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Why it’s important that the Solace drop-in mental health centre in West Ealing survives the cuts

 

 

Solace Centre

We’ve looked before at the efforts being made to save the Solace Centre in West Ealing, Ealing’s only drop-in mental health centre.  Why does it matter?  This question is best answered by people who use it and here is why they passionately believe it matters not just to them but to the whole borough:
‘Why are we so passionate about stopping this proposed closure?
Solace is pivotal in keeping us (the Solace service users) well in the community, staying away from more expensive mental health resources.
We come to the Solace Centre because we have all experienced many mental health hospital admissions (resulting in lots of personal upheaval, distress, distress and pain). What we need is practical day-to-day help, friendship, togetherness, care so we can keep independent, stable, maintained and connected within the Ealing community.
All of us (some 85 members, a total of 130 service users) who use this service suffer from long and enduring mental health problems (mainly psychotic illnesses). We all attend Solace regularly (there were 9,242 attendances last year). Staff know us very well and can tell when our mental health is deteriorating and in risk of relapse.
The Solace Centre is the only out of hours mental health resource in the Ealing borough. It’s open 265 days of the year offering a potential of 1,664 hours respite yearly (for members and carers). Open from Monday-Friday 4-8pm and Saturday and Sunday12noon-6pm (weekends for meembers only).
Our ages are between 20-76 years, with the majority between 40-59 years and from a diverse ethnicity. Unusually, half the members are women because they feel safe and accepted.
Labour can stop this proposal (to close Solace). The Council runs the Solace Centre on £104,000 yearly with the West London Mental Health Trust contributing £47,000 a year towards the weekend service. This budget is small in comparison with a re-admission back into hospital. A mental health ward bed is £350 a night. An admission is usually around two to three months and often a lot longer. It would only take two or three members to go back to hospital before this budget would be outstripped.
We are really anxious over this proposal but have been working hard to make our voices heard – we have now gained over 2,000 petition signatures, over 130 letters the Council and mounted several protests. We have gained support from carers, clinicians, professionals, friends, family and the community – all united in putting a stop to this proposal that does not make clinical orfinancial sense.
Celebrity supporters Jo Brand and Gladiator (Bullit) even attended one of our protests!
We are running out of time. A final decision is likely mid-February. We need your support now. Please support us – www.saveoursolace.co.uk

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Queen of the spoken word at OPEN Ealing on Saturday 14th February

Zena Edwards, Queen of the Spoken Word

Zena Edwards 2

When: Saturday 14 February
Where: Green Man Lane Cafe, Singapore Road, W13 OEP

Performance starts at 7.30pm
Tickets: £8 available on the door (Concessions £6; Green Man Lane residents £4)
There’s an amazing opportunity to see Zena Edwards, Queen of the Spoken Word, when she performs at Green Man Lane Cafe on Saturday. “She’s a poet of consummate skill who effortlessly melds hip-hop grooves with a worldly Afro-centric wisdom.”

Zena is supported by Larry Bartley, one of the most sought after bass players on the London jazz scene with an identifiable sound that announces his presence.
The evening won’t be complete without you. If you are a poet and would like to share your work, or just want to read your favourite poem. You are warmly invited to join Zena and her friends on Saturday 14 February for an amazing evening of poetry and music.
Here’s just one video example of Zena’s work
Learn More about Zena here: http://openealing.com/2014/11/04/spoken-word-saturdays-2/

Why don’t you treat yourself and book pre-performance dinner at Coco Labelle? Chef Elisabeth Brown and her team bring you the freshest flavours in a delightful fusion of Mauritian, Caribbean and European food. Doors open at 6pm. Please email OPEN to make a reservation.

We look forward to seeing you

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What sort of shopping centre do we want for West Ealing and how do we get it?

I went to a talk on the future of high streets at last night’s Ealing Business Forum.  The speaker was Bill Grimsey and he has a strong track record of running high- street chains including Iceland and Wickes amongst others. He’s an interesting character as he is now retired and has spent most of his retirement arguing for a radical re-think in how we should use our high streets. He believes the traditional retail led high street is dead on its feet and needs to be replaced with a new vision where housing, leisure, health, entertainment and community services and activities take over from empty shops and an excess of betting shops and payday loan shops.  West Ealing Neighbours has raised these issues a number of times over the past years as we have seen ever more betting shops, loan shops and their like come in to the West Ealing shopping centre. What was interesting about last night’s talk was  to hear the argument in more detail.  Whether or not you agree with Mr Grimsey’s view is for each to decide but what seems important to me is to get the issues aired and discussed. A key element of his argument is that despite the importance of the retail sector, with a turnover greater than even the health budget, the future of our high streets is unlikely to appear in any political manifesto in this year’s election.

So, looking at some of his key points:

  • The UK retail sector has a bigger turnover than health, education or defence
  • High streets are a more reliable measure of the economy than economists’ forecasts
  • High streets have seen an increase in betting shops, payday loan shops, convenience stores and fast dood outlets
  • Rapid growth of online shopping is irreversible and will mean major changes in the way supermarkets operate with the decline of the large out-of-town stores and an increase in local convenience stores for people to top up on their online shopping
  • A great opportunity for fresh and local food outlets – ‘ fresh food emporiums’ – selling products which can not easily be provided by the large supermarkets in store or online
  • Shops with no stock will be a feature of new high streets.  Take fashion , you’ll be able to try out clothes in a virtual world and then order what you want.  This may even mean manufacturing comes back to the UK as clothes made on demand rather than imported in bulk on spec from all across the world.
  • Could Amazon start to sell food and would it mean even cheaper prices?
  • Abolish business rates for small independent retailers.  The revenue from these is about 6% of the total.

As I said, whether or not you agree with Bill Grimsey his views are informed by 40 years of retail experience and are well worth thinking about.  In many ways, here in London and the south east we haven’t seen anything like the average 14% level of vacant shops that many other towns and cities have experienced but his arguments are just as valid. For who hasn’t been aware of the incease in betting shops, payday loan shops, fast food outlets and convenience stores in and around West Ealing.

Bill Grimsey’s closing point is that every town needs a plan for the future of its high streets.  Without a plan it’s all left to market forces and failed attempts to fill unwanted space.  I know the West Ealing Centre Neighbourhood Forum has this on its radar for its plan for the centre of West Ealing. The future nature of our shopping centre is something that should concern every one of us.

There is much more to his arguments than I’ve been able to capture in this post.  You can find out more on his website

 

 

 

 

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Pilot business hub launched in West Ealing

Having been involved in the initial feasibility study for a business hub in West Ealing I was delighted to go to last night’s launch of  Ealing Blueprint – a pilot business hub working with the Chat and Meet coffee shop. Ealing Blueprint will run a free hub in the heart of West Ealing for a five month period from 4 February 2015 to test the hub model. I think this has great potential for West Ealing.  Here’s a bit of background from Blueprint’s website:

‘The Ealing Blueprint business hub is inspired by the success of coworking spaces in central London, and will enable entrepreneurs, sole traders, freelancers or start-ups to work alongside one another in a collaborative atmosphere. Creative people can work flexibly in a modern and stimulating environment where ideas can be shared and enterprises thrive. Working independently should not mean working alone.

Located in West Ealing, a 3-minute walk from West Ealing station and many bus routes, the business hub is easy to access. Within the shared working space is Chat & Meet a coffee shop that will manage the hub on a day-to-day basis and will provide the opportunity to grab a coffee and have a chat with those around you. ‘

Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 8.30am to 5.30pm (4 February – 27 June 2015)
Location: Chat & Meet @ Ealing Blueprint, 13 Drayton Green Road, West Ealing, London W13 0NG

Last night’s meeting was also the first anniversary of the Ealing Business Forum which invited high-street expert Bill Grimsey to give his views on the future of high streets in the 21st century. I greatly enjoyed his talk and it offered some compelling arguments for a radical new approach to how we should use our high streets.  I’ll put the highlights from his talk in a separate post.

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Barn Dance on Saturday and still time to see 4.48 Psychosis at Questors

These two events are a bit of a contrast but both worth knowing about:

The annual Barn Dance at St James Church is on this Saturday from 6-9.30pm.  It’s great fun and the tickets are only £5 for an adult, £2.50 for a child and a family ticket for four is £12.  Plus you get a hot dog and popcorn thrown in with the ticket.  The music comes from The West London Folk Band. Tickets available from either St James’ Church on 020 8840 2586 or St John’s 020 8566 3507.

4.48 Psychosis is on at Questors until Saturday.  I saw it on Tuesday and was very impressed with how this play was staged.  Here’s the information I wrote about the play for a previous post plus a brief review:

‘The Sunday Times has picked out the Sarah Kane season at Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre as one of its ‘ hottest picks’ for 2015.  However, you don’t need to go to Sheffield to experience Sarah Kane’s talent and reflect on the loss to the theatre of her suicide at just 28.  Ealing’s Questors Theatre has Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis on later this month.  It describes the play as follows:

A rhythm of raw beauty – vivid and imaginative theatre

“Here am I
and there is my body
dancing on glass”

With its powerful use of the most beautiful and poetic language we are drawn into the pained world of Kane herself at one moment in time: 4.48am. Sarah Kane’s masterpiece is theatre as a text for performance rather than a play. It is about love and about survival and about hope.

Several weeks after completing the play, at the age of 28, Sarah Kane committed suicide leaving this her masterwork – an affirmation to live rather than a suicide note.

This production will be an unforgettable experience – an evening of vivid visual theatre, raw and beautiful.’

Suitable for ages 16+
Contains disturbing adult themes and smoke

Details of tickets etc here

Review

‘I saw this play last night and was very impressed with what is an extremely difficult play to stage. There are no named characters, no specific voices given to any character and no indication of how many performers or of any gender.  Having said that I thought Questors put on a powerful and inspiring performance. An abiding memory of the play is the stark staging and dissonant music which caught the fractured mood of the mind of what I take to be the central character.  It’s interesting that the music changed to something much more melodic right at the very end.

For me, the play gave great insight in to the mind of someone with serious depression and the mood swings, the darkness, anger and humour that flickers like a faulty light.  Questors staged Sarah Kane’s play with an all female cast with some strong performances and is well worth seeing.’

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Ambitious plans for Old Oak Common a step nearer

It’s not strictly local but the ambitious plans to develop Old Oak Common in Acton will surely have an impact here.  According the the BBC news website Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities, has approved plans to redevelop Old Oak Common.  The plans include:

24,000 new homes

55,000 new jobs

A massive new station for Crossrail and HS2 by 2026

There’s also talk of QPR moving to a new stadium there though their plans have miffed Cargiant in Scrubs Lane as QPR seemed not to have discussed their plans with them and they own a big chunk of the land concerned.

 

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Plans for 300 flats on BT Telephone Exchange site in Gordon Road, West Ealing

Gordon Road, Ealing - ariel view

 

The has been quite alot of toing and froing over this BT Telephone Exchange site in Gordon Road but the Council has designated it for residential development. The developer is Telereal Trillium and their plan is for a two phase development:

  • Redevelopment of Rome House and the adjacent car park for up to 155 flats
  • Redevelopment of Castle House into new terraced housing along Gordon Road and 3 new residential blocks of up to 166 new flats
  • Use of the existing access on Gordon Road
  • Generous communal and private amenity space including children’s playspace

The developer is holding an exhibition of their plans at the Drayton Court Hotel on Thursday 5th February 2-8pm.  They want to hear people’s views on their plans.  There will be feedback forms at the exhibition or you can comment online

 

 

W

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Successful petition means full Council meeting to debate future of Solace Centre

The Solace Centre in West Ealing is the borough’s only mental health drop-in centre and has been threatened with possible closure – see here for previous story.  The users have been working flat out to save their centre and now have over 2,000 signatures on their petition.  This means they are allowed the right to a full Council Chamber debate – Tuesday 27th starting 7pm. The meeting is at the Town Hall and is open to the public.

I think most of us are well aware of the Council’s need to make some very tough decisions about cuts to services. However, this is where we need some joined up thinking and not to simply see budgets in isolation from their consequences on budget holders in another area of care.  For example, what happens if the Solace Centre is closed and even just a few of its users end up in hospital or community services?  What is the cost of running the Solace Centre compared to the cost to the NHS/West London Mental Health Trust of looking after someone.  The cost of running the Solace Centre seems to be about £150,000 pa with the Council paying some £110,000 or so of this and the West London Mental Health Trust paying the balance.

I found the following on the BBC News site for 10th April 2014 which makes interesting reading even if it is not an exact comparison for the Solace Centre:

‘Rethink Mental Illness published the report with the London School of Economics.

The report said it costs on average £13 a day to support someone with psychosis or schizophrenia in the community.

It said this compared with the £350 average daily cost of keeping a mental health patient in hospital.’

The point about joined up thinking is that whilst the Council may save money from its budget if it closes the Solace Centre it runs the risk of passing on greater costs to the NHS at an overall increased cost to taxpayers if just a few of the Centre’s users end up in hospital as a result of the closure.

 

 

 

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Exhibition of plans to redevelop a major part of Ealing Broadway town centre – Thurs 29th – Sat 31st Jan

Benson Elliot, which bought a large section of the Ealing Broadway town centre at the end of 2012, are about to reveal their plans for the area between Ealing Broadway and The Arcadia Centre – area outlined on the map below.

map
They are holding an exhibition next week on Thursday 29th, Friday 30th between 4pm and 8pm and Saturday 31st between 10am and 4pm at 7a The Broadway (a shop opposite the station).

Full details can be seen here