The organisation called 'Mind' does not, in reality, exist, unlike 'Big Brother' or 'Come Dancing' which - if the mood takes you - may actually be seen in all their naked awfulness. A friend of mine was recently rejected as an applicant for a position of the 'Mind Governance' group/panel/committee. Of course, this, in reality, is a contradiction in terms, because the MIND organisation doesn't actually govern anything. Here I would remind readers that the proper term for running an organisation is 'MANAGEMENT' - making sure that the money in exceeds the money out, creating a surplus, or - simply, in the case of Mind - using the money for the purposes intended - which they don't always. Of course, this assumes that you act legally yet, as in the recent criminal misrepresentations of one, Paul Clarke ( Mind in the Vale ) this assumption is not always justified. Having been a Trustee of his franchise, it was immediately obvious that Mr Clarke was not one to respect legal contracts or his legal obligations to the poor service users that he regularly duped. Where ( I hear you shout ) was the 'governance' there, let alone anything resembling competent management ?
You see 'Mind' is not one organisation, it is - in fact - a group of franchise operations, where the franchisee is ( more or less ) free to create and run his little empire as he wishes - as was the case with Paul Clarke who - despite my evidence-backed complaints to his funding organisations ( e.g. The Health Boards, The Wales Council for Voluntary Action ) managed to get away with conning money out of organisations, with little or no benefit to service users - all done with the protection of the MIND name and the misplaced loyalty ( and plain stupidity ) of the funding organisations. His favourite ploy was to ask every possible fund provider in Christendom to provide the funds for whatever noble project came into his twisted little brain. (N.B. He did have a degree in Rock and Roll music which, along with the sex and the drugs must have qualified him for anything but helping the mentally ill ). The result of this larceny was that he would often receive multiples of the actual amount required for the particular project needing the funding. In this way, he was allowed to build his 'Empire' and his personal standing in the eyes of the incompetent world of mental health service provision, whilst doing bugger-all for the mentally ill that he was supposed to represent.
The relevance of this story to my friend's application to become part of the elite MIND GOVERNANCE, was that she was rejected for not having 'transferrable skills' that were applicable to mental health issues. Considering the facts of my little tale of woe, I nearly wet myself reading this audacious and quite rediculous excuse for rejecting my friend's application. What better experience is there to deal with mental health issues than having been a long time sufferer of mental illness yourself , and having years of so-called 'user group' involvement with represention ( albeit tokenistically ) at the 'Big Table' of mental health governance, as Mr Clarke himself would have described the situation. For the last 14 years I have represented service users and campaigned for better services for them, yet have singularly failed to defeat the Mental Health Mafia that is the unholy union between statutory and non-statutory organisations like Mind. Better that you help yourself than rely on any of these money-grabbing organisations for any practical help ! R.W.
{ See also 'How do you Confront the Hydra' for more detailed explanation )
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