Last month, Patient Opinion’s own James Munro attended NESTA’s flagship conference The Innovation Edge.  NESTA supports innovation across the UK, and have generous in providing their enthusiasm, time, expertise and funding in support of Patient Opinion’s expansion to cover mental health services across England.

James was interviewed at the event, where he spoke about Patient Opinion and more specifically, the mental health pilot with the 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Trust in Warrington. When asked about the potential difficulties which can be experienced in making changes in a monolithic bureaucracy like the NHS, James noted that sometimes improvements at ward level were easier than making wider organisational changes.  My experiences support this – the closer you get to the frontline, the more you are likely to make a difference to patient care.

The video contains some really key messages about what Patient Opinion is doing, and emphasises that improving care should start with the patients and users of the NHS

Interesting, inspiring - and perhaps also a little depressing - to read the interview with Liz Miller in this week's Society Guardian.

Liz Miller is a doctor (previously a neurosurgeon, now an occupational health physician) who has campaigned on mental health issues since her own diagnosis with bipolar disorder (manic depression) 10 or so years ago.

She describes the pervasive sense of denial in the medical establishment about the possibility that doctors may need support: "'Doctors don't have mental health problems", she was told.

Depressing, then, that there is still so much denial and stigma around the problems of mood, meaning and thinking that so many of us face. But inspiring that, little by little, courageous people like Liz and others continue to tell their stories and in doing so speak up for us all, and continue to push back the boundaries of what can be said, and talked about.