The
Network
Project provides three
groups for the Maldon
District so that people in mental health need and at risk can find
welcome support
and friendship in an understanding environment and share activities in
the
community. The Project has a number of loyal volunteers who provide
transport
and input to the groups and we could not be successful without their
support.
The
Somebody
Cares Club is a mixed
group which meets on
Tuesday afternoons at the Friends’ Meeting House in Butt
Lane,
Maldon. It has various social
activities: quizzes; bingo; board games; crafts and music as well as
regular
outings. There are currently 14 service users. Ken Roberts is the
Coordinator.
The
Swimming
Group meets on
Tuesday mornings and the
move to the South Woodham Ferrers pool has been a great success. There
are 16 regular
attenders.
The
Maldon and
Dengie Women’s Group is a successful
amalgamation of the
two groups and meets on Thursday mornings at the Methodist Hall in
Maldon High
Street. Up to 21 women attend. During this year our long-term Project
Coordinator Viv Clark was undergoing treatment for cancer and for a
time our
Weekenders’ Coordinator Emma Wiffen provided cover. To
everyone’s pleasure, Viv
is now back with us, with a lovely new ‘urchin’
haircut.
A
NEW DILEMMA
Network
is the
original Project of
Maldon (Essex) Mind as the Somebody Cares Club which is still one of
the three
existing Network Groups started 33 years ago. At the time that the
groups
developed, having an ‘outreach’ service was quite a
new idea as many Minds were
creating Centres, but Network was, and still remains, a real
community-based
service. Indeed, in the Essex Community Care Plan 1998-2001 section on
the
Rural Dimension, Network was one of only 3 services cited as an example
of Good
Practice by the Rural Community Council of Essex (RCC).
“This
Project provides a variety of support groups to combat isolation and
provide
long-term support to Service Users who are vulnerable to mental illness
and
distress. It operates in the Maldon District and transport to and from
services
is provided by volunteers. Network provides the support to Service
Users to be
involved in different activities and make friendships”
The
irony is
that current changes in
national mental health policy, which quite appropriately focus on
‘social
inclusion’, also concentrate on
‘outcomes’ and ‘results’. These
are
unfortunately affecting the Project’s present and future,
since the long-term
support so praised by the RCC, has inevitably meant that
some service users
come to depend on the Network. This is particularly the case as members
become
older, since there is a very clear lack of other good community
services
suitable for older people with mental health needs.
The
new Service
Level Agreement 06/07
which provides the funding for Network, requires that we focus on the
under 65
age group and new referrals of people who are 65
or approaching it,
cannot be accepted. This has started to slowly change the age make up
of the groups,
particularly the Somebody Cares Club, and this does give us great
concerns for
the future of those older people who would otherwise have found the
support
they needed in Network.
