Today is World Mental Health Day and to mark the occasion, Lights!Camera! ACTION! – our 2013 national campaign run by mental health service usersand carers and supported by Hafal, Bipolar UK and the Mental Health Foundation -was celebrated at an event in the Senedd.
At today’s event we presented the Health and Social ServicesMinister Mark Drakeford with our campaign report which points local services and national policy makers to good practice inmental health service delivery across Wales – and tells them what changes wewant to see in services. The message is there’smore to do – including the following:
· We want all service users to havean excellent and ambitious Care and Treatment Plan which identifies long andshort-term goals in all relevant areas of life
· We also want a turnaround in theapproach of commissioners so that all services are planned in response to needsidentified in Care and Treatment Plans (as opposed to the other way round)
· We need a Welsh solution for giving control of resources to service usersand carers
· We also need to evolve new policy and legislation in the next 5-10 yearsnot only to provide greater empowerment to service users and carers but toaddress inequalities in all areas of life including training, employment,physical health, housing, etc.
A huge thankyou to the thousands of people who took part in the Lights! Camera! ACTION! campaignincluding:
· The2000 Members of the partner organisations
· Over3000 service users and carers using partners’ services who took part in localfilm projects or made individual film blogs at the projects
· Manythousands of people who attended the 22 county events, the launch of thecampaign by Health and Social Services Minister Mark Drakeford at the Assembly,and the Royal Welsh Show event
· Over5000 people who followed and interacted with the campaign via our online socialmedia channels (including over 2000 new followers of the campaign on Hafal’sFacebook platform)
· The40,000 people who have received a copy of the Care and Treatment Planning guide(provided on request to service users, carers and professionals).
To watch the campaign film blogs and for pictures from today’sevent go to Hafal’s Facebook page.