WE'VE WON!!!!!!! The Beds in the Orchard are female once more!

It is with HUGE excitement and pride that we can announce that from 5pm this evening The Orchard will be reopened to women. Women from Lancaster and District who are currently in hospitals away from home will be coming back to The Orchard over the next few days.

WE WON! WE WON! WE WON!

There are a lot of people that we'd like to thank for all of their help with this campaign, but for now we're busy spreading the word.  However a quick thanks to...

BBC Radio Lancashire - particularly Tim Padfield.
The Lancaster Guardian.
David Morris MP
Glosswitch at the New Stateman
Louise Pennington at the Huffington Post
@LynnCSchreiber for her lesson in social media 101
Everyday Victim Blaming
Mumsnet, Mumsnet Bloggers and Gransnet
Philippa Molloy and Lisa Toner, not forgetting Bee, Janet, Bex and the BITO Massive.

And, of course, everyone who signed our petition, followed our blog and tweeted their support.  There are too many to name here.

I would like to say one thanks to Keith Dibble, the Deputy Network Director at Lancashire Care NHS Trust for his professionalism in dealing with our campaign and keeping in regular touch about what the Trust were doing to put this right.

Did I mention that WE WON!!!

S's Story - Moving female patients out of town is at best ludicrous, at worst, dangerous.

As our campaign gains wider attention, we are being contacted by more local service users who were not aware of the changes or the campaign to reverse the decision.  One of those service users "S" shares her fears and concerns about this change.

This is more first hand knowledge and experience of how the changes impact on service users and their families.

Dear Beds in the Orchard,

Hope this helps/makes sense as I struggle to write when unwell.

Suggestions that moving female inpatients out of town is not damaging to patients is, at best, ludicrous and at worst dangerous.

I personally know from my struggles with bipolar II, that I can rarely attend meetings with my CPN without the support of my partner and son. They are central to my recovery. If I was shipped out of town there is no way we would have time or means to keep up contact - potentially breaking bonds with my son, that I have fought so hard to rebuild since my PND, PTSD and psychotic episode on the postnatal ward after staff saw fit to (guess what) move me! All against the advice of the MH professionals...

In spite of the rise of stay at home dads and many families successfully co-parenting; my personal experience suggests that in the majority, women run their homes, make decisions regarding children and are better placed to arrange their child's day to day activities - even those women with difficult mental health issues.

For many patients gaining control in a positive way helps their recovery - taking away this option will greatly hinder recovery, increase stress and in turn extend stays in hospital.

This should be about what is best for the patient. If I were to be moved out of town because the help and care I would recieve would be greater then of course I would consider it short term, when I'm at my very worst BUT that isn't happening here and even in the above hypothetical situation I still would need to be moved closer to home as my mental state improved in order to become stable.

For people who struggle with change and need consistency this cruel decision needs looking at again.

Would I be less likely to get a bed if you publish my name?

This is a question that one service user asked me today when they contacted me about the campaign.  Their email is below.

BedsInTheOrchard@......
Subject: Do you think I would be less likely to get a bed at all if I publish my name?


Knowing that there is support at hand is a huge part of coping with my mental health problem. The crisis team do their best, but there are too few of them and they are so overstretched. Sometimes, being a voluntary inpatient is the only option to stop things getting worse. But the thought of being sent so far away is terrifying. My parents would find it very hard ( and expensive) to visit and my friends, especially those with children would find it just as difficult or impossible. Isolation would make recovery much more difficult.  You've done such a good job so far raising this. What else do we need to do to get the beds reopened?

Yours,
..........

We would hope not, but we don't know.  One of our team has already spoken out in their own name as have two of our contributors, but we know its a fear that a lot of us have. We'd like to think that the Trust wouldn't behave in that way and we know that the ward staff at The Orchard wouldn't, but the fact remains that we are bringing the trust into the public eye in a very negative way.

We have to speak out though.  Denying women local inpatient care with no acceptance of the impact this is having on us must be challenged.

As for the last question of "What else do we need to do to get the beds reopened?", we don't know the answer to that either, but we have resolved that we will not stop campaigning until they are reopened and we will use any means that we can to apply pressure to the Trust until that happens.

How wrong does something have to be before they CHANGE it?

This is a quick summary of the main points made in this blog with links to the relevant posts.

In his interview with BBC Radio Lancashire, Keith Dibble, Deputy Network Director of LCFT was asked "Do you accept that moving these women further away from their families and children could be damaging?"  He replied "We believe not".

Well we are telling you that it is damaging, Keith.  We believe removing all local inpatient care for the women of Lancaster and the surrounding area is wrong and damaging because...

It discriminates against women.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-equality-act-2010-how-is-this-not.html

It punishes women and families on low incomes.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/closing-female-beds-punishes-women-and.html


It can lead to increased detentions under the Mental Health Act.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/can-closure-of-female-inpatient.html

It deters women from seeking, or accepting help.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/is-based-on-need-self-fulfilling.html

It affects families and children.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/away-from-family-and-early-release.html
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/so-i-asked-my-children-what-was-it-like.html 
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/clares-story-near-miss-distressed.html


It damages women by isolating them from their support networks.
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-full-article-published-today-on.html

And lets not forget that even some LCFT Staff agree with us. 
http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/views-of-worker-in-lancashire-care-nhs.html

How wrong does something have to be before Lancashire Care NHS Trust will change it?

A letter from a worker in the Trust

Again we receive an anonymous email from someone at The Trust, again we have no idea who this is from, but have sent our thanks. "BananaJam" shares their thoughts.
[Edit - While we really appreciate messages from the trust, we really don't want to get people in trouble!]

I am following your blog with interest.

Following local news, This is Trust wide knowledge, and County wide is public knowledge.  It has filtered down through the grapevine that staff at the Orchard have been given a "talking to" to say nothing to anyone even inside the trust.

I work for LCFT.

What are senior management afraid of in this campaign. The truth is the truth. Public knowledge of Truth AND Lies is essential, especially in public sector services. If a health service is so afraid of a simple truth (truth already in the public domain) that it feels the need to order staff to keep silent, the question has to be begged, why?!

Nothing said to date that I am aware of has been anything other than public knowledge. By it's very nature, the whole issue being campaigned for is public knowledge.

Women, take heart, many of us working within the Trust are behind you! Women and Men. Many people are discussing it within the general public too. In the last week, I have heard people talking about it in my local town.

You have strong cross-gender support for an story that clearly has a major gender thread, in a subject area of Health and Wellbeing.

Orchard Beds Goes National in The New Statesman

Beds in the Orchard started out as a small campaign to stand up for the women of North Lancashire after all the inpatient beds in the The Orchard psychiatric unit were closed to women and it became a male only ward.

We have documented all the way through our blog about why this is so harmful to the women of our area and why, even though the Trust has now said it's temporary, it should never have happened in the first place.

We were thrilled when our cause was taken up by the brilliant folks at BBC Radio Lancashire, but it seems that our issue has touched a more national nerve and today our campaign has been publicised in The New Statesman.

http://www.newstatesman.com/health/2014/11/orchard-psychiatric-ward-closure-women-bear-cost-unchecked-male-dominance

Everyone at Beds In the Orchard would like to pass on their grateful thanks to everyone who has supported us.  The women of North Lancashire deserve to be heard.  A special thanks to Tim Padfield and Graham Liver at BBC Radio Lancashire and Glosswitch at The New Statesman for making our voice a loud one.

Temporary or not, this is a closure that should never have happened

We do wonder whether Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust is feeling more secure now. 

They have told us publicly that it’s a temporary move that won’t last for weeks and weeks.  That it’s to cope with a peak in demand for male beds, that of course has nothing to do with them closing 15 of them elsewhere in the county.  And they’ve publicly stated that it’s not having a negative impact despite the women telling them that it is.

In their eyes this is surely a non-story now.  It’s a temporary peak in demand with no impact.  Our campaign is just an overreaction by a group of women to a perfectly rational and sensible decision by the Trust. 

Now where have we heard that kind of thing before?

Women!  You are overreacting to us putting the needs of male service users before yours!
Women!  You are overreacting with your anxiety at being treated away from your homes and families!
Women!  You just don’t understand how these things work, so do go ahead and STFU now won’t you!

Well, we’re not going to shut up.

Temporary or not, the closure should never have happened.  Temporary or not, the needs of male service users are not more important than female service users.  Temporary or not, the worry and anxiety felt by the women is real and harmful. Temporary or not, the costs incurred by families to visit their relatives are real and harmful.  Temporary or not, the emotional distress of the families is real and harmful.

Temporary or not, denying women access to local inpatient care is harmful, discriminatory and should never have happened in the first place.

Temporary doesn't make it better.

Beds in the Orchard - We're just the tip of the Iceberg

While Beds in the Orchard is a very specific campaign in a small area, the funding of Mental Health services across the country is appalling. Lancashire Care NHS Trust, is just one trust battling with an ever decreasing budget.

David Cameron pledged to put mental health on the same footing as physical health.  His party pledged to ring-fence NHS spending.  But here we are in 2014 with the local trust having to cut its spending by 25% and women being denied local treatment.

Ours is just one story that is being repeated across the country.  While the political parties vie to show themselves to be the most supportive of mental health, the actions of politicians and the Department of Health tell us that it is all words and rhetoric.

Adult mental health has always come down at the bottom of funding. Its not cute and fluffy.  It isn't wide eyed children looking innocently up at the camera.  It isn't images of people bravely fighting against the odds, despite the fact that we fight it ever day, and it doesn't have the pull of other illnesses when it comes to charitable funding.

We're the nutters on the bus, the ones who mutter to ourselves and perhaps the ones who are dressed strangely. We're the ones that its OK to take the piss out of and mock. We're not the ones that people want to fund; so what you find is an overstretched service doing their best to look after people who are really, really poorly and in need of help.

People are being let down everywhere from the young to the old. Cuts to CAHMS let down troubled teenagers and restricted access to care just sets them up for a life in and out of hospital.  Where there used to be specialist geriatric units for people over the age of 60 with mental health problems, they now go into specialist nursing homes and their houses are sold for their care.

One in four people has a mental health issue.  We're your colleagues, your children, your mum or dad.  We're your friend and your neighbour.  We deserve the right treatment at the right time, in the right place.

We don't look after people with mental health problems properly and sadly, it will need a major incident to happen before the government start funding it properly again.  Cutting services and care is a false economy and one that costs the country more money than it saves by cutting funding.

The women of North Lancashire are just another victim of a service struggling to cope with demand.

Someone has to speak up.  If its us, then so be it.

"It is not the intention for this to run for weeks and weeks"

We've spent this evening going over Claire's interview on BBC Radio Lancashire and the response to our campaign from Keith Dibble, the Deputy Director of the Lancashire Care NHS Trust.

We were going to post a long reply, but can actually summarise quite swiftly.

The County
There were a number of mentions by Keith about the County, for example  "Balance across the county" and  "Cross county requirement".

If there is a cross county requirement then removing 15 male beds will have changed the balance across the county of male beds. 

We'll be submitting a FOI request about how many men from the Burnley area are being treated in the west and north of the county.

Home Treatment
Home treatment is indeed preferable.  Sadly the crisis and home treatment teams are not augmented when beds are closed.  Existing teams have an ever expanding case-load and less people are expected to look after more Service Users.

We doubt that when the male beds in Burnley were closed, the home treatment teams were expanded in that area and we doubt that when the female beds were closed in Lancaster that the home treatment teams were expanded in that area either.

Another Freedom of Information Request will be sent out tomorrow so we can confirm that to you.
(Our FOI person is going to have a busy day)

Clinical Priorities
Beds in the Orchard has never suggested that people requiring PICU care etc. should be treated at The Orchard.  We all have personal experience of being unwell and know that some women need to be treated in specialist units.

However the women being sent away from Lancaster for treatment do not all need specialist treatment and they would benefit more from local care. 

It appears that the trust position is that the Clinical Priorities are caring for the men of North Lancashire after the balance across the county was tipped by the closure of male beds.


Length of Closure
Keith stated that it is "Not the intention for this to run for weeks and weeks."

This goes against information we have been given, but will be pleased if this turns out to be correct.  We will continue to campaign for the female beds at The Orchard to be reopened until provision for women is restored and also to ensure that this statement from the trust is upheld.

We will continue to actively publicise the closure of the beds by the Trust and we will be further investigating at the treatment of women in Mental Health Services run by the Lancashire Care NHS Trust.

Financial Reasons
Keith said there were no financial reasons for the closure of beds.  However, since the Trust has to deliver a 25% cut in expenditure as directed by the Department of Health, we suspect that financial pressures may well be involved. 

For those of you who don't twitter - Our take on the response from Lancashire Care

The Beds in the Orchard Campaign received its first official response from the Trust this afternoon via our Twitter account @OrchardBeds from @LancashireCare.

Here's what they had to say and, of course, our response.

@OrchardBeds The decision to operate male only beds at The Orchard is a temporary measure and is under constant review. (1/5)

We can't argue about whether or not this is true as we only have this statement from the Trust about it.  However; we do know that some Trust staff have been advised The Orchard may revert back to mixed provision once The Harbour opens in March 2015, suggesting that it is not under constant review as the decision has already been made.  We are open to concede there may have been a communication problem if staff have not been informed about it remaining male only until the opening of The Harbour.

Regardless of whether this is temporary or not, it is impacting women and families now.  It is hurting female service users now and there remains no clinical benefit to women from the closure.

@OrchardBeds There is a peak in demand for male beds & a reduction in demand for female beds - we have empty female beds at present. (2/5)

Two responses here.  Firstly, it is likely that the peak in demand for male beds is linked to the trust closing a 15 bed male ward in Burnley and it is rather disingenuous to cite demand for male beds being the driving factor after closing 15 of them.

Secondly, the point about empty female beds is slightly misleading.  The status of beds can change on an hourly basis.  From personal experience a bed can be taken in the time it takes to have a consultation with your psychiatrist about whether you should go into hospital or not.  A freedom of information request has already been submitted to the trust about how many women they've sent out of area in the last 4 years, often to private hospitals that should clarify demand.

We also directed them to this post - http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/is-based-on-need-self-fulfilling.html

This isn't about empty beds.  Its about denying a whole group of service users access to local inpatient care solely based on their sex.

@OrchardBeds All Trust facilities have the ability to flex male/female beds in line with demand. (3/5)

This is indeed True.  The Orchard had two 'swing' beds that could change between male and female.  There were 10 fixed male beds and 6 fixed female beds.  Up until recently, the two swing beds were female.  The trust could have swung those beds to male, giving them 12 male and 6 female beds at The Orchard. Instead they decided to deny access to a whole group of service users from a wide area. 

It is rather disappointing that the Trust sees removing access to local inpatient care to all women in the Lancaster area as 'flexing'.

@OrchardBeds The Orchard will revert to mixed sex as soon as this is clinically appropriate. (4/5)

There's nothing we can really say about this other than, how is it clinically appropriate to deny women access to local inpatient care.  No, seriously.  Our twitter handler has replied that we will be happy to discuss this with someone qualified to explain the clinical benefits to women of sending them out of the area for treatment.

 @OrchardBeds We would be happy to discuss this further with you and you can contact us on communications@lancashirecare.nhs.uk (5/5)

One of our team had already emailed the complaints department with the letter we published here

http://bedsintheorchard.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/not-sure-what-to-write-when-you-complain.html

We will publish their response as soon as they receive it.

Orchard Beds Campaign is published in Everyday Victim Blaming!

http://everydayvictimblaming.com/discussions/lancashire-care-nhs-trust-delivers-a-stark-example-of-victim-blaming/

Please help us get female inpatient care back for the women of Lancaster and district.  Contacts and addresses below.

If you tweet - tweet @lancashirecare.