health, old age, elderly, assessment, health, hospital, mental health act assessment, work-related stress, General practitioner, AMHP, Psychiatrist
Assessing Best Interests - part 2

The training continues - it’s a fairly robust one as far as it goes and although it might not be apparent, despite the density of content, I am finding the substance interesting. As promised on the first day of the training, more of the bits and...

Published 20 Feb 2009 5:04 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social issues, older people, work, socialcare, mental health, MCA, local authority, old age, long-term care, deprivation of liberty, assessment, health, mental health act, hospital, mental capacity act, personal, AMHP, Law, Best Interests Assessor, best interests assessor training, bia, standard authorisation, conditions attached to authorisation, urgent authorisation
Guardianship - A Case Study

I have been working on another Guardianship application. It is an interesting scenario. I thought I would present a scenario based on some of the issues in the form of a fictional case study. I have been liberal with the actual details which have been...

Published 17 Feb 2009 6:41 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, social issues, older people, dementia, work, carers, ASW, mental health, MCA, old age, elderly, long-term care, health, carer, mental health act, hospital, Guardianship, AMHP, section 7, using guardianship, section 8, case study guardianship
Bed Blocking

I hate the term ‘bed blocking’ but it’s something that came up a lot when I was working in the Adult Community team. It seems to imply some kind of intent or purposeful wish to disrupt the smooth-running (or not) of hospitals. The term...

Published 15 Jan 2009 4:51 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social work, work, ASW, mental health, old age, elderly, health, mental health act, hospital, psychiatric hospital, Medicine, delayed discharge, community care (delayed discharge) act 2003, bed blocking, AMHP
Method in her Madness

Over the weekend, the Guardian printed an excerpt from a book which is about to be published by an author called Nora Vincent titled ‘Voluntary Madness : My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin’. Apart from squirming at the title for a number...

Published 5 Jan 2009 7:20 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: work, health, hospital, psychiatric hospital, Medicine, patient, voluntary madness, book extract, book review, Norah Vincent, poppy shakespeare
Making the call

The most difficult decisions that I am faced with, and it hasn’t happened frequently, is when I am carrying out a Mental Health Act Assessment and have two signed medical recommendations in my hand and have to make a decision whether to admit or...

Published 16 Dec 2008 7:14 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, older people, dementia, work, ASW, mental health, old age, elderly, long-term care, uk, health, hospital, Home Care, mental health act 1983, decision-making, AMHP, care planning
Tricks of Fate

I have worked with Mr K for a long time. In fact, in the rush of changing teams and switching caseloads, he is the only person I successfully managed to persuade my superiors to hold on to against the rush - change doesn’t really work well with...

Published 7 Nov 2008 7:21 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social work, older people, work, health, hospital, anxiety, Major depressive disorder, Cancer
Finding places

I was on the ward yesterday, chatting to the wife of one of the patients with whom I am currently working. It’s a difficult point for her. Her husband, Mr P, has a fairly advanced dementia. He was admitted to hospital after displaying increasingly...

Published 23 Oct 2008 6:00 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, older people, work, nursing, local authority, old age, elderly, long-term care, health, hospital, psychiatric hospital, family, nursing home, house, Marriage, residential placement
Revisiting

I have been in my current team for a couple of years. I worked in the same local authority before that though for about three years. The geographical boundaries of the areas that I work in don’t strictly overlap so I haven’t had it happen...

Published 8 Oct 2008 6:15 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, older people, work, ASW, mental health, old age, elderly, health, hospital, psychiatric hospital, vascular dementia, approved social worker, mental health act 1983, Mental disorder, sectioned
On the ward

Image via Wikipedia I knew it wasn’t going to be a quiet day when I found a pink paper with a written recommendation for a Section 3 from one of our doctors sitting on my desk next to the ASW Duty Book - a book in which we note any Mental Health...

Published 12 Sep 2008 7:01 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, older people, work, ASW, mental health, old age, uk, assessment, health care, health, United Kingdom, hospital, mental health act 1983, paranoia, ward, psychosis
Delayed Discharges

Since moving from a generic Community Care team into a specialist Mental Health team a few years ago, I haven’t had as much contact with the vagaries of the delayed discharge system as I did back then. Yesterday was a rude (in every sense of the...

Published 27 Aug 2008 6:25 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, social issues, older people, work, mental health, old age, elderly, long-term care, uk, health care, health, social services, nurse, hospital, robert burns, delayed discharge, section 5, section 2, community care (delayed discharge) act 2003, bed blocking, to a mouse, discharge
Hypochondria

Currently a couple of people that I am working with who have anxiety and depression are suffering from a form of hypochondria. And truly, it is as painful as a mental disorder as any physical manifestation of an illness could be. The word that is over...

Published 5 Aug 2008 6:20 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social work, older people, work, mental health, old age, elderly, health, depression, hospital, Cognitive behavioral therapy, anxiety, hypochondria, CBT, Mental disorder
Looking for beds

The new president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Professor Dinesh Bhugra, will according to the Guardian use his inaugural speech to lament the problems caused by the shortage of acute psychiatric beds in the system. This is something we hear...

Published 29 Jun 2008 6:49 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: work, mental health, health, psychiatry, hospital, Dinesh Bhugra, Mental Health Act Commission, Medicine, Royal College of Psychiatrists
With or Without Your Consent

Last week was quite a difficult one for me, work-wise. I’ve already mentioned a couple of the Mental Health Act Assessments I did a few days ago. There was another one yesterday and it was the most troubling I have been party to. At the moment,...

Published 21 Jun 2008 5:14 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social work, work, ASW, mental health, uk, assessment, health, hospital, sectioning, psychiatric hospital, approved social work, mental health act assessment
On Assessments

This week I completed two Mental Health Act Assessments (not on my own, of course, I’m still not warranted!). So I probably don’t need to elaborate on the fact that it’s been quite busy. Just a few aspects as I saw them. I spoke to one...

Published 19 Jun 2008 4:01 AM by Fighting Monsters

Filed under: social care, social work, work, ASW, mental health, uk, assessment, mental health act, hospital, sectioning

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