About us

The Independent Newham Users Forum INUF has formally operated in Newham since April 1998.

The establishment of a Newham-based Users' Forum was helped by Newham Community Health Council (NCHC) who obtained funding from Newham Social Services (LBNSS) and the East London and City Health Authority (ELCHA) to improve communication involvement with mental health service users/survivors.

During 1997 a user led consultancy team was commissioned by the NCHC to establish a network of mental health service users and providers.

The consultancy group consisted of a team of experienced trainers and mental health service consultants from Nottingham who were both service users and non-service users.

To create the foundations of the Forum a questionnaire was distributed to find out what people with mental health support needs expected of a Users Forum in Newham. This was sent out, or distributed to as many service users as possible so that an overall picture could be gained of what the Forum should provide. Many people spoke of not having enough information about plans for services in Newham and East London and of wishing to be more involved in service developments.

The majority response from the questionnaire was that rather than becoming a direct provider of mental health services a User Forum should represent the interests of service users and for informing service providers, commissioners and mental health workers of service users' views in the Borough.

INUF Today and Plans For The Future

INUF has achieved a lot in a short amount of time and will continue to voice the issues of importance of service users in the future. INUF's aim is also to increase the involvement of as many service users/survivors as possible in its activities and how the Forum develops in the future. In order to do this we intend to continue to develop more ways in which we can gain the views of people with mental health support needs across Newham and East London.
This will ensure we are truly representing the views of our fellow service users in our work. It is vital that those people who currently use (or feel excluded from using) mental health services get their say on these services.