Hi everyone

 

I have to apologise if you are all getting out of office replies from my email address, I have tried to change my email address to my home one unsuccessfully, and now I am really off for maternity, so won’t even be able to unsubscribe this address.  If david fryer is able to expel me from the list, that’d be great, and I’ll resubscribe from home.

 

Sorry again,

suzanne

 

 

Yes the cuts are comprehensive - it isn't that they hit at one point but that they simultaneously weaken mainstream services (and not just through change in eligibility criteria), reduce the range and availability of comm and vol sector provision, including advocacy supports, AND will reduce the overall resilience of people and community, so increasing need and hence demand.


On 03/05/2011 23:16, Jacqui Lovell wrote:

Just wanted to clarify Mark, that from my perspective it is not the  “tightening of eligibility criteria” that will exclude people from getting a service. From where I am standing it appears to be because of the total withdrawal of voluntary and community services through lack of funding that will mean the difference between receiving and not receiving a service. This in turn could cause greater reliance upon mainstream services many of whom are ill able to engage with people from diverse backgrounds who have different needs and who are themselves now dealing with greater workloads with reduced levels of availability and access which I agree will inevitably lead to a tightening of eligibility criteria and a reduction in the number of people who make it through the door.

However I think this happens later down the line and for now what we are seeing is smaller organisations providing excellent, person centred support and advocacy services closing their doors with the inevitable consequences that this has for the people who previously accessed and used their services.

Sorry for nitpicking but I think its important to document this from a range of perspectives, it helps to write this down cos then I myself can see this from a different perspective as I hadn’t thought about the advent of this before and am only now noticing the pattern outlined above in response to what was said earlier!

Jacx

 

 

 

I agree with this point - we shouldn't be defining people by their relationship to a service but in terms of their human need.  Moreover tightening of eligibility criteria for what provision there is will as Jacqui says exclude more people from getting necessary support and help.

It shouldn't be too difficult to make the small alteration necessary.


On 29/04/2011 20:02, jacqui lovell wrote:

"And most of all, they will have a profoundly damaging impact upon many who use their services."
 
I would disagree with this sentence as from my perspective it is those people who NEVER make it through the door of a psychologist who will suffer the most from the current situation as they will be even more marginalised and socially excluded as a direct result of the closure of the community and grassroots organisations which for them are often lifelines and support them in their daily fight against poverty, exclusion and oppression!


I agree with everything else you have said but have to say I don't have much sympathy for Dave Richards as I did not find him to be at all empathic with people who have mental health needs and was not impressed with his attitude of academic exclusivity. 
 
I am NOT a member of the BPS at present although I did consider becoming one and may yet do so but I am ok with adding my name to the signatures in my capacity as a Community / Liberation Psychologist.
 
My name is Ms Jacqui Lovell
 
 

Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2011 10:36:12 +0100
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Letter to The Psychologist
To: [log in to unmask]

--- On Fri, 29/4/11, Jan Bostock <[log in to unmask]> wrote: From: Jan Bostock <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Re: Letter to The Psychologist To: "The UK Community Psychology Discussion List" <[log in to unmask]> Date: Friday, 29 April, 2011, 10:34 Please see below a letter to The Psychologist from Dave Harper suggesting how the BPS should be responding to the Govt cuts.  Please send replies or support to Dave. [log in to unmask]   Hi all, I've been growing increasingly unhappy with the lack of public comment from the BPS and lack of discussion within the pages of the Psychologist of the oncoming cuts in public services and radical restructuring of higher education, the NHS etc.  In consultation with others I've drafted a letter to be sent to the Psychologist.  It's under their word count for letters. Please distribute it around your various networks.  If anyone wants to add their name they need to send me an email with their name and affiliation or job title etc by Tuesday 3 May. Cheers, Dave Harper Reader in Clinical Psychology University of East London ‘Experts of all kinds sound off in private about the impact of the coalition's cuts – but timidly zip their lips in public’ ran a Guardian headline accompanying Polly Toynbee’s article on 1 October last year. As the public sector cuts deepen and we see de facto privatisation of the NHS and higher education sectors, the effects will be wide-ranging and profound. Yet we wait in vain for a thorough discussion of these issues in ‘The Psychologist’, or reports of Society representatives raising concerns about these developments. Once again the Society seems out of step with public feeling: March, for example saw nearly half a million people marching in opposition to these cuts.    There are many things the Society could be doing. It could report the effects of the cuts that are directly affecting NHS services.  It could join the BMA, the RCN (and even the Liberal Democrats on the NHGS reforms) and campaign against the creeping marketization of the NHS. It could contrast the launch of the Big Society initiative with the cuts in support for charities as a result of local authority cuts. It could examine the social and psychological impact of increased tuition fees – likely to reduce social mobility even further. It could open up debate of the continuation of neo-liberal policy frameworks that have already failed in the financial sector. It could challenge the Coalition’s single narrative that public debt has been caused by profligate public spending. All these issues are of immediate interest to psychologists. Psychological processes are involved in Government attempts to make the cuts appear reasonable, acceptable and inevitable. The cuts will deeply affect the lives, careers and working practices of many psychologists. And most of all, they will have a profoundly damaging impact upon many who use their services. To those who would say that the Society’s charitable status prevents it from engaging in political debate, we note that the Charity Commissioners actively promote public debate by charities on issues where they have expertise so long as they do not support a particular political party line. Perhaps the Society is afraid of putting its head above the parapet – we are aware of no public comment by the Society following the sacking by Andrew Lansley of David Richards – adviser to the IAPT initiative which was much promoted by Society representatives.  He had had the temerity to ask searching questions about the funding of IAPT (http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/feb/07/dismissed-asking-difficult-que stions-mental-health). The Society and, indeed its members, needs to put pressure on the government to change its course before irreversible damage is done to the public sector and to society. If it does not do so, it will be failing its members in spectacular fashion. As another Toynbee headline put it ‘those who know disaster looms mustn't stay quiet’ (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/01/conservative-conference- public-sector-cuts)

___________________________________ The Community Psychology List has a new website/blog at: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/ There is a threaded discussion forum: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi There is a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK To post on the website blog, forum or twitter feed, contact Grant or David at the email addresses below. David Fryer ([log in to unmask]) or Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask]) To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK ___________________________________ The Community Psychology List has a new website/blog at: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/ There is a threaded discussion forum: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi There is a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK To post on the website blog, forum or twitter feed, contact Grant or David at the email addresses below. David Fryer ([log in to unmask]) or Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask]) To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK

 

___________________________________ The Community Psychology List has a new website/blog at: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/ There is a threaded discussion forum: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi There is a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK To post on the website blog, forum or twitter feed, contact Grant or David at the email addresses below. David Fryer ([log in to unmask]) or Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask]) To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK

___________________________________ The Community Psychology List has a new website/blog at: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/ There is a threaded discussion forum: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi There is a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK To post on the website blog, forum or twitter feed, contact Grant or David at the email addresses below. David Fryer ([log in to unmask]) or Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask]) To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK