At its AGM in the Town Hall on Thursday 25 November Brentwood Mind heard plans from Patrick Geoghegan (Chief Executive of South Essex Partnership NHS Trust) on their wish to become a foundation trust and make themselves more accountable to the Community.
In welcoming the news, Brentwood Mind Chairman, Peter Billinge, roundly supported a new initiative that the trust are launching in 2005: the Early Intervention project."Research has shown that if those young people between the age of 14 and 25 who experience a psychotic incident receive help soon after the experience then the amount of treatment they require is far reduced and the chances of complete recovery is massively increased than if they have to wait.
The trust is introducing their scheme in January (along with two other initiatives) and this is really good news for those younger people in Brentwood who might suffer from such a serious mental health problem." Mr Billinge announced,"We fully support this initiative. It comes in the face of the draft Mental Health Bill which is so apalling that it will only increase the stigma that has so often and wrongly been associated with people experiencing problems with their mental health.
For the Trust's initiative to work young people must be confident enough to seek professional help from their GPs as soon as they feel that they may be unwell. The draft mental health bill could be condemning many young people to a lifetime of ill health and misery by discouraging them from seeking treatment at an early stage.
Mr Billinge announced that Brentwood Mind would be working hard on schemes to raise public awareness of mental health and to fight the stigma that is so often associated. Brentwood Mind invites all its partners to join them in nthe campaign stating "One in four people will be directly affected by mental health issues and that many people cannot be ignored".