Mental Health Services: cuts to CAMHS and meeting in New Cross

Interesting article in the Guardian this week on the difficulty children have getting help from NHS Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. The focus is on Childeric Primary School in SE14: 

'In every classroom in Childeric primary school in New Cross, south-east London, there is a world map stuck to the wall. Ranged around the continents are pictures of every child in the class, with a coloured string leading to their country of origin.

Some have recently arrived in the country, others are new to the area, and during the course of a year a significant number will leave and more will arrive. Many live in temporary accommodation, sometimes entire families in a single room in a hostel, and there is a high rate of mobility at the school. The atmosphere is calm, happy and orderly, but there’s an undertow of profound need – not obvious during a brief visit – that affects a significant number of the children and their ability to learn. Their distress plays out in class, lessons are disrupted and learning stops. Ideally Childeric would be able to refer the most distressed pupils to child and adolescent mental health services (Camhs).

“We work very well with Lewisham Camhs,” says Ann Butcher, the headteacher at Childeric. “The challenge for us is there’s a very high threshold for children and families to access these services. If we are concerned about a child’s mental health we would make a referral straight to Camhs but we very often are told ‘this does not reach the threshold’. We know there are some mental health issues, and we are not always equipped to deal with it.

“At the moment we have two children attending Camhs. But there’s probably three or four children in each class [making about 60 in the school] who I think need some kind of support because of their mental health issues.”

It is a familiar story as overstretched NHS mental health services for children struggle to meet demand in the face of well-documented cutbacks that have seen thresholds for being seen by Camhs go up, waiting lists lengthen, and children turned away' (Sally Weale, Schools trying to help children shut out by mental health services, Guardian, 27 January 2016)

Mental Health Resistance Network

Children who don't get help with emerging mental health issues can grown up to have life long difficulties. At the adult service end, the Mental Health Resistance Network is a survivors group fighting against cuts in benefits and services.  They are holding an event tonight in Queens Road:

'As part of a rolling programme of MHRN events every last Friday of the month at the Field,  a homely independent community space between Peckham and New Cross, we present the screening of the film "SELL OFF" and a talk by campaigning doctor BOB GILL followed by discussion. Refreshments and convivial company provided!'

Dr Gill, a GP based in Welling, was active in the Save Lewisham Hospital campaign and has stood an election candidate for the NHS Action Party.

6 pm - 10 pm,  The  Field, 385 Queens Road, New Cross, SE14 (admission free)

Whatever happened to Nunhead Reservoir? - public meeting

Nunhead Reservoir, on the other side of Brockley Footpath from the Cemetery, was one of the area's hidden gems. While nominally fenced off, it was easy enough to get into and dog walkers, lovers, runners and others would climb up its grassy banks and take in the great views of London. I should say for those who don't know it that the reservoir itself is underground and completely covered so there was no obvious risk to the water supply.

But early last year a massive new security fence was built, topped with barbed wire and not only preventing access but dominating the view from the surrounding area. I'm not sure what reasons have been given by Thames Water, the privatised utility company that runs the site, but there is a similar reservoir only a few hundred metres away that has a golf course on top of it (Beechcroft reservoir), so on the face of it there is nothing intrinsically unsafe about people moving around such sites.

Anyway there's a public meeting coming up to discuss this, next Sunday 22 November at the The Field, 385 Queens Road, SE14 5HD. The organisers say:

'If you didn't already know, Nunhead Reservoir is now surrounded by a high fence with barbed wire, patrolled by security guard and dogs.

Do you have a connection to Nunhead Reservoir?

Did you used to go there to hang out/ run around/ burn stuff/ do yoga/ walk dogs/ play rounders/ watch the sunset etc. before the new fence was put up?

Are you upset/angry/glad about the new fence?

Did you have your first date with your girlfriend/boyfriend there? Did the reservoir have any special significance to you?

Do you miss being able to go there? Did you dislike the noise and/or rubbish left by people spending time there?

Whatever your connection/memory/opinion, you are warmly invited to a public meeting with soup, bread and wine, hosted by the New Cross Commoners.

We will have an open discussion on Nunhead Reservoir – to share memories and think together about its past and future'

This meeting doesn't have a set agenda- the purpose is to get people who love the reservoir (or hate it!) together, and we will see what comes of this through that meeting. If you know people who have a connection please feel free to invite them'.

Starts at 7pm, there will be soup and wine too

See also article on this at New Cross Commoners for a bit more detail: 'Thames Water probably have valid reasons for doing this. But some locals are understandably upset that what by now is perceived as a common has been so suddenly taken away. There hasn’t, as far as I can tell, been any dialogue between Thames Water and Nunhead locals, so nobody is completely sure of the exact reasons for the new fence. The only new signs are to tell people that guard dogs patrol the area. There is no notice explaining why, even though Thames Water know that people regularly used to spend time there- that’s why they’ve built the new fence after all.

The reservoir is an example of a space which until its recent increased securitization has been paradoxically liminal in terms of its private/ public status.  It’s been used as if it were public, and yet its private status has allowed it to be outside of state control- free from the ‘city officials’ who might also try to control it. Wide open space in this way is always in demand, and yet it being above a reservoir it is at least protected from being bought and developed on as expensive flats. Because of these two powers- the state and the market (in the form of Thames Water) turning a blind eye, many different activities have been allowed to happen at the site'.

One of the things I wonder about places like this is that there's a kind of tacit understanding that people can be allowed to quietly break the rules as long as they don't broadcast the fact too loudly. The reservoir was in use as a semi-public space for years, but Thames Water seem to have acted once people started posting about online or even writing about in the Guardian (to be fair, the latter article didn't actually name the site).  

Chimpman also wondered on twitter whether Thames Water's action might have been prompted by an 'over-zealous' reading of the Government's Centre for Protection of the National Infrastructure's security guidelines.

Creating Commons in New Cross

As reported here before, The Field opened last year in Queens Road, New Cross, as an 'experiment in collective local research, education and action' based around doing up a semi-derelict building.

Now the plans for its large garden are taking shape, and people are being invited to contribute to a 'a project to collectively design, fund, build and maintain a new common resource – a public garden in New Cross with facilities to support local self-organised activities, events and projects. This isn't just a community garden! This is an experiment in the act of collectively creating new common space, in negotiating its use, how its run and maintained so it can to meet the diverse needs and interests of everyone who uses it.

After a year of research: consultations, surveys, design workshops and public meetings, we have developed a picture of how the garden of 385 Queens Road can be best put to use. We found, from those conversations, that people in the area want:

- A place for different people in the neighbourhood to come together and meet each other.
- A public place we feel a sense of ownership over.
- A productive garden, where skills relating to food growing, health, environment, resilience and self-sufficiency can be learned and shared.
- A place with the resources to facilitate diverse public events, activities and projects.
- A relaxing outdoor space away from the main road running through New Cross'

Plans include buiding a workshop, glasshouse, outdoor kitchen and covered social area, as well as growing spaces.

For further information and/or to pledge a contribution see: http://www.spacehive.com/creatingcommonsinnewcross

The Field Opens Tomorrow in New Cross

If you've been down Queens Road SE14 recently you might have noticed a lot of activity going on at the single storey building next to the Doctors surgery. The building at 385 Queens Road has been semi-derelict for a while, but a group of people have been renovating it having struck a deal with the landlord to use it rent free for a while in return for doing it up. The project is called The Field,  'an experiment in collective local research, education and action. We have taken over a previously derelict building in New Cross for five years, which we hope can become a shared resource for the neighbourhood'.

The collective, which includes people who have been involved with New Cross Commoners,  have put in new windows, ceiling and floor and knocked through the two rooms into one space.

Although the building itself is small it has a large yard/garden which they have cleared. Previously it was waste deep in every kind of rubbish.

Tomorrow - Saturday 1st November - sees the launch of the space from 4 pm. They say: 'Join us to celebrate the opening of The Field! There will be some displays and publications to peruse from 4pm. At 7pm there will be brief presentations to give you all a bit of an insight into what's been happening here, how it's happened, and what might happen in the future. Following this we will move onto food, drink, music, fun and frolicking together to celebrate all the hard work that has gone into the project so far, and to mark the start of a new phase in the life of 385 Queen's Road. We'd love to see as many of you wonderful people as possible, especially those who have helped in some way or another. So please do come down--it'll be fun! We promise!'.

Some old punk graffiti in the building before the redecoration -
lines from the Crass song  'So What?'