#NHSpay15

On Saturday 8th August 2020, healthcare staff across the UK gathered in cities and towns to call for pay negotiations to be opened immediately for NHS workers. My opening speech for the Birmingham event is below: We’re here to talk about pay. Those who work in the NHS have never done so for the fame …

Don’t Panic!

For those that don't know, in addition to being a mental health nurse whose job is to support people in crisis, I also have my own mental health issues to deal with - namely anxiety and panic disorder, which I've managed pretty well since my first panic attack more than three decades ago. For the …

#WMHD2018

Today it's World Mental Health Day, the time when for a brief moment some politicians appear on TV to say how concerned they are about mental health services (which they've been running since they appeared on TV last year saying the same thing) and how they are going to take bold action to make everything …

RCN Extraordinary General Meeting

I attended the RCN EGM today in Birmingham to hear from Council and colleagues before the confidence vote was held. I was one of the last to get a word in, here's what I had to say: I appreciate what has been said about keeping Council because they work hard in their spare time - …

#MHNursesDay

There's very rarely good news to shout about. So, here's some good news to shout about, and the whole point of the thing is to get good news and shout about it. My colleagues and I at the Royal College of Nursing Mental Health Forum have launched Mental Health Nurses' Day - an initiative to …

1 in 8

In yesterday's Guardian, an article reported that DHSC figures show 2,000 mental health staff are leaving their jobs every month. Every Month. Mental health services are short of over 42,000 staff, 24,000 of whom left in the year to May 2018. That's 1 in 8 staff. That's leave being cancelled, appointments rebooked and delayed, lack …

Third runway

Chris Grayling, the Secretary of State for Transport, announced today that the UK Government has agreed to allow the building of a third runway at Heathrow Airport. In amongst the details, he included setting aside £2.6billion (!) for compensation to people who live in the area, much of that to cover soundproofing. I've read numerous …

#RCN18 – Tuesday

The key activity of the Mental Health Forum at Congress was the discussion on improving suicide awareness in nursing. As you can imagine, for such an emotive issue, the debate had to be handled with great sensitivity and compassion. Several members recounted their experience of dealing with suicide, and we were privileged to hear some …

#RCN18 – Therapeutic Staffing

A few people asked for the text of the RCN Mental Health Forum resolution on Therapeutic Staffing, so here it is: Thank you for considering this resolution - that this meeting of RCN Congress calls on Council to commission research into therapeutic staffing levels for mental health nursing. There’s so much going on around safe …

#RCN18 Congress – Monday

Today was fantastically busy, in the best possible way. A key highlight was to present our resolution on Therapeutic Staffing in Mental Health settings. This is a real passion of mine - to recognise that we as mental health nurses have therapeutic clinical effect through our interactions with service users. This effect is seldom represented …