Today I attended the Mental Health North East (MHNE) conference in Durham, which is in the North East of England. The three interviews below highlight the difficulties the sector is currently experiencing in responding to change and increased demand upon their services.

Lyn Boyd, Chief Executive of MHNE outlines how cuts to funding, services and increased demand are making service provision increasing difficult for third sector organisations. She gives examples of the devastating impact that lack of access to community mental health support services can have on individuals, their carers, their families and the communities around them. www.mhne.co.uk

Vicki Nash, Head of Policy and Campaigns at the national Mental Health charity MIND, takes a national perspective and talks about campaigning on mental health issues through a network of local branches. She goes on to describe how these branches provide services to over a quarter of million people per year and how those with mental health issues are sometimes portrayed as ‘scroungers’ in the media and elsewhere. This causes additional stress to those already struggling to deal with some very difficult personal issues. She tells the government what they should do now to really make things better to those with mental health concerns. www.mind.org.uk

Dr Santinder Sanghera is a GP and Mental Health and Clinical Commissioning Group lead for Durham Dales Clinical Commissioning Group. She describes how the newly established Clinical Commissioning Groups formed around (Doctors) GP’s practices will from April 2013 be commissioning the services that are made available from their surgeries to their local communities based on local community needs. She describes how charities and voluntary groups can best engage with local GP consortia and let them know how they can help local people to improve patient care and experience. Just saying ‘It’s a great service’ will not be good enough. Charities and NGO’s must show what impact they are having, what need they are meeting, what their outcomes are, what costs they reduce and what partnerships that they are involved in and ultimately how they are improving the situation of service users.

http://www.durhamdaleseasingtonsedgefieldccg.nhs.uk

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Get Well - Have Fun - Play Video Games and Aid Your Recovery From a Stroke

Limbs Alive Ltd was founded by Professor Janet Eyre and Mrs Janice Pearse, Senior Occupational Therapist, in partnership with Newcastle University and The Newcastle upon Tyne NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust to address the need for rehabilitation of arm and hand use after stroke. 

They specialise in rehabilitation of Hemiplegia. Hemiplegia is the inability to move a group of muscles in one side of the body. When hemiplegia is caused by a stroke, it often involves muscles in the face, arms and legs. By making therapy fun by using interactive games and challenges, they seek to support rehabilitation and the journey to recovery.

Limbs Alive won the Best UK National Health Service Innovation Award in 2011

Find out more here http://www.limbsalive.com

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Become a life saver and download the free British Red Cross First Aid app to your phone. You never know when you might need it.

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Are you a Doctor, a Physio or a Nurse looking to volunteer? @floatingdoctors is looking for Health Care Workers and others to volunteer in the South China Seas next year. check out the video and web site for more information http://floatingdoctors.com

Can you save someone’s life with Facebook? Find out more here

If you live in the USA or the UK you can now indicate on your Facebook timeline that you would like to donate your organs to others should the situation arise. Your intention can be made public or you can set your privacy settings so for instance, only your close family know of your wishes. If set to show publicly your wishes will be shown in the ‘life events’ section on your timeline.

Some cynics worry that this Facebook initiative could be an attempt to show Facebook in a good light prior to it’s forthcoming IPO. Others that those who indicate they would donate may not follow it through in practice. However charities and non profits in the donation sector both in the UK and the USA are applauding the initiative. Following on from the announcement made by Mark Zuckerberg earlier this week, it has been reported that ‘sign ups’ for donations have risen 800% in California alone.

In the USA 113,953 people were on the waiting list for an organ or tissue transplant, including 21,989 in California. But about one-third of those on waiting lists - about 18 people each day - die because of a shortage of matching organs. While in the UK 3 people die every day waiting for an organ transplant.

If just one person’s life is saved it makes this initiative a worthwhile example of how online social networks can use their networking power to do good.

So let’s try and save a life! Post a link to this story on Facebook or retweet this feature on Twitter

To sign up to show your willingness to donate your organs via Facebook 

If you are in the USA click here http://www.donorssavelives.org

If you are in the UK click here http://www.facebook.com/organdonationuk

If you are not based in the UK or the USA, don’t worry,the ability to sign up for organ donation via Facebook is due to be rolled out to other countries in the near future, but why wait? Just sign up with your local health service anyway and save that life.