This exercise requires that you put yourself in the position of someone who works for an organisation (a charity) that has experience of providing a range of services aimed at serving the mental health needs of the town of ‘Darborough’.
As part of a national policy initiative, your charity has been asked to draw up plans for services to be provided in the event of local people experiencing trauma following a particular crisis or disaster.
You are asked to provide a justification for receiving funding for the services that you would like to provide. Your organisation takes a service user-led, collaborative approach, meaning that all services are co-produced by people who have experience of using mental health services and professionals. Both professionals and service users are represented in the leadership of the organisation.
Your organisation seeks funding to provide interventions at two levels:
- Individual psychotherapy, where clients can self-refer or they might be referred by another agency.
- Activism and campaigning within the community. This might involve initiatives and campaigns within the local community on issues that have been identified as relevant to mental health problems that might occur due to, or be exacerbated by, a particular crisis or disaster. Issues to consider might be, for example: those concerning the capacity of the community to respond, or the inequality of impacts that might be associated with poverty and social exclusion.
You are required to deliver a report that presents an outline of the interventions that you would like to provide and a justification for their provision.
You have been informed that the people reading and assessing the report want to understand the reasons behind each of these interventions, and the evidence that exists to support the approach.