Charter for mental health support launched in Liverpool
More than 100 mental health service users came together at Queen’s Square, Liverpool, to produce and launch a Charter outlining their views on the service to the city council.
The Charter outlined how they would like Liverpool City Council to work with them in delivering personalised services which would be more effective and support their individual needs.
Representatives from Liverpool City Council and other agencies fed back to them on the issues raised at five previous events held in July and August.
These events were organised by Liverpool Charity and Voluntary Services’, LINk Project (Local Involvement Network), Liverpool Mental Health Consortium and Together for Mental Health. The aim of the events was to bring together the views of mental health service users and start the process of producing the Charter.
At the event people who use the mental health service spoke about their own experiences of personalisation, the government policy to improve social care services and give people more control over how money is spent on them.
People who benefit from personalisation can be a lot more flexible about what counts as social care. They might have a personal assistant to help them or might use some of the money to pay for an annual break to recharge their batteries. They do have to agree beforehand with their care co-ordinator about how the money is spent, based on an assessment of their needs carried out together with Liverpool City Council (Personal Care Plan).
At the event the Charter summarising service users’ views was handed over to Lynn Beckett, Co-Chair of the Mental Health Making It Happen Board. She pledged to make sure that service commissioners would take account of the expert views of people who use the service.
Service users said: “It gave me so much hope and determination to get the right support for the future.”
“Personalisation is happening – we all need to play our part to make it work.”
Personalisation is the government’s policy for improving social care services,
To find out more about Personalisation contact the: Self Directed Support Unit on 0151 233 5612 or by email at [email protected]
