'Mental illness is not a life sentence'

Health Correspondent Barry Nelson talks to a carer turned campaigner who has just won a national award.

VALERIE'S phone started ringing after the first article. The shocking story of how her mentally-ill son was led away in handcuffs in the middle of the night appeared in The Northern Echo in April 2001.

It told of how the Darlington mother had to give up her teaching career to help look after her seriously ill son. His illness became so serious and his behaviour so erratic that he was forcibly detained under the Mental Health Act.

Since those black days, Valerie's son has made good progress. His condition is under control and he's living in sheltered accommodation in Manchester. But Valerie Minns' struggle to cope with her son's illness, to understand the labyrinthine world of mental health and get the right kind of care that he needed, struck a chord in many readers.

Within days, Valerie began to receive calls from other people struggling to care for a loved one with schizophrenia or other long-term severe mental illness. That's when she began thinking about setting up a branch of what was then called the National Schizophrenia Fellowship, now renamed Rethink Severe Mental Illness, to champion the cause of patients and their carers.

Valerie was particularly angry that she had to take her son across the Pennines to find the right treatment and accommodation for her son, although she acknowledges the situation in the North-East has improved in the last three years.

After another article in The Northern Echo about Valerie's continuing struggle to do the best for her son, she went public about her intention to set up a County Durham Rethink branch. Within a few months more than 30 people had contacted Valerie. Now that figure has risen to more than 70 and just a few months after the new group was founded, it has been named by the national Rethink charity as the best support group in the UK.

"I couldn't believe it, we have only been going since July," says Valerie, who accepted a trophy and a cheque for £500 at the Rethink annual general meeting in Birmingham a few weeks ago. "That money is going to buy a lot of postage stamps and might help us get some computers out to people who live in rural areas

"The Northern Echo has played a very important part in all of this because of the exposure you gave us. It has made such a difference."

The Pringle trophy, named after the founder of the National Schizophrenia Fellowship who left a legacy to encourage carers to form support groups around the country, is not the only concrete example of Valerie's achievement. The success of the new County Durham group has encouraged the national Rethink charity to expand in the North-East.

Says Debbie Oxberry, assistant operational manager for the new North-East regional officer of Rethink: "We didn't have much of a presence in this region until I was appointed. My post was a direct result of the success of Valerie."

On the back of the County Durham work, Rethink is now seeking to expand in Newcastle, Sunderland and Northumberland. "We have got individual members but we need to set up more groups," says Debbie.

Rethink is currently working on new schemes to improve services and support for County Durham patients and their carers. "We have got funding from Northern Rock to set up a scheme in County Durham called Carers One-To-One Link, which has worked well in Devon," says Debbie. "The aim is to bring carers together, particularly isolated carers in rural areas, and give them support. It provides a phone link."

Rethink also plans to use neighbourhood renewal funds to work in Weardale and Teesdale. "The aim is to set up a befriending scheme to improve social inclusion in rural areas. We want to encourage people to get out more, to go to the gym, to go walking and to go swimming and to have a generally more normal life," says Debbie.

In North Durham there are also plans to help people with mental health problems stay in work and return to work.

Valerie is buoyed by recent national publicity about Rethink. Many listings magazines carried stories about Rethink advising scriptwriters about the storyline for the popular Emmerdale TV soap opera.

"During Celebrity Big Brother we got about ten mentions on prime time because we were one of the four charities that benefited," says Valerie.

One of the reasons the County Durham branch was singled out for praise was the unique inter-active website, largely devised by Valerie's husband, a medical researcher who otherwise keeps a low profile. It is being looked at as a possible model for wider use.

But Valerie is particularly proud of the setting up of an advocacy service for group members. "We now have two trained advocates who will go with carers to meetings with health professionals and make sure they ask the right questions, get their views across and get the information they need. It makes such a difference. Nobody else in the country seems to be doing this, it gives people more confidence."

Group members are kept up to date with latest developments and there is even a small library providing books and videos. "The video of Beautiful Minds, which is a realistic but sympathetic portrait of schizophrenia, is very popular with members," she says.

Valerie is also very encouraged at the support she has received from Sandy Taylor, chief executive of the County Durham and Darlington Priority Services NHS Trust, the mental health trust serving the county.

"We have got very good links with the trust," says Valerie, who feels that carers are now more likely to be listened to within the County Durham mental health service.

But she still feels more needs to be done to improve residential accommodation for patients. "There is still a real shortage of housing for patients. There is just not enough 24-hour accommodation for people."

Sandy Taylor, Priority Services chief executive, is full of praise for Valerie's achievements. "The work Valerie has done is first-class," he says. "The fact that carers have somebody like her to represent their interests is an important development."

While acknowledging that mental health services in County Durham need further expansion, he argues that since Valerie's son became ill, the number of bed places for acutely ill patients has increased. In 2004, the new £18m West Park psychiatric hospital will open to patients.

Sandy argues that a "sea-change" has taken place in mental health in the last decade and health professionals are now much more willing to listen to and consult carers. This can't come to quickly for Valerie, who now finds herself doing what amounts to a full-time job running the County Durham branch of Rethink.

"What is most important is the chance to tell people that severe mental illness is not a life sentence," she says. "With the right care, there is hope that people can lead a more normal life."

* To contact Valerie's group ring (01325) 489020. The website is at