COMMUNITY services in Eastleigh have moved into unchartered territory by launching a new guide for people using mental health services.
The Charter for Adults who use Mental Health Services sets out the minimum standards people can expect from the facilities in Eastleigh and has been written, developed and launched by people who have used the services themselves.
Jacqs Turner, one of the service users involved in the project, said: "We started putting ideas together for a charter in early 2000 because we wanted to capture what it meant to have good quality services.
"We felt a formal charter would help people understand what they can expect from services they receive."
Lesley Herbert is a service user and carer liaison officer for West Hampshire Trust, which looks after mental health and learning disability services for the county.
She said: "Service users were assisted by Eastleigh Com-munity Services in developing the charter with staff from West Hampshire Trust and Hampshire Social Services.
"It covers, among other things, the right to information, choice, personal dignity and the right to respect from mental health services.
"It is written by service users, for service users and we are confident that it reflects the issues that are important to them and not just those issues considered as priorities by organisations."
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