Accounts

FOCUS - 2007 agm report and accounts

Jersey FOCUS on Mental Health

Annual Report June 2006-June 2007

Introduction

The Charity has enjoyed an excellent year having been able to address its pressing financial difficulties, stabilize existing services and more recently begin to develop new services for local service users. It is a year which has seen the successful renegotiation of our service level agreement with Health and Social Services, the creation of a website, the development of a new education initiative and a major overhaul of our main residential home, Camelot. We are also pleased to have begun the new financial year with the bold decision to invest in a new post to develop new services for those suffering from enduring mental illness.

In all very satisfactory progress has been made and whilst we are not complacent about the challenges which no doubt lie ahead for all charities in the current financial climate we are confident that we are on very firm ground with the services we currently provide and those we are in the process of developing. The Committee is grateful to our Director Anton Skinner, to all those we employ, to all our Members and our partners in the public and private sector who have supported the Charity in all its endeavours over the past year.

Financial Overview / Context

As Members were aware during the preceding two to three years the Charity had used most of its financial reserves to ensure that existing residential units had been brought fully up to date with the standards required of modern residential provision. The process of achieving these upgrades and maintaining these standards had meant that the majority of Charity’s reserves had been depleted with only a very small amount left to cover any emergencies or major repairs.

Additionally with the categorization of Camelot as a Registered Home the Charity had been required to meet staffing and other requirements as set out in the regulations which meant that the Charity had to increasingly subsidise the cost of care for its residents there. Currently that subsidy amounts to in excess of £40,000 a year dependent on bed occupancy. For these reasons the Charity’s finances were under significant pressure.

However I am pleased to report that the Charity has been able to address these issues and restore a degree of financial stability through a number of measures. Firstly it reviewed financial fees for Camelot and uplifted fees to reflect the actual costs of care. Secondly it renegotiated its service level agreement with Health and Social Services to more closely reflect the costs of the services it currently provides. Lastly it decided to sell on the derelict property in Val Plaisant which had originally been acquired as a possible Centre for Carers.

The first two measures, reviewing residential fees and the service level agreement with Health and Social Services established a position whereby with reasonably high occupancy in our various residential provision the Charity could aim to cover the actual annual costs of its various service provision without recourse to its savings or the need to subsidise its work through charitable donation.

This position has shifted somewhat with the Committee’s decision to create a new post, that of User Involvement Co-ordinator, which isn’t covered within the existing service level agreement. However the Charity having achieved a sound financial footing by year end has decided to press on with this very important new work on the understanding with Health and Social Services that the cost will in the long term be incorporated within a revised service level agreement as and when the Department can find funds to do so.

Personnel:

The position with regard to personnel remains as reported last year with one notable exception being the creation of the new post of User Involvement Co-ordinator which commenced shortly after the conclusion of the financial year in question in August 2007.

The arrangements for combining the services of the former carer manager post with those of the new Director have been successful and the post of Patient Advocate continues to go from strength to strength under the stewardship of Patricia Winchester. Whilst the decision not to employ a fundraiser has placed a greater burden on the Committee to spearhead fundraising activities the great success of the recent Funday demonstrates that it has risen to the challenge with some aplomb. Thus even with the new appointment of our User Involvement Co-ordinator our workforce remains small but fit for current purpose. The arrangement whereby the post of Director incorporates the duties of the former carer manager post together with managing the Carer Helpline is working satisfactorily and will therefore remain.

In addition to the three posts of Director, Patient Advocate and User Involvement Co-ordinator, the Charity depends heavily on the quality of its Residential Care Staff and Wardens to help maintain the excellent standard of care provided for those who live in our units. We are particularly proud of the way in which Julie Crisp and her team at Camelot have continued to provide such an excellent standard of professional care whilst preserving such a homely environment for residents. We are also indebted to Luisa and Enmanuel Fernandes for helping to take such good care of our bedsit units as Winchester Street and help to support our residents there.

We thank our treasurer Lynsey Richardson who maintains our financial records and carries out all the other tasks that go with her role.

Lastly we must of course thank Zillah Bendelow and her wonderful team of volunteers at our Nearly New Shop who have yet again worked tirelessly throughout the year to run our shop and provide such an invaluable source of income for our work.

Residential Services:

Camelot: Camelot continues to thrive under the very capable management of Julie Crisp and her dedicated team of residential staff. The Home retains full occupancy and at the time of writing the respite bed has been assigned to a possible seventh permanent resident. A review of its need undertaken in partnership with Health and Social Services confirmed that there is still a place for this type of family group home style of living for adults with enduring mental illness who may always require supported living of this kind.

As reported earlier a review of our fee structure for the Home led to a one-off major uplift in fees to reflect actual costs of care thus eliminating the substantial subsidy required to support the Home each year. As long as the Home continues to enjoy reasonably high occupancy rates it should meet its costs through income each year although it will be necessary to review the new fees annually to ensure that we keep pace with the cost of living.

In 2007 the Committee decided that a major upgrading of the Home should be undertaken and donations sought to cover the main costs of this project. Thus earlier this year the residents’ bedrooms were fully refurnished through the kind donation of a private benefactor. Currently we are in the process of completely refurbishing and redecorating the lounge and kitchen area and other works will then be undertaken to recarpet and repaint the rest of the communal areas. We are indebted to the Lloyds TSB Foundation for the gift of £42,000 towards the costs of refurbishing the kitchen and lounge, to the St Martin Gymkhana & Fete Committee who kindly donated £5,000 (the proceeds of the 2006 bonfire night) to the refurbishment of the kitchen and to the Toc H Trust Fund, administered through Mourant, De Feu and Jeune, which kindly donated £8,000 towards the costs of lighting and carpets. We are also indebted to a private benefactor for the funds to allow us to refurnish all our residents’ bedrooms.

Whilst these projects has meant considerable disruption to the daily life of the Home the residents and staff have coped well buoyed as they are by the excitement of having such major improvements to décor and the environment generally.

10 Winchester Street: this unit has continued to provide semi-independent living arrangements for up to five adults who enjoy single bedrooms but share bathroom, lounge and kitchen facilities. The Unit in general remains in excellent condition despite a problem with dampness in one area of the upper floors which is being addressed and the property continues to be well supervised by our wardens, Enmanuel and Luisa Fernandes, who provide oversight of the premises and support to the residents.

It has been necessary during the year to undertake a review of our admission policy to the Unit as part of a risk assessment of the premises and our resident profile. In the recent past the Unit has tried to cater for a wide range of younger adults with enduring mental illness who needed semi-independent living of this type as part of a process of gradual integration into full independence within the community. A proportion of this younger population also tended to have alcohol related issues which in combination with their illness led to some volatile situations arising often late at night. Given that the Unit is not staffed it has been decided that to continue to manage this level of risk arising from alcohol fuelled incidents and behaviour would be irresponsible as it represented an unacceptable level of risk to the residents and the premises generally.

As a result we are now looking to identify a nucleus of potentially longer term residents who can manage their alcohol intake in a reasonable manner and provide a stable ’spine’ to the resident population of the Unit.

Oakville: Oakville continues to offer three nicely proportioned self-contained flats which are always in demand as a resource for service users capable of managing their lives independently within the community. We continue to enjoy high occupancy rates with any vacancies being swiftly filled. This year we have redecorated the first floor flat and also had the exterior of the building repainted.

Bedsits attached to the Nearly New Shop:the two bedsits above the shop continue to be occupied by two male service users who benefit from the contact with the team of volunteers who run the Nearly New Shop

Nearly New Shop: It has been another busy year for the Nearly New Shop managed so well by Zillah Bendelow and her team of volunteers who continue to provide such a valuable source of income to support the work of the charity. An exciting year lies ahead as with the appointment of Lorraine Lewis our User Involvement Co-ordinator we seek to involve service users more in the running and development of the shop.

Zillah and Lorraine will be working closely together to develop the shop to incorporate service user involvement in recycling and revamping clothing, home wares etc as part of a craft based project helping users to develop their skills. We also wish to establish an e-bay shop using the skills of service users to develop a new branch to the shop’s activities.

Advocacy Services: This valuable service continues to go from strength to strength under the stewardship of our Patient Advocate Tricia Winchester. Although based at Queens House and working mainly with inpatients on Orchard House a significant number of community referrals are also dealt with. In all the Advocate has worked with 170 clients on 850 separate occasions. Mrs. Winchester continues to enjoy excellent working relationships with both staff and patients and is highly regarded for the professional standard of the service she has provided.

During the year a great deal of time and effort has been spent by Mrs. Winchester on seeking to influence the improved running of Mental Health Tribunals. A meeting was held with the range of professionals involved in March of this year to discuss advocacy concerns and since then significant progress has been achieved. As a result of those discussions Mrs. Winchester has also arranged a multidisciplinary training day for all those involved in Mental Health Tribunals using UK trainers to help address a whole range of issues affecting the efficient provision of tribunal hearings. The training will be sponsored by Jersey FOCUS on mental health.

The Advocate’s full annual report will be published on our website www.jerseyfocus.com in October 2007.

I in 4 Group: the I in 4 Group is currently reviewing its format and options for future development with the support of the new User Involvement Co-ordinator Lorraine Lewis and we will have further news of their progress in our future newsletters.

Carer Services: The Charity continues to support the Carer’s Group which meets monthly on the first Tuesday of every month at the Poplars Day Centre at Overdale at 7.30 in the evening. The Group has been renamed the Friends of FOCUS and its remit widened to include anyone with an interest in the work of the charity or mental health issues generally.

During the year the Group has received presentations from a number of senior local professionals in the field of psychiatry and psychology as well as talks from colleagues in Employment and Social Security and the Hospital Pharmacy Service. The Group will continue to arrange a programme of speakers throughout the coming year and everyone is most welcome to come along to these informal but informative evenings.

The Carer’s Helpline continues to be provided on a twenty four hour basis providing advice and support to both carers and also individuals in need of advice on options for the treatment of their particular mental health problems. Although the service does not receive a high volume of calls it provides a useful confidential service outlining options to both carers and sufferers as to sources of appropriate help and treatment.

New Developments:This has been an exciting year for the charity with three new developments in different areas of our work :

Website : we have established a website for the charity which can be accessed at www.jerseyfocus.com and which provides not only information about our charity and other key local services but also a wide range of links to sites of specialist interest and national expertise on all forms of mental illness. We are indebted to the local firm of Webreality for their help in setting up the website and providing a number of discussion forums which can be developed in due course.

Education Initiative:as part of our commitment to the provision of information on mental health and mental illness we were pleased to collaborate on a local education initiative with the Health and Social Services Health Promotion Service. The project involved adapting the recently developed Samaritans package helping young people to be aware of and maintain their mental health and wellbeing. In collaboration with Senior Health Promotion Officer Martin Knight we have been able to include a section within these two lifeskills sessions in which three local people talk about their mental illness or condition, how it arose, how it manifests itself and what treatments are used to address and control it.

The aim of this section of the sessions which are used to work with older secondary school students is to provide some insight into the existence of mental illness and psychological conditions which they may encounter or experience in adulthood. The interviews with the three local people provides an insight into three common forms of mental illness / psychological condition illustrating how each can be addressed and controlled with the right forms of treatment and intervention. The interviews also help with our commitment to de-stigmatising mental illness as it demonstrates clearly that those suffering are just ordinary people like everyone else who happen to be managing a particular illness or condition. We are indebted to our three volunteers who spared time to be interviewed and recorded for the sessions and to Hautlieu School who kindly helped us to record the interviews in their recording suite.

The lifeskill sessions are currently being piloted in Le Roquier School and we hope eventually to be able to introduce the two sessions as part of the lifeskills programme throughout the Island’s secondary schools.

User Involvement Co-ordinator:perhaps our most significant development has been the decision this year to create a new post within the charity to help develop services for local service users.This is a large and comprehensive development, details of which can be viewed on our website www.jerseyfocus.com but in essence the main ethos of the work is to:

• help service users to integrate effectively into the community
• help them to maximise their potential to both manage their particular illness and enjoy a good quality of life
• empower them to have a real stake in evaluating and feeding back on current services and influencing service development

The Charity has been fortunate in securing the services of Lorraine Lewis who has been living on the Island for four years but formerly had a long career working at regional, county and local level in the Midlands developing service user projects and lecturing at the Centre ofExcellence at Birmingham University. We have identified three main priorities for development of the new post over the first eighteen months beginning August 2007. The first two involve developing the Nearly New Shop to include greater service user involvement and looking to develop a group for younger service users.

The third major project involves the development of a programme for partnership working between service users and health and social service personnel. The project involves bringing together ten service users and ten service providers drawn from the various services within Health and Social Services to work as a combined team.

The ’Programme’ would be delivered over a time scale of 12 months, with one Partnership Training day being held each month.Each partnership day would be specifically dedicated to one issue for discussion, evaluation, and formulation of recommendations i.e.:

• Reviewing in-patient provision; accessibility, effectiveness, discharge process.
• Review of day service provision.
• Access to community services.
• Alternatives to hospital admission.
• Crisis and Care Planning.
• Self management and self advocacy.
• Designing user centered services.

At the conclusion of the programme a jointly owned discussion document outlining recommendations for service development would be produced for consideration. The programme is to be submitted to the Centre for Excellence in Mental Health, Birmingham University, for endorsement and verification.

Funding for the User Involvement Co-ordinator Post is to be found by the Charity until such time as Health and Social Services can incorporate growth funding within the service level agreement to fund the post on a more permanent basis.

Fundraising Activities : The Committee has continued a policy of providing stalls at the main fetes and public events and this year revived its Family Funday. The event held on the 8^th September was a great success providing a wide variety of entertainment, stalls and refreshments combined with a football tournament organized by St. Pauls Football Club.

The Committee would like to express its thanks to the board of Jersey Royal whose premises we use for our meetings and who continue to provide us with valuable administrative support.

Summary: Given the difficult financial situation facing the Charity last year we are very pleased with the progress made during this financial year. We have achieved a sound financial footing for our current service provision based on a revised service level agreement and a stronger income stream. We are about to complete a major overhaul of Camelot using donations made specifically for the purpose and we have begun to rebuild our general reserve in accordance with advised good governance for charities such as ours. In addition we have created three important new service initiatives including an exciting new post dedicated to developing new services for local users.

The Committee feels it appropriate to record the fact that much of this has been achieved through the vision, leadership and guidance of our Director Anton Skinner who brings to his work great diplomacy, skill and humor.

Julian Clyde-Smith

Chairman

September 2007