Healing Our Broken Village

Following last year’s event, including our Recall Conference held in April, we have all continued to experience major challenges, upheavals, and traumatic events, both locally and globally. Most recently the ‘race riots’ witnessed across our towns and cities have reminded us that racism and discrimination continues to exist and thrive across our society; and the election of a New Labour Government whose first actions included the Independent Investigation of NHS Performance, Lord Darzis report on the state of the NHS in England, which highlighted again systemic, structural and institutional failures, which continues to impact on our health and well-being in the lack of appropriate and timely services and support that we all want and need.

A development over the last period has been an increasing acceptance that Health Institutions, our Hospitals and Clinics, are no longer able to address these challenges by themselves, and that the future of healthcare for all is through Community-Led, Out-of-Hospital, Early Help, Care and Support. The Darzi Report priorities include focusing on preventing illness and address health issues quicker and sooner, by placing patients at the heart of the system, ensuring their needs and preferences are paramount. All evidence-based and well established in the health improvement literature.

The Conference over the last 15 years has led, emerged and championed the Ethnicity and Mental Health Improvement Project (EMHIP) as a whole-system programme to reduce race disparties in mental health servces, where our flagship intervention is the development of Communty Mental Health Hubs across our communties. We have successfully launched Phase 1 at the New Testament Assembly Church and Mushkill Aasaan in Wandsworth, and across Croydon with our freinds and partners at the Croydon BME Mental Health Forum.

NHS England have caught up with EMHIP! We heard at our last Conference from Professor Tim Kendall, Clinical Lead new Models of Mental Health Care NHS England, on the commissioning of Neighbourhood Communty Mental Health Centres across the country. This year we will hear much more about this 'Shift to Community' and how we must continue to ensure that the needs of black and brown communities, who continue to be the most impacted by institutional racism and health inequalities, remain central to this direction of travel.

To help us explore these issues, we are delighted that some of the leading subject-matter experts and practitioners will be joining us, including:

Dr Roberto Mezzina

'The necessary development of community-based services'

Chair of International Mental Health Collbarating Network and former Director of the Triste Department of Mental Health, Italy

Dr Selvaraj Vincent

'Neighbourhood Communty Mental Health Centre Pilot'

Clinical Director, Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust

Dr Malcolm Phillips

'Targeted Services for People from African, Carribean and Arabic Communties'

Founder and Manager, The Oremi Centre, London

Dr Tarek Younis

'Global Crisis, War, Genocide and the Impact on Local Mental Health'

Healing Justice London

We will also hear from our staff team, volunteers and community partners who lead the work of the EMHIP Hubs in Wandsworth; and will faciltate discussion, debate and challenge from our community - leaving the Conference with a clearer idea on what is needed for us to continue to shift to community to ensure the heath and well being of our communities.

Please join us. Together we are Strong.

Host or Publisher Wandsworth Community Empowerment Network