Lights! Camera! ACTION! – a 2013 national campaign run bymental health service users and carers – will reach its climax at an event inthe Senedd on World Mental Health Day (Thursday 10th October). The celebratory eventis sponsored by Ken Skates AM and will be attended by Health and SocialServices Minister Mark Drakeford as well as service users and carers fromacross Wales.
During summer 2013 the Lights! Camera! ACTION! campaign empoweredthousands of service users and carers to get the maximum benefit from the newMental Health Measure and Strategy. 22 county Lights! Camera! ACTION! events tookplace and over 40,000 people received a copy of the Care and Treatment Planningguide.
David Krepaz-Keay, Head of Empowerment and Social Inclusionat the Mental Health Foundation, said: “This campaign was about action,not words. It has been great to see so many thousands of people mobilised toget the most out of the new Measure and Strategy – both individually in theirown lives and collectively in order to improve services.”
Nigel Griffiths, Chair of the Wales Advisory Panel forBipolar UK, said: “Lights! Camera! ACTION! goes to show what service usersand carers can achieve when we get together and campaign for change. Thanks tothis campaign thousands of service users and carers are now as up to speed as -or even ahead of – health and social care agencies in understanding thepotential of the new Care and Treatment Plan and the legislation and policywhich underpin it.”
During the Lights! Camera! ACTION! campaign mentalhealth service users and carers across Wales produced film blogs which pointedlocal services and national policy makers to good practice in mental healthservice delivery across Wales – and flagged up local deficits in delivery.We’ve been talking honestly and openly to camera about what changes we want tosee in services as a result of the exciting new law and policy. Specifically wehave been calling for:
| · high quality Care and Treatment Plans for everyone receiving secondary mental health services |
| · full choice and control for service users on the content of Care and Treatment Plans |
| · prompt delivery of quality mental health services in response to those Plans and to the needs of people with a serious mental illness using primary care services |
| · further reform of services which increases service user and carer control over the choice and commissioning of services |
| · a longer-term move towards full equality in Welsh society for service users and carers including equal access to health and social care, housing, income, education, and employment. |
The service user and carer-led campaign was supported by mental healthcharities Hafal, Bipolar UK and the Mental Health Foundation.