The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Welcome for news on new crisis centre
Campaigners have given a cautious welcome to the news that an announcement about a 24-hour mental health crisis centre for Dundee could be only weeks away.
Councillor Ken Lynn, Dundee City Council’s health spokesman and chairman of Dundee City Health and Social Care integrated joint board, has said he hopes there will be more detail about agreed proposals for a centre within weeks rather than months.
The councillor said he is “fully behind” the call for a 24/7 dedicated centre, adding: “This has already been agreed by councillors and we are at the stage of firming up the details of providing a centre of this type.
“The pandemic has very much got in the way of this happening so far but hopefully it will now be weeks rather than months before some further detail and information regarding proposals can be shared.”
It comes after a number of calls for a centre of this kind, sparked by recent deaths in the city.
An independent inquiry into mental health services in Tayside also suggested a centre as part of a raft of improvements.
It is hoped patients will be able to put themselves in for treatment, without the need for a doctor’s referral.
Mr Lynn added: “At a meeting of a mental health sub group of the IJB we listened to comment from Dundee’s Fairness Commission on this subject who recommended a crisis centre very strongly.
“We also are aware that the Strang Report advocated a centre and we as a health care partnership in the city realise we need to listen to what people are asking for.
“We are listening to people’s experiences. There is a mental health crisis in Dundee and the pandemic has added to that.”
One of Dundee’s main campaigners for the centre, Phil Welsh, said: “If Dundee councillors have backed, unanimously, support for a non-referral 24-hour crisis centre, this is long awaited good news for the city.”
Mr Welsh, who runs the campaign group Not in Vain for Lee in memory of his son Lee who took his own life in August 2017, said he had been pleading with the authorities to do something.
He added: “Dundee has suffered more than its fair share of suicides over the last few years. If this centre can help anyone when they reach that pinnacle of crisis then through our campaign Lee’s death will indeed not have been in vain.”
Mandy Mclaren, whose son Dale Thomson took his own life in January 2015, just days afte r spending time in Dundee’s mental health facility, the Carseview Centre, said she gave a cautious welcome to the announcement.
She said: “I would need to hear an awful lot more detail about how this would work and who would operate it.
“We need a crisis centre but we also need more than that.
“We need early intervention to stop people getting to the stage where they feel they are in crisis and we need after-care as well.
“We also need support for families of people in crisis, for the mums and dads and other family members who are also affected.
“Changes are needed to the entire system.”
Brook Marshall, chief executive of youth mental health charity Feeling Strong, also stressed the need for self-referrals to be available at any future centre.
He said: “We are strongly in favour of an accessible 24/7 crisis centre in Dundee which accepts self-referrals.”
The announcement came as councillors considered a new Tayside Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy report – Living Life Well – presented at a full council meeting on Monday night.
The report said work is ongoing to develop a “world class” mental health strategy for the “coming years”.
Anurse who shoved a dementia sufferer against a wall and gave another patient unprescribed medication was told she can return to work – after saying she was sorry.
Mental health nurse Vicki Anne Thom pinned an 88-year-old patient up against a wall and held her there at Stratheden Hospital, near Cupar, in September 2011.
A misconduct panel determined she failed to promptly inform her employer that police had charged her with assault in relation to the incident.
Mrs Thom was also found to have administered a laxative suppository to another patient at the hospital when it had not been prescribed.
The NHS Fife employee was removed from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register in November 2013 but has now applied to return to the profession.
A panel considering her application has allowed her to return to work with a “conditions of practice order” for a year – after they found she was deserving of a “second chance”.
In a report following a fitness to practise committee restoration hearing on February 11, her treatment of patients was described as “unacceptable”.
The report said: “Your treatment of a vulnerable, frail and elderly woman who had dementia and presented with associated behavioural problems was unacceptable.
“No patient should be subjected to the form of aggression and retaliation that you displayed.
“The panel also finds that you demonstrated dishonesty and an intention to deceive your employers by withholding the fact that you had been charged with assault.”
But in her evidence to the restorative hearing this month, Mrs Thom said she was sorry for her actions and felt remorseful every day and had learned from her mistakes.
She also wants to return to nursing in elderly care and has spoken with a manager at a local nursing home who would offer her a position and support her return to nursing practice.
Mrs Thom has also made inquiries with Dundee University about undertaking a “return to practice” course.
She said that, if faced with a similar set of circumstances, she would remove herself from the situation, raise the alarm and seek assistance.
Mrs Thom said she regretted her actions and had let herself down and “let other people down”.
The panel found she demonstrated “sufficient insight” into her failings and was able to articulate how she would act differently if faced with a similar situation in future.
They said a “wellinformed member of the public would accept” Mrs Thom had learned from past conduct and that it would be appropriate to allow her a “second chance”.
Upon returning to work, Mrs Thom must be supervised by a registered nurse.
She must not administer medication unsupervised until she is signed off by a registered nurse as competent to do so.
She must also work with her line manager to create a personal development plan which covers medication management, record keeping and deescalation techniques.
The NMC must also be informed of where she is working or studying and any clinical incidents or disciplinary proceedings concerning her.
Abakery supervisor was drunk at work, then took a works vehicle, which he crashed at a pedestrian crossing.
Mark Mcconnell stole the vehicle after being told to go home from his job at Stephens the Bakers premises in Rosyth.
Mcconnell, from Dunfermline, who had been banned from driving less than a month before, has now been jailed.
Mcconnell, 26, of Johnston Crescent, appeared back in the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court, where he admitted a string of offences which happened on January 21.
Fiscal depute Jill Currie said Mcconnell had been working in his job as night shift supervisor.
In the early hours of the morning the bakery manager received a call at home from another staff member who was concerned that two workers, including Mcconnell, were intoxicated.
When the manager arrived there, he told the two workers to go home.
Shortly afterwards he was told one of the firm’s vehicles was missing from outside and it was believed Mcconnell had taken it.
The police were contacted and told the vehicle had been stolen by someone who was drunk and was banned from driving.
Officers saw damaged metal railings and car debris at Sandpiper Drive.
They then found Mcconnell behind the wheel of the vehicle on Kingseat Road.
It had a punctured tyre and the front of the vehicle was badly damaged.
Mcconnell became aggressive towards officers and would not do a breath test.
Mcconnell admitted stealing a vehicle, driving while disqualified, failing to stop after an accident and failing to provide samples of breath.
Defence solicitor Chris Sneddon said: “Things were getting on top of him. He was dismissed as a result of surprisingly.”
Sheriff James Macdonald told Mcconnell: “This was a serious breach of trust. As a supervisor you unlawfully took possession of this vehicle and drove in an appalling manner which resulted in you colliding with a safety barrier at a pedestrian crossing.
“It’s fortunate it was in the dead of night or there would have been the potential of more serious consequences.”
He jailed Mcconnell for four months and banned him from driving for three years.
In December, Mcconnell was fined £1,410 and banned from driving for 16 months after crashing into a parked car after consuming a bottle of vodka and then assaulting a man. this, not
This was a serious breach of trust
Aman “died” seven times as he was airlifted to hospital after suffering a devastating heart attack in the Perthshire countryside.
Father-of-three Duncan Stevenson had to be repeatedly resuscitated by a Helimed crew as they raced through treacherous wintry storms towards Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
Now fully recovered, the 57-year-old has thanked his rescuers at the Perth-based charity SCAA (Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance).
“I owe them my life,” he said.
Battling through heavy snow, poor visibility and the threat of icing-up, helicopter pilot Captain Shaun Rose – with more than 10,000 missions already under his belt – described it as “the most difficult flight of my life”.
Mr Stevenson, a countryside management consultant from Biggar, was in Highland Perthshire for an ex-colleague’s leaving do when he fell ill.
It happened in February 2020, as Storm Dennis hammered rural parts of the country.
“I had met people the night before at Killin,” he said.
“The following morning, a few of us decided to go for a walk to Falls of Dochart and round the top of Loch Tay.
“I started to feel strange and thought it was a migraine coming on and then it got worse.
“I couldn’t walk any further, I felt quite ill. I was with three other men and they were growing increasingly concerned.”
Unable to walk back to their guesthouse in Killin, one of his friends called out to a nearby farmer and arranged a lift back to the village through flooded roads. An ambulance was scrambled from Crieff.
“My chest was getting tighter and the pains were getting worse,” Mr Stevenson said.
“When the ambulance arrived they told me I was having a heart attack.
“They said I had to get to hospital quickly and that we needed an air ambulance.”
By this time, the weather had deteriorated further and the paramedics drove through heavy snow and howling winds to meet the SCAA crew at a rendezvous spot near Lochearnhead.
Mr Stevenson said: “We both arrived at much the same time and I was transferred to the aircraft.
“The crew was really reassuring. They said they were going to try to get me through to hospital in Dundee. Then I had my first arrest.”
Mr Stevenson said there was only “vague clips of memory” of what happened next.
Paramedics used the onboard defibrillator to shock his heart back to a steady rhythm.
Lead paramedic
John
Pritchard said: “Although he was sitting up and talking to us, the patient’s condition did give cause for concern and we set out all the appropriate cardiac life-saving and resuscitation kit we might need ready to act quickly.”
Mr Stevenson went on to “die” a further six times during the flight, as Captain Rose steered through worsening conditions.
The crew resuscitated their repeatedly arresting patient, carrying out CPR, airway management and ventilating, but each time Mr Stevenson came round, he re-arrested just minutes later.
“We were so focused on our patient that – although we were well aware of the challenges Shaun was facing – we had plenty going on ourselves,” said Mr Pritchard.
Thanks to the in-flight
care, Mr Stevenson was not only alive when he touched down at Ninewells, he suffered no brain function issues.
He was rushed to the hospital’s catheter lab for treatment.
“The paramedics were great,” said Mr Stevenson.
“They kept asking if I was all right and reassuring me that we would get through to the hospital, and that everything would be OK.
“I don’t remember much after that, apart from coming to occasionally and experiencing the helicopter team being buffeted by the extreme weather.”
Mr Stevenson was in hospital for three days and needed emergency surgery to fit a stent inside a problematic artery.
“I was sitting up in bed later that first evening piecing together what had
happened and thanking my lucky stars that SCAA was there for me,” he said.
“One of the medical team at Ninewells told me how lucky I was to have been brought by helicopter, as I had arrested several times and needed to get to critical hospital care pretty quickly.
“A road ambulance in that weather, with me constantly arresting, would never have made it in time.”
Mr Stevenson said he doubted he would have made it without the air ambulance crew’s expertise.
“You see the helicopter at different places or read about it in the press but you don’t realise just what an amazing job this charity does until you’re on the receiving end of their life-saving work,” he said.
“They are amazing – they deserve every award and recognition going.”
He is known throughout the world for his iconic black and red striped jumper but now Dennis the Menace has his own tartan to celebrate his 70th birthday.
Dennis’ Birthday tartan has been created by Highland-based Prickly Thistle in a unique collaboration with Beano Studios to celebrate “70 years of everyone’s favourite rebel”.
The “sustainable” tartan consists of Dennis’ favourite black and red colours, just like the jumper he has worn for seven decades.
The design will be officially launched on March 17 to mark exactly 70 years since Dennis first appeared in the Beano comic.
Hidden in the thread count is Dennis’s birthday day and month, surrounded by blocks of 70 threads.
Registration notes in the official Scottish Register of Tartans state: “This birthday celebration tartan was created to mark the 70th birthday of one of Scotland’s iconic comic characters, Dennis the Menace.
“Dennis first appeared on the edition cover of Beano on March 17 1951 and this tartan has been inspired by the dates and colours connected to this occasion. The colours represent the colours of Dennis’s jumper, black and red.”
Prickly Thistle describe themselves as the “tartan rebels”, with sustainability at the core of the company’s values, championing green energy, locally sourced labour, natural fibres that are kinder to the planet and packaging.
Dennis’ tartan not only celebrates his landmark birthday but also aims to help tackle the global climate emergency through a sustainable living message.
Prickly Thistle founder Clare Campbell, who designed the tartan, said: “To partner with a character like Dennis and a brand like Beano on this message is nothing short of perfect.”
Mike Stirling, editorial director of Beano Studios, said: “Dennis is a character that every kid can identify with because of his fun, rebellious attitude to life, and his red and black jumper has become iconic for rebels everywhere.
“Prickly Thistle have imbued Scotland’s national fabric, tartan, which has its recyclable own rebellious history, with Dennis’ famous colours to create a mischievous match.
“As a rebel born in Scotland, I’m sure Dennis will love his birthday tartan, but it can be worn by everyone – if you don’t have your own clan, join the Menace clan.”
Vanessa Andreis, franchise planning and partnerships director, Beano Studios, hailed the partnership with Prickly Thistle, adding: “For 70 years kids have read and laughed along with Dennis and now fans can celebrate their inner rebel for the next 70 years in style.”
An artisan collection of products in Dennis’s Birthday tartan, jumpers, scarves and braces, will be available on March 17 via Prickly Thistle’s online shop.