Thanks to everybody who attended the conference on Friday in Mold. My impression was that it was a great success with a good balance of content and presentation styles over the course of the day.

Dr Ross Dunne’s presentation on the ethics of ECT was as entertaining as it was informative. His PowerPoint slides are available for downloading. I’ve sent out a survey link via the delegate list and agency leads – it would be really helpful for Ross if anybody that attended could complete the post-event survey. The article in the New Yorker he referred to regarding assisted suicide in Belgium makes for sobering reading and can be read here.

David Clegg’s presentation was as provocative as I’d hoped it would be, although it was never my intention to alienate the audience. David’s perspective is a unique one, given his grounding in the arts and the sheer amount of time he has spent listening to people with dementia and their families. It’s not easy as social workers to hear the raw responses of people who have had appalling experiences in their interactions with local authority social care services.

Some people raised an issue of balance – my personal view is that it is not the role of an artist to present a ‘balanced’ view of our profession (apologies to any nurse AMHPs who attended this event!) but I hoped that the day taken as a whole would present a more rounded picture.

David’s work can be found on his website The Trebus Project and I would particularly recommend you have a listen to the many recordings made by actors reading from the transcripts.

The full length dramatisation of the ‘No Concerns’ case can be downloaded from SoundCloud via this link.

The reading from the Manuela Sykes transcript is also available to download.

Please do contact me directly via the website if you have any thoughts or suggestions regarding this or any of the other presentations – or any of our future events.

As for a balanced representation of social workers in the mental health setting, this was completely in evidence in the presentation from Dr Mark Wilberforce and Dr Michele Abendstern  of their research into the contribution of social workers in community mental health services. What was most striking for me was how the other professionals valued the contribution made by social workers but the experience of social workers themselves was that their role became diluted through over-commitment. Given the current levels of stress and burnout in the field, it will be interesting to hear the longer term impact of integration and I hope that Michele and Mark are able to come back to us to present their future findings.

Mark and Michele’s presentation can be downloaded from the website.

At the end of the day it was a genuine delight to have Professor Rob Poole with us – a long-standing friend of AMHPA and someone who never fails to be thought-provoking and connect the most personal aspects of our work with a broad range of political, economic and social issues. I don’t think I’ve heard anybody bring Durkheim into a discussion of suicide since my undergraduate degree and that is a shame!

Rob is active on Twitter and can be found via @robgpoole.

Our next event will be at Brockholes in Preston on September 7th 2018 and after that will be Taking Stock in its usual venue at the RNCM on Friday 16th November 2018. (There is an Eventbrite page for paying delegates where you can see who is already booked).

Please do get in touch if you have any comments or suggestions, or if you would be interested in joining the volunteer AMHPs who run AMHPA and organise the events.

Best wishes,

Andrew Holt

AMHPA

The flyer for the next event for AMHPA members is at Chester Zoo on 11th April 2018 can be downloaded here: AMHPA Chester Zoo April 18 Flyer

The order of presentations may be subject to change on the date.

Please forward all applications to attend via agency coordinators to the address given on the booking form.

Many thanks,

Andrew Holt
Chair – AMHPA

The website has been somewhat neglected for the last few months. I’m aware that people come here for mainly two reasons which is to check the dates for forthcoming events and check the content for previous ones for completing training records.

We have very recently acquired some help with our administrative chores so this should free me up to update the website – a job that has been put off and put off since July of last year by the look of it!

I saw this link today and thought it fitting giving the daily mantra I’ve had for the last 6 weeks – “I must get the AMHPA website sorted out this year” –

Liferhacker’s advice on what to do you have already failed at your new year’s resolutions

Our next event will be a return to Chester Zoo on the 11th April 2018 and the flyer will be distributed to agency leads over the coming days.

Best wishes,

Andrew
AMHPA Chair

I seem to have missed an entire event on the website – by some miracle we managed to have an AMHPA conference at Theatre Clwyd in Mold on 19th May but, as with the forthcoming event, it only came together too late in the day for it to feel comfortable!

You should be able to download a flyer with this link – I’m currently having a problem uploading files to the website itself so I’ve stored it with Google as a temporary measure. Let us know if you have any problems downloading it.

Brockholes is a new venue for AMHPA – a change from our regular site due to the closure of the Woodlands in Chorley. It should be equally accessible to anybody who has previously been to our Lancashire events – there are directions provided on the website.

The schedule for the 13th July includes Yasmin Ishaq talking to us about the work she is doing implementing the Open Dialogue Approach in mental health services in the South East. We know that there is a lot of interest from social workers in this model – it’s a very natural fit for the values and skill base that social workers bring to mental health services.

We also have Dr. Louise Theodosiou who is a CAMHS Consultant Psychiatrist working in central Manchester who will be providing an overview of current practice and recent developments in the CAMHS sphere. We are aware that the detention of young people under the Mental Health Act is on the increase and that AMHPs who are not in teams working with younger people are very keen to have an update in this area.

We’re also very pleased to have representatives from Combat Stress talking about the services that they provide. Combat Stress is a highly-regarded service providing specialised support to a population who are particularly vulnerable to certain forms of mental illness.

We’ve been beset by various issues with venues and bookings this year which means that all of the events have only been finalised and publicised a very short time before the event itself. We’re determined that this won’t happen over the next 12 months and we’re getting into the best time of the year for long-term planning. Taking Stock is on the 19th October this year – the line-up is almost finalised and so we can concentrate on the events planned for 2018.

The event at the LACE is always well-attended so we’re likely to stick with that venue. We think we might try Chester Zoo again – the location is also handy for a lot of people. I’m always happy with Theatre Clwyd and we’ll get planning on next year’s event far in advance. We’re curious to see how Brockholes works for us – it being our first time at the venue – and I am determined we won’t be in the same position next year with so little time to organise our Lancashire conference.

Best wishes,

Andrew Holt
AMHPA Director

The schedule has been finalised, the flyer has been sent out to the agency leads across the region and can also be be downloaded from the website – AMHPA – Chester Zoo 2017

As with any of the other events, please submit any requests to attend via whoever is responsible in your Local Authority for overseeing AMHP training requirements – usually the professional lead or somebody in workforce development – as we know that agencies like to keep a handle on who is attending the events and the impact on rotas.

The big issue on the minds of a lot of AMHPs is the pending implementation of the amendments to sections 135 and 136. There has been some debate online about the immediate force of the amendments brought in by the Policing and Crime Act 2017 (which received Royal Assent on 31st January 2017) – the NHS Confederation website suggests that the mental health measures will be implemented in May. It seemed premature to book anything specific on this issue for Chester but I’m certain it will be mentioned.

We have a strong practice focus in the line-up for this event. I’m sure our opening speaker, Peter Edwards, will be familiar to all of the AMHPs attending and we anticipate a thought-provoking and impeccably well-informed presentation that will be up-to-the-minute in terms of legal developments. It is a cast-iron certainty that Peter will have a considered view on the pending amendments.

Following Peter, we are delighted to be joined by Claire Barcham, whose name will be familiar to anyone who has used her useful Pocketbook Guide to Mental Health Act Assessments, previous visits to events in the ASWIG days and the various forums and projects she is involved with. She will be joined by Ceri Owen – a fellow board-member and expert by experience in one of the current projects that Claire will be discussing.

In the afternoon, we’re hoping to have a brief video presentation from Ruth Allen – the Chief Executive of the British Association of Social Workers. Ruth’s background is in adult mental health services – she was Director of Social Work for a mental health trust before her current appointment – and so brings a deep knowledge and understanding of AMHP practice to her role. We’re still hopeful that Ruth will visit one of our events in person as she has been supportive of what AMHPA does.

We are pleased to be joined by Mary Smith for a presentation on the regulation of AMHP practice – the plans having developed further from when we first heard about them alluded to by the CQC and in more detail from Steve Chamberlain (from the AMHP Leads Network) last year. Mary is the head of adult social care for Manchester City Council and is an AMHP herself. Her role in Manchester places her at the epicentre of many of the systemic and organisational changes that will impact on frontline AMHP practice over the years to come.

The final presentation of the day is from an Dr. Helen Spandler – an academic researcher from the University of Central Lancashire, whose presentation is title ‘Bridges Not Walls: Alliances between Workers and Service Users’. Helen’s recent work has looked at the often difficult nature of the relationship between service users and the workers delivering mental health services and what can be done to improve the experience for patients.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Andrew

I had a shock when I looked at the website in ages today and it was completely broken so it jumped to the top of my ‘to do’ list. The AMHPA website is one of those jobs that is always on my ‘to do’ list but never quite makes it into the ‘important AND urgent’ box (for those of you that are familiar with Eisenhower matrices).

It was relatively straightforward to set up and it was a good learning exercise – if nothing more – to try to get the online forum working. Somebody did approach me when we started it to say I was wasting my time and that nobody would use it. My response at the time was that I didn’t mind so much because the personal gain for me would be that I’d learnt how to put such a thing together. I guess we were both right – nobody used the forum but I did learn how to put it together!

For that reason, I’m going to disable the forum function on the website, as a precursor to tidying the place up a bit and consolidating what might be useful.

A recent discussion on Twitter got me thinking again about our approach to the forum, which also steered me towards turning the facility off. Mark Neary – @MarkNeary1 on Twitter and there’s also his blog – was refused registration to a professional forum discussing the Mental Capacity Act on the basis that he was a carer and the forum was intended as a ‘safe space’ for professionals.

When I read the justification for declining his registration I had several immediate thoughts:

• Will there be anybody in the group who has as much first-hand experience of the Mental Capacity Act and how badly it can go wrong?
• Why would they turn away Mark’s willingness to participate when there are so many ways he could meaningfully contribute?
• Was this the result of a conspiracy driven by the Local Authority he has had to battle so hard against?
• Oh dear – some of those justifications sound just like the conversations we had when we set up our own forum.

We’d observed much discussion on social media that troubled us and thought that it might be preferable to set up something completely separate to sidestep the issues we’d noted. Of particular concern were situations where professionals (and I’m aware that there is some controversy about that term but I’m using it in the mundane-technical sense to refer to the professionally-registered social workers and nurses undertaking the role) where dishing out legally erroneous advice which seemed to be taken at face value. Another issue was that of people detained on mental health wards or in the process of being assessed seeking support whilst seemingly in the throes of a significant crisis.

Of course, these concerns have to be balanced against the many good things to be found on the most popular social media groups – such as a culture of mutual support, the openness to challenge from and sharing of experience by people experiencing the Mental Health Act as patients and carers, the volume of serious and reliable discussion on legal-technical matters and the sharing of news and developments in the field. We can’t compete with that and shouldn’t be trying to – for practical and ethical reasons I believe that the open discussions on Twitter and Facebook (and – of course – I’m referring to the excellent Masked AMHP Facebook group) are a far more effective way of connecting AMHPs than our private discussion group could have ever been.

The issues about inappropriate use of the groups should be dealt properly via moderation and I understand that there is a lot of careful moderation of the main groups. It seems like a big deal for them to consider ever removing a post and I am certain that to get the best of such things they have to be presented warts-and-all – to think otherwise is a naive fantasy that misses the point of how social media function.

If it’s straightforward to pull-off a mailing list from the registrations I’ll be sending a thanks to all the people who took the trouble of registering but otherwise the forum and registration process will be closed.

Regards,

Andrew Holt

AMHPA – Managing Director

I’ve been approached by two AMHPs – one at a conference and one via Twitter – to suggest that we organise social events for AMHPs to meet up to discuss issues pertinent to AMHP practice (and I’m sure many other things besides…)

This is a great idea but it’s not something the board could commit to at the present time – the event management takes up just about all of the board’s time. If there were going to be something like this under the badge of AMHPA it would have to be led by AMHPA members and I’m sure we could help with publicity and promotion.

So – is there an appetite for organising a meet-up of AMHPs anywhere in the region outside of the events? The conferences are great for meeting up with other AMHPs but it’s not the ideal environment for sharing and discussing practice issues in a semi-formal way.

The Twitter user who contacted us provided us with this link to Meetup with some examples of how it could be organised. I’m going to open commenting on the blog posts for if anybody has any suggestions – you’ll have to be registered with the site to post – and there is also the Forum.

Best wishes,

Andrew Holt
Chair of AMHPA

We’re very excited about the trio of speakers we have booked for our Manchester event on Wednesday 9th March.

In the morning we’ll be joined by Mark Neary – a name that will be known to anybody involved in the Mental Capacity Act and DoLS through the landmark case he and his son were involved with. His presentation is titled ‘Getting Steven Home’ and those of you acquainted with the Re Steven Neary; LB Hillingdon v Steven Neary (2011) will know that the process was anything but simple…

In the afternoon we have Michael Linnell, a drugs researcher and specialist who will be presenting on the subject of ‘legal highs’, which we know is becoming an increasing issue for AMHPs – particularly when undertaking assessments in A&E departments and hospital places of safety.

Our second speaker for the afternoon is Professor Linda Gask – a Psychiatrist and academic who has written and presented extensively on the issue of depression, incorporating her own personal experience of the condition, whose presentation for us is titled The Other Side of Silence: a psychiatrist’s experience of depression.

Click here to download the flyer, which includes instructions for booking on the event. Please make all bookings through the person in your agency who deals with AMHP professional development where possible.

Best wishes,
Andrew Holt
AMHPA Chair/Managing Director

The flyers and booking form have been distributed for our next event – our annual visit to the Conference Centre at the LACE in Liverpool on Tuesday 26th January 2016.

As has been the case for the last few years, the emphasis at the LACE event is very much on AMHP practice issues, with the morning devoted to overlooked and emerging case law as it impacts directly on AMHP practice.

These events have been well-received over the recent years – as much because AMHPs have the opportunity to share practice from across a diverse range of settings as much as it is a chance to develop legal and practical knowledge. Mark Cooper – practising AMHP and Lecturer on the AMHP and BIA programmes at the University of Manchester will be devising and presenting the case material.

In the afternoon we are very pleased to announce that we have a presentation from Michael Brown – also known as the Mental Health Cop – the prolific blogger on matters relating to policing and mental health. Michael’s blogging and campaigning role have placed him at the heart of the debate on practice in Mental Health Act assessments.

There is no charge to attend for members of AMHPA – the booking form can be downloaded from the Future events page.

Andrew Holt
AMHPA Chair

It all went quiet on here after the initial flurry of activity when the current website was set-up. I’ve been thinking for the last couple of months that there should be another push after Taking Stock. I’ll upload the presentations as we receive them and possibly a brief account of the day but there is something I wanted to get across sooner:

We know that the AMHPA board works best when we have a good representation of the geographical area we cover. We’re all mindful that we have no representation from North Wales currently and that is a serious omission because it makes it all the more difficult to maintain relevant Welsh content in the events and particular for the annual event we try to hold in Wales.

If you are an AMHP working in Wales and would be interested in joining the AMHPA board – or if you are based in Wales and would just like to make suggestions about Wales-related content for AMHPA events please do not hesitate to contact us, either using the ‘Contact Us’ form on the website or in the discussion forum.

Andrew Holt
AMHPA Chair