We change minds
Continuing the fight for better services and rights.
Mind Cymru has continued to fight for better services and rights for people with mental health problems, whilst striving to improve public attitudes towards mental health.
The Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010 is a key piece of Welsh legislation that sets out to deliver meaningful changes for those living with mental health problems.
The measure looks to improve people’s rights, from access to treatment in primary care to extending people’s rights to advocacy in hospital.
Whilst the measure has undoubtedly improved mental health services, there is still a distance to travel to see the change it sets out to achieve. This is particularly the case for children and young people where wait times were found to be longer than those of adults.
In June 2022, Mind Cymru released its report on the measure:
Within the report, a total of eleven recommendations were made by Mind Cymru to Welsh Government with a view to igniting change in how the measure is delivered and to see a re-commitment amongst decision makers towards achieving its ambitions.
Broken down into four distinct parts, the report provides an assessment and recommendations against the measure’s four objectives.
The Mental Health Measures objectives
Local primary mental health services
Care and treatment planning
Assessment of people who have used specialist mental health services before
Independent mental health advocacy
In May 2022, Mind Cymru launched the Sort the Switch campaign [11], focussing on the experiences of young people as they transition from specialist child and adolescent mental health services (SCAMHS) into adult mental health services (AMHS).
Young people drove the campaign forward, meeting the Senedd’s children, Young People and Education Committee in November 2022. At the committee they called for an improvement to the transition between child and adult mental health services, which was noted in the follow up committee report and forms the basis of the Sort the Switch Campaign.
The report itself featured 4 demands of Welsh Government to make the transition from child to adult mental health services better:
Listen to and act on the voices of young people in Specialists Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (SCAMHS)
Make sure national guidance is delivered, and young people get the help they're entitled to.
Support young people when they leave SCAMHS. Help make the move to adult services a positive step in recovery.
Change the way services are run, to better involve young people’s voices.
One of the young people involved in the campaign is Georgia, from South Wales, who wrote a blog about her experiences of mental health services. In her blog, ‘the Grey Space’ [12] Georgia describes feeling lonely and confused during her care.
Georgia is now using her own experiences to campaign with Mind Cymru and support our Sort the Switch campaign, calling for Welsh Government to listen to young people and their experiences, to sort the switch from CAMHS to AMHS.
More on Georgia's story [13] Georgia on ITV Wales' Sharp End [14]
