2.00-4.45 pm
Making Relational Care A Reality Across Mental Health Services
Professor Russell Razzaque, Consultant Psychiatrist, Visiting Professor LSBU, North East London NHS FT
2.40-3.20 pm
What is the purpose of admission and inpatient care in Manchester in 2024
Dr Afshan Khawaja, Consultant Psychiatrist, Greater Manchester and Mental Health Trusts
Synopsis of talk:
Inpatient care and the people being admitted has changed over the years; it is different across geographical areas from inner cities to rural areas. I will describe the inpatient population in Manchester over the years focusing on the current situation. I will put this in the context of community services and their interplay with inpatient hospitals.
Dr Khawaja will reflect on and describe the impact of recent ‘scandals’ related to local services on staff and patients.
Dr Khawaja will describe some of the quality improvement work that is taking place in a service that is under stress but still holds the goal of improvement in quality.
Learning objectives:
- Learn about what inpatient services look like in Manchester and who is admitted.
- What impact does a ‘scandal’ have on other parts of a service.
- Learn about quality improvement projects that are taking place.
3.20-3.35 pm
short break
3.35-4.20 pm
Shaping patients’ experiences in 1920s English public mental hospitals
Dr Claire Hilton is an Honorary Research Fellow at Birbeck, University of London
Synopsis of talk:
Psychiatry in England in the 1920s is often seen as a time of stagnation. Unfortunately, for the patients, in some mental hospitals care was custodial, rule bound and behind locked doors. Elsewhere things were changing. Dr Montagu Lomax, who worked at Prestwich Hospital 1917-19 was a key whistleblower, but was not alone in his quest to make improvements. Ultimately, however, it was public concern about wrongful detention, not standards of care, which triggered a Royal Commission. This resulted in a change in the law, and seemed to give permission to the authorities to be less rule-bound and more flexible in their approach to treatment.
This presentation focusses on myths and realities; life on the wards and what influenced it; and how change came about.
Learning objectives:
- Be cautious when you read histories of psychiatry (especially if written before about 2000): there are many mythologies due to a tendency to neither look at the complexity of decision making nor delve into individual patients’ lives.
- Issues raised 100 years ago are worthy of consideration today as they may raise questions about current practice e.g. there may be parallels between “rules” then and tick-boxes and care-pathways today.
- Too often, the problems were clear, but with an ethos of safety at all costs, there was insufficient leadership motivation to change the system to make it more patient-friendly. Does that happen today? What are our ethical responsibilities as doctors?
4.20 pm
Closing comments