"Is Lincolnshire Link interested in mental health care?"

I am very disappointed in the Link in Lincolnshire, particularly their attitude towards mental health problems.

A group of us involved in mental health - service users, advocacy services, involvement organisation - met with the Link. They held the meeting in their office which was not reachable by public transport, they had a radio playing, photo copiers printing, phones ringing the whole time the meeting took place. Not the most ideal of surroundings.

We asked them if we could form a permanent mental health Link sub group as service user/ carer involvement in mental health is very poor in Lincolnshire and we thought this was what the Link was for. It took them 5 months to get back to us and tell us that they would not be having a permanent mental health sub group. If we had any issues we wanted them to consider they would look into them individually.

They were therefore asked if they could look into the fact that services in mental health in Lincolnshire seem to be rationed. We backed this request up with evidence that people were being limited to six sessions only and then discharged regardless of whether they were better or not. We asked this three months ago and still have had no response. They only seem interested in looking at areas brought up by their own executive and are not interested in mental health at all.

Surely it is just manners to deal with requests promptly and answer quickly. After all I thought the Link was for the community not just its own executive.