Support Group Details Added

I’ve just added details of the two Bi-Polar Support Groups that meet in East Lothian.  One runs in Musselburgh at Changes, the other in Haddington at Tynepark.

For a little more information and times, click here for the advert.

Do You Attend A Group In East Lothian?

If you run or attend a group in East Lothian that has a Mental Health theme, send us the details.  As long as the group is relavent to Mental Health, we will be happy to carry a notice for you.  Just Contact Us!

If your group is related more to physical disability, please see our sister site:   DisabledPeople.org

After reporting an imminent change of management in the newly formed CMHT.  We can now report that this will not happen…..just yet!

David Haldane’s secondment as Clinical Services Development Manger (CSDM) to the new Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) will come to and end in the first half of the new year.  Hopefully this will allow the new team to settle in before we experience even more change.

The new team launch seems to have been successful and the new teams have fitted into their role.  Obviously it’s early days and some parts of the service have experienced more change than others.  However, other than a few minor procedural hic-ups, there is nothing exciting to report!

We received unexpected news last week of a planned change to the management structure of Mental Health Services in Lothian.

It was announced that, just after the new Community Mental Health Team launches on Wednesday 26th November, there will be a change to local management.  Currently both East and Mid Lothian have a Clinical Services Development Manager (CSDM).  As part of the restructuring, these two posts will be combined into one.  This means that our current CSDM, David Haldane, will be replaced by Robert Clement, the existing CSDM for Mid Lothian.

This change will happen on Sunday 7th December, just over a week after the new team launches.

OK here goes!

Hopefully most people are aware that there are changes happening to Psychiatric Services in East Lothian.  This article aims to set out what these changes are and who will be effected by them.

Firstly, it is important to point out that this change applies to services provided by NHS Lothian.  It is a change to the Adult service.  This means it applies to anyone aged 18 to 65 that has a need for Mental Health care.  It DOES NOT apply to the Young Person or Old Age services.

The biggest news has been that the current Inpatient Facility, Garleton Ward at Herdmanflat, will close.  At present the only certainty is that this will happen no later than September 2009.  The inpatient facility will be “re-provided” in Edinburgh.

The “New Service” will have a bigger emphasis on care in the community and at home.  The service as a whole will be known as the East Lothian Community Mental Health Team or East Lothian CMHT.

The team will operate as a single service but will break down into three ‘functions’.  These are:

• Intensive Home Treatment
• Recovery
• Psychological Therapies

With regard to the Recovery and Psychological Therapies functions, these will be broken down further into geographical areas.

• North – From the Riverside GP Practise in Musselburgh along the coast to North Berwick.
• East – Inland from Dunbar, East Linton and Haddington.
• West – Musselburgh (except Riverside Practise), Tranent and Ormiston.

The area that applies to you depends where your GP practice is located

Work has now started getting Herdmanflat ready to accommodate the new Community Mental Health Team.  New signs appeared a couple of weeks ago, which made it necessary to change the name of Soutra to Psychological Therapies.  The old signs were taken down and Soutra no longer existed!

The Pencraig Building, named after the old Pencraig Ward that used to be located here, is going to be the new home of the whole Community Mental Health Team.  There is a fair amount of work being done to accommodate the new team but this is moving at a very fast pace.  Hopefully everyone involved will be able to take up a desk in time for the official launch of the team.