News: Frank talking – belonging in Brighton
There are so many worse places to live but we need to make it better, says Frank le Duc
Get Me Out Of Here! by Rose Biela www.sussexpartnership.nhs.uk/positiveimage
Journalists are often accused of making up quotes. And I want to share a made up quote with you. But I can’t take the credit for making it up. It has long been attributed to Roman satirist Petronius Arbiter. In fact, it was made up by an American journalist and author called Charlton Ogburn.
He wrote: “We trained hard… but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganised. Presumably the plans for our employment were being changed. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising, and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation.”
I was reminded of the quote last week as some of our local NHS trusts held their annual meetings. They are in a state of flux. They are being reorganised. Again. Despite a pre-election promise that there would be no such top-down reorganisation. And it won’t be cheap. Many of the costs will never appear on an accountant’s balance sheet. Local knowledge lost, corporate memory erased and vital energies misdirected from the main task.
Will it work? Given the huge talent in the medical world, the brand loyalty inspired by the NHS and the impressive determination of so many of the key players, I think it will. But not necessarily because it’s any better organised.
We will still have a director of public health, I am pleased to report. His name is Dr Tom Scanlon. And in the past week he has shared his assessment of Brighton and Hove on more than a few occasions. He takes the temperature of our city every year and his most recent report looks at our resilience as a community.
He touches on drink and drugs, not for the first time, and weighs in with his views on obesity, sexual health and teenage pregnancies. But he takes a broader view too, including our satisfaction with living in Brighton and Hove and our sense of belonging. Curiously, we like living here but not all of us feel we belong here.
Dr Scanlon said: “Younger adults in particular feel less involved in the community.” Portslade, Withdean and Rottingdean score well. Those living in St Peter’s and North Laine much less so. Perhaps it’s the high proportion of commuters and students, a healthy number of whom stay after they graduate. He urges more volunteering, better links between communities and gives encouragement to the universities to engage more with local charities.
One health trust created in an earlier reorganisation, Sussex Partnership, treats patients with mental health problems. Each year thousands of people in Brighton and Hove are helped. But the trust says stigma still surrounds mental illness. It is holding a photographic competition as part of its efforts to tackle this. The deadline for entries – like those above – is Monday 3 October. Find out more at www.sussexpartnership.nhs.uk/positiveimage
Can discrimination and ignorance be overcome with pictures? Have we lost our feeling of belonging? What can we do to strengthen our sense of community? Send your thoughts to comment@thelatest.co.uk
