Staff Patient Dialogue

Patients and staff working together to analyse hospital issues Come along to our meeting … Wednesday 21st December 12.30 – 2.00 pm in the Annie Altshul Room

Notes From The Annual General Meeting 2015

33 people attended our AGM on 30 November in The Hive.  We were delighted to welcome our guest speaker, Dick Fitzpatrick, who is now commissioner for the move of CAMHS Tier 4 services to the RIE site at Little France in 2017.  Dick gave us a general overview of NHS Lothian’s five year mental health strategy which ends next year.  …

Patients Council Meeting – Monday 28 September 2015

20 people enjoyed finding out more about the See Me campaign from Laetitia Jan. See Me is tackling discrimination and stigma including self-stigma, to change behaviour in communities.  They run programmes around At Work, Children & Young People, Health & Social Care and will soon be starting a new project called “Ageing Minds”. Their communities work includes See Me Community …

Group Advocacy Update

In July we heard conflicting reports from different wards about the hospital food as well as patients’ feelings about safety on the wards. Some patients felt the food has been getting much worse, others felt it had improved quite a bit since their last visit. Similarly, some male ward patients felt less safe than on previous visits, whereas on a …

Patients Council Meeting – Monday 27 July 2015

20 people attended a very informative and interesting session with our guest speaker, Paul Noyes from the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland (MWC).  Paul knows the hospital well from his years as the MWC’s Edinburgh representative. The MWC acts as a watchdog, safeguarding service users, and as a guide dog, helping folk through the maze of services.  It’s independent and …

Group Advocacy News

In May and June we: Listened to a lot of complaints about the impact of the new smoking ban on patients throughout the hospital. Patients in the Orchard Clinic feel the new policy hits them particularly hard: they see lots of people freely smoking on the grounds with no consequences, but because of rules on nurse escorts, they are unable …

Mirror Image by Jo McFarlane

Published in Stories of Changing Lives II This is what I want to be: a carbon copy print of me A billboard plastered high above: my picture on it, look of love This is what I want to write: my signature bold and wide A book about my tawdry life: the tears I’ve wept, the rope, the knife This is …

Stories of Changing Lives II

Simon and Ronnie launched our new booklet, Stories of Changing Lives II, at the Taking Stock conference on 28 May.  The day was a great success for us and a great way to distribute hundreds of copies to a wide audience.  Simon offered a thoughtful overview of the background to producing the book and Ronnie thrilled the audience with his …