MINUTES OF THE FIFTH MEETING OF

 THE DERBYSHIRE CHRONIC PAIN SUPPORT STEERING GROUP

The fourth meeting of the Derbyshire Chronic Pain Support Steering Group was held on Tuesday 12 March 2002, at The Guinness Trust Community Room, 1 Sidney Street, Derby.

Attendees:        Mark Charity (Chairperson), Janet Owen (Secretary), Steve Wilson,

                        Sandra Cunningham, Paul Hearne, Eileen Hogg  

Apologies:            None

Mark Charity (Chairperson) opened the meeting by welcoming, introducing and thanking everyone who attended.

Minutes from the last meeting held on 19 February 2002 were approved and signed as a true record.

1.                   Advertising

Sandra Cunningham reported on items she has agreed to look into.   Firstly she produced a letter that she had sent to Lion TV regarding the video “World of Pain” that had been shown on Channel 5.   Requesting a copy for the group to keep as part of the “Library” of information to help our members.   Hopefully at no cost to the group.

Sandra also contacted Liz Limbert of the Community Office at the City Hospital,

about putting an article in the medical magazine SYNAPS which is distributed within the City Hospital and Derbyshire Royal Infirmary.    Mark Charity to Contact Liz Limbert with this information 

            Sandra contacted Primary Care with regard to advertising our group on Doctors notice boards in their surgeries.    Only to be told that it was no longer possible as they now come under different sectors of the Local Health Authority.   The way around this we decided was for each individual of the Committee to try and place notices in their own Doctors surgeries and those locally to them.

To enable us to do the advertising we require posters and handouts these need to be eye catching to attract peoples attention.   Steve Wilson and Paul Hearne agreed to put together a format for the posters and handouts.   Once this has been done we need to find out the cost for having these printed.

• Also to be contacted are the   Local Radio

•                                              Derby Evening Telegraph

•                                              Derby Express

•                                              The Derby Trader 

            To place articles in these newspapers informing the Derbyshire public about The Derbyshire Chronic Pain Support Group.

2.            Website

We now have our own website for the group, which is www.coping.org.uk   Steve Wilson proposed to put on the website charts and graphs for members to monitor their pain levels over a period of time.  These could be included as part of the groups membership pack.

Talk to Amazon about possible advertising on our website, in return they donate books to the group on pain related subjects.  The books can them become accessible to our members through our `Library`.

Mark Charity found a website to do with Derbyshire Evening Telegraph where groups or organisations can advertise themselves free of charge, this is called the Beehive Community Network for Derbyshire, and their website is beehive.thisisderbyshire.co.uk of which the group is now a registered member.   This covers the Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire areas.

Data Protection Act to be looked into regarding having membership on a PC.

2.          Funding

There is a community chest fund (in Derby ) through the government where we can apply for funds, applications to be made in March and June.

Funding also to be sought from the Pain Clinic at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary.

Contact Wendy Lloyd for information regarding funding from Social Services.

4.          Finances

            Item purchased for group by Mark Charity  

            Web name purchased at a cost of                £6.93   

            Computer purchased on behalf of the group  £42.00               

                                                                  Total   £48.93

            A statement is required by the CVS by the end of June.

5.         Membership

Sandra Cunningham agreed to be the Membership Secretary.

The group needs to be able to offer members something, like discounts from for an example Clarke and Partners, as an incentive to encourage members to join the group.   When we have the AGM in June it may be possible to ask someone like Clarke and Partners to sponsor it by providing refreshments.

Subscriptions for the group were also discussed and a payment of £10 per annum was thought to be a reasonable amount.   It was also suggested that before committing to this allow people to come to two or three meetings before making up their minds whether or not they wished to become members.  Also how regularly meetings should be held, it was suggested that the committee meets once a month and membership meetings to be held every three weeks and also there should be a social side to the group.    

At these meetings we would have alternate functions such as coffee mornings every three weeks, and every two months speakers on various subjects such as Benefits, Aromatherapy, Physiotherapists, Citizen Advice Bureau, Dietician and Chiropody.    Sandra said she had a friend who was a Chiropodist and would speak to her about coming to some of our meetings and perhaps offering discounts to our members for her services.  

Write to Janet Braithwaite and Pauline Eales to see if they are  interested in coming to the meetings, and send them a copy of the minutes.

6.                   A.O.B

We need to find a suitable venue for our meetings, there were a number of  suggestions made by members of the committee, Sandra is making enquires around her area for a possible venue.

If we receive confirmation from Dr Searle accepting the position as Patron of the group, we then need to ask him if he could be available to attend the first AGM of the group in June.

7.                   Date of Next Meeting

It was agreed that the next meeting be held on Tuesday 9 April 2002, at The Guinness Trust, Community Room, 1 Sidney Street Derby.