New app boosts the mental well-being of beleaguered staff, and helps them to combat burnout and stress
ShinyMind is the only mental health and well-being app co-created, developed and tested in partnership with NHS employees at all levels. The new nursing version provides more than 150 resources, tools and exercises to support well-being. To read the full article, choose Open Athens “Institutional Login” and search for “Midlands Partnership”.
(1) To review the literature on the use of technology to provide emotional and social support to nurses; (2) to identify and evaluate gaps in the research; (3) to assess whether a systematic review would be valuable and (4) to make recommendations for future research.
Public Health England (PHE) encourages everyone to ‘be tick aware’.
Watch PHE’s tick awareness video to find out all about ticks and their public health importance.
Henry Aughterson on a study of longitudinal associations between short-term, repeated & sustained arts engagement and well-being outcomes in older adults.
Social support is also important for health, especially when recovering from an illness. A dog provides companionship and may be a way of getting to know other dog owners in the neighbourhood.
However, the studies do not prove that dog ownership has a direct effect on health, only that it seems to be linked to longer life. While people who enjoy the company of dogs may benefit from exercise and companionship, the study does not show that people who are happily social and active without dogs should get one.
Are you one of the people across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent who needs to make sure they're not giving flu a chance this winter?
As autumn hits, GP surgeries and pharmacies are getting ready to make sure people are vaccinated against flu. The Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), the organisations responsible for the planning and buying of health services, want to make sure those most at risk, are protected.
Even if there is a direct link between breastfeeding and food allergies, the small risk is likely to be outweighed by the many other benefits of breastfeeding. These include a reduced risk of your baby getting an infection while lowering your own risk of certain cancers, such as breast cancer.
If you ever daydream about retirement, what do you picture? Lie-ins, instead of being woken by an alarm? Walks on a beach, in place of the morning commute? More time for beloved hobbies? Or perhaps endless open, solitary days, with nothing much to do…?
Retirement is what psychologists term a “major life transition”. As such, it’s regarded as a stressor that carries risks as well as potential rewards. Now that the number of retirees in many countries is soaring, so too is the number of studies into whether retirement is good for your mental and physical health — or not. This work certainly suggests that it can be, but there are a few warnings lurking in the results, too.
Study had significant limitations. Overall, despite this study's limitations, we know that getting enough sleep is important for our health. There are relatively simple steps people can take to improve their sleep, such as reducing caffeine and alcohol intake and doing more exercise. For people who have sleep problems that persist despite trying these things, or who are worried about their sleep, they should talk to a GP.