Firstly, thank you to everyone who has posted a comment and to all of you who have emailed me directly. It is very encouraging to hear so many people who feel as strongly as we do, though not at all surprising. I know some people have struggled to post comments - I think I have fixed this now so please feel free to comment anonymously or otherwise - I look forward to hearing from you. Even if you prefer to remain anonymous do send me an e-mail- we will need to contact you all when it comes to action.
I have been wondering where to go with this blog and what to do with the many suggestions from the emails and have come up with the following:
I have been wondering where to go with this blog and what to do with the many suggestions from the emails and have come up with the following:
- I have updated the information sheet as there have been a couple of changes that are important to know about. The first is that the chair and chief executive of AWP NHS Trust (www.awp.nhs.uk) are currently no longer in post so there are new people to write to. The others relate to some comments made in the blog and to the fact that a person involved with a number of depression charities has become interested in our plea. Finally it is of interest that AWP does not list this specialist service in its website, in spite of the fact that it has served the local and regional community for 20 years. Please ask for the sheet by emailing psychopharmcare@gmail.com
- Apologies to those of you who are users of the clinic who do not have depression or anxiety- we don't want to exclude you- quite the contrary as your illness may affect motivation less than depression and therefore you may be more able to take action. Join us actively- the email address reflects the concern about the clinic - the blog started with my frustration.
- I will use the blog to publish stuff that I have that is useful to those of us directly or indirectly affected by severe depression. Clearly this goes beyond the closure of a local clinic in Bristol - important though this is to those of us who have benefited from it. The issues of mental illness, its treatment and attitudes to it affect many people across the UK where it has long suffered from being the poor relation in the world of medicine - and they go beyond our own borders. To this end, I have been in contact with Dr Malizia and he has kindly agreed to contribute some short articles with useful advice about various aspects of mental health and depression. For obvious reasons, he can't comment on the closure of the clinic but I am delighted he can support us in this way. Please email or comment if you have any suggestions of topics you would like him to comment on and please pass on the link to this site to anyone you think will be interested in hearing from one of the experts in the treatment of persistent depression. Start following the blog by pressing the button!
- Separately, I am contemplating mobilising an official protest at the closure of the clinic and I am asking for anyone who wishes to support this in any way to contact me directly on the email below. I already have some people who are prepared to make a stand in principle and would love to hear from anyone else prepared to get involved. Contact me and I can share with you some of the ideas so far. Don't forget, if we cannot demonstrate that the service is important it will die. We will be offered 'local' alternatives initially and we all know that however well intentioned, they didn't work before and are unlike to work now. In addition I can see that the current mantra is that everyone can be discharged until the next crisis. If the same principle applied to severe diabetes, services would only exist when people become comatose
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