Thread by @NSUNnews

The NSUN bulletin should now be in your inboxes. This week we've shared the #StopSIM @StopSIMMH Coalition Consensus Statement:

https://twitter.com/StopSIMMH/status/1384877616646213634

You can find out more about the "High Intensity Network"/"Serenity Integrated Mentoring" here

https://twitter.com/annedraya/status/1384103025652891652

Over the last couple of weeks, service users, survivors, people with lived experience of mental distress & allies have been working hard to draw attention to the rollout across NHS Trusts of the "High Intensity Network’s" (HIN) intervention, “Serenity Integrated Mentoring” (SIM).

It is a programme for so-called “High Intensity Users” (most of whom have a label of a ‘Personality Disorder’) of crisis & emergency healthcare services. The programme is framed around reducing demand on services/cutting costs, & involves the police as interventionists.

There is no sound evidence base for the intervention, little oversight of service user outcomes not relating to cost, demand & staff time, & no involvement of service users or ‘experts by experience’ in the development of the model or feedback on experiences of being under it.

Police presence in crisis care reinforces the criminalisation of distress, & uses the threat of punitive legal action to coerce people into no longer “demonstrating intensive patterns of demand” rather than acknowledging & addressing underlying issues, unmet need -

- & the need for compassionate responses to mental health crises. Knowing that forced police contact may now be a part of the response you receive if you “repeatedly” reach out for help when deeply distressed presents another barrier to seeking support.

This is particularly true for those from minoritised or racialised communities for whom the possibility of police brutality and discrimination is a very real fear.

We support the #StopSIM Coalition and together we call for the delivery of this intervention to be halted and independently reviewed with regards to its evidence base, legality, ethics, governance, & acceptability to service users.

To stay up to date follow @StopSIMMH (instagram: instagram.com/StopSIMMH/), you can also sign up to the mailing list via their website: stopsim.co.uk

See also a new explainer resource from @StopSIMMH

https://twitter.com/StopSIMMH/status/1386651484528459779