The UK government has announced a summit focused on tackling problem drug use that will bring together a variety of experts from across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The announcement was made by Minister for Crime, Policing and the Fire Service Kit Malthouse today at a meeting of the Scottish Affairs Select Committee. The summit will be held in Glasgow, and the intention is for it to take place before Christmas. It will provide an update on Dame Carol Black’s review of drugs, which is due to report later this year.
PHE is working in partnership with the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland governments, to produce UK-wide clinical guidelines for alcohol treatment to provide support for alcohol treatment practice.
Funding awarded to 6 projects to test models that improve access to health services for people with both mental ill health and drug and alcohol dependency needs.
NHS chief Simon Stevens has today (Thursday October 10th) announced that a new taskforce will be set up to improve current specialist children and young people’s inpatient mental health, autism and learning disability services in England.
Towns with high rates of homelessness are set for investment in specialist mental health care, as part of NHS services for rough sleepers across the country.
The NHS-funded services in seven parts of the country will bring in new psychiatrists, psychologists and other experts to offer homeless people advice and treatment to tackle underlying mental ill health.
The two NHS trusts providing community mental health, physical health and learning disability services in Gloucestershire are set to merge.
Plans to join both Gloucestershire Care Services NHS Trust and 2gether NHS Foundation Trust were first announced in September 2017. Since then, the Trusts have been working with NHS Improvement (NHSI) and other partners on the formal process to merge.
People whose homes are damaged by storms or flooding are significantly more likely to experience mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, according to new research.
Pupils struggling with mental health are to benefit from more joined up care and support across schools, colleges and specialist NHS services, in a national roll out of a £9.3 million training scheme.
Every school, college and alternative provision will be offered training through a series of workshops as part of the Link Programme, with the most appropriate member of staff from each put forward to take part alongside mental health specialists. This is designed to improve partnerships with professional NHS mental health services, raise awareness of mental health concerns and improve referrals to specialist help when needed.
he Chair of the UK Parliament’s Human Rights Committee, Harriet Harman MP, has written to the Chief Executive of NHS England, Simon Stevens, with questions about the roles and responsibilities of its Commissioners for St Andrews and Whorlton Hall, two institutions for people with learning disabilities and autism recently closed or put in special measures.
A new partnership between the Trust and West Yorkshire Police is helping support staff and service users on adult mental health inpatient wards at Fieldhead.
The work is aimed at tackling challenging behaviour by people in our care which poses a risk to others in the most appropriate way. For example, police officers will come and talk to a person at the early stages in a pattern of behaviour to stop things escalating.
In a report on NHS care for patients with eating disorders, PACAC finds that there is a lack of understanding of eating disorders among doctors which is resulting in too many avoidable deaths.
Existing advice from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) – which provides national guidance to improve health and social care in England – suggests most people should be able to come off antidepressants over four weeks.
However, it is increasingly apparent from the experiences shared by some patients and clinicians, including GPs, that some patients can suffer from more severe symptoms that can last much longer. This may affect those who have been prescribed antidepressants over a long period and who have stopped their use too quickly.
The prosecution follows an incident in May 2016 when Sophie Bennett, 19, took her own life in Lancaster Lodge in Richmond, west London.
By law, registered providers of health and social care services must take all reasonable steps and exercise all due diligence to ensure patients receive safe care and treatment.
More than 50,000 people have taken charge of their own care after being handed control of how their NHS funding is spent.
Personal Health Budgets can be used to purchase personalised wheelchairs, assistance dogs and respite care to manage complex health problems, as well as tech devices that can control curtains, lighting, heating and door intercoms to help people live independent lives.
The rollout of the Budgets across the country is two years ahead of scheme and being ramped up further as part of the NHS Long Term Plan.
New figures published today by NHS England and Improvement show 54,143 people with long-term health problems, including disabled people and those with long-term physical and mental health conditions, are currently benefiting from them.
The Care Quality Commission’s Chief Executive, Ian Trenholm and Dr Paul Lelliott, Deputy Chief Inspector (Mental Health) will give evidence to the UK Parliament Human Rights Committee in early June.
Adults who are sleeping rough and living with mental illness and substance misuse will benefit from £1.9 million funding to improve their access to vital healthcare.
Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, is today publishing a new report, ‘Far less than they deserve: Children with learning disabilities or autism living in mental health hospitals’. The report shows how too many children are being admitted to secure hospitals unnecessarily – in some cases are spending months and years of their childhood in institutions when they should be in their community. It warns that the current system of support for those with learning disabilities or autism is letting down some of the most vulnerable children in the country.
This publication gives an overview of the work the RCN is doing to address the mortality gap between people with serious mental illness and the rest of the population as well as our work towards establishing parity of esteem between mental and physical health.
This report provides examples of the local changes that have been made to services so far and highlights the extensive work which is happening nationally in response to common themes raised through LeDeR reviews across the country.
The NHS has today announced that an additional £5 million will fund reviews to improve care for people with a learning disability and committed to renewed national action to tackle serious conditions.
The world’s first programme to review the deaths of everyone with a learning disability is being expanded to speed up the spread of best practice.
Thousands more reviews will be carried out over the next 12 months, driving local improvements to help save and improve lives.
The Chair of the UK Parliament Human Rights Committee, Harriet Harman MP writes to the Health Secretary Matt Hancock MP regarding abuse towards vulnerable adults at a hospital in County Durham.
Primary care services can help people at risk of suicide before they reach crisis point if they are given the right support, according to research published today by Centre for Mental Health and Samaritans.
England’s top doctor has today welcomed extra safety checks that will be introduced by those offering cosmetic procedures to protect people with mental health problems.NHS national medical director, Professor Stephen Powis, recently raised concerns about the links between young people’s mental health, high street botox sales and celebrity endorsements of quick-fix diet pills peddled on social media.After meeting with NHS England, trade body the Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners has agreed that all its members will be expected to use safeguards to prevent vulnerable people from exploitation.That will include training staff to spot the signs of mental ill health in customers, and refer them to relevant NHS services.
England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated the services run by Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust as Good, following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
CQC carried out an inspection at the trust during October and December 2018, overall the trust has maintained its rating of Good. In respect of safe, effectiveness, responsiveness and caring, the trust has been rated as Good. In respect of well led the trust have been rated as Outstanding. This is an improvement on their last inspection, March 2017, when safety was rated as Requires Improvement.
Improving the way people travel and their experience at rail stations, airports and on roads, could play a significant role in improving their mental wellbeing, a new study commissioned by London City Airport reveals. The report also provides new estimates of the cost of poor mental health in different parts of England.
NHS England has announced a major expansion of a landmark scheme designed to help tens of thousands of patients with serious mental health problems who want to work, to find employment.
The voluntary scheme, known as Individual Placement and Support (IPS), is being rolled out to 28 new local NHS areas, meaning eight out of ten parts of England will have access to the programme.
Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, is today (Wednesday) publishing a report looking at the amount spent on “low-level” mental health support for children in England. “Low-level” mental health services are preventative and early intervention services for treating problems like anxiety and depression or eating disorders, such as support provided by school nurses or counsellors, drop-in centres or online counselling services. These services are vital for offering early help to children suffering from mental health problems and can often prevent conditions developing into much more serious illnesses.
Led by the University of York’s Mental Health and Addiction Research Group, SCIMITAR+ is the largest ever trial to support smoking cessation among people who use mental health services.
Smoking rates among people with mental health conditions are among the highest of any group having changed little over the last 20 years, while other smokers have quit. This new study demonstrates that with the right support this inequality could be a thing of the past.
New and expectant mothers across the country can now access specialist mental health care in the area where they live, NHS England announced today.
The landmark rollout of specialist perinatal community services across the whole of England, means that mums and mums-to-be who are experiencing anxiety, depression or other forms of mental ill health should be able to access high quality care much closer to home.
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Based on data from Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey. Nearly half of people in problem debt also have a MH problem. People with OCD nearly six times more likely to be in problem debt than people without a MH problem.
Four in five (80%) of the UK public believe tighter regulation is needed to address the impact of social media on the health and wellbeing of young people.
Almost two thirds (63%) of young people reported social media to be a good source of health information.
Patient care in England would be improved if more mental health services were given access to significant levels of dedicated funding to support digital innovation.
That is one of the recommendations made in Using digital technology to design and deliver better mental health services, published today by Rebecca Cotton, director of policy at the Mental Health Network, the voice for NHS-funded mental health and learning disability service providers in England.
Brexit has major implications for health and social care in England. Here we look at some of the latest developments that could impact the health and care system in England.
A “world-class centre for the treatment of mental injuries” suffered by Service personnel should be established in the next 12-18 months, says a new Report by the House of Commons Defence Committee, if veterans and their families are to receive the provision and support promised in the Armed Forces Covenant.
The Education Secretary, Damian Hinds, made a statement to the House of Commons today, outlining new guidance meant to "help young people build resilience in an ever more complex world".
The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) annual report on the use of the Mental Health Act (MHA) looks at how providers are caring for patients, and whether patients’ rights are being protected.
To inform the report, CQC carries out visits to check how mental health services are providing medical treatment to people detained under the MHA and are supporting patients to recover.
A new report by the Health Foundation highlights that NHS staff numbers are failing to keep pace with demand and that there is ongoing deterioration in workforce numbers in critical areas such as primary and community care, nursing and mental health.
In October, the Home Secretary announced that there would be a major independent review of drug misuse, building on the work under way since the government’s drug strategy was published in 2017.
Professor Dame Carol Black has been asked by the government to lead the review which will look at a wide range of issues, including the system of support and enforcement around drug misuse, in order to inform the consideration of what more can be done to tackle drug harms.
Hundreds of genes have been newly linked to depression, shedding light on the origins of the condition and highlighting personality types that could be at risk.
The international study, involving more than two million people, is the largest of its kind. It could inform treatments for the condition, which affects one in five people in the UK and is the leading cause of disability worldwide.
The Science and Technology Committee has concluded that social media companies must be subject to a legal duty of care to help protect young people’s health and wellbeing when accessing their sites.
People who are mentally ill are 2.4 times more likely than claimants with non-psychiatric conditions to lose their existing benefits following a Personal Independence Payment (PIP) eligibility assessment, research has found.
These are aggregated data on key health issues for people who are recorded by their GP as having a learning disability, and comparative data about a control group who are not recorded by their GP as having a learning disability.
Superdrug will introduce new mental health checks for customers who want to undergo cosmetic procedures, after England’s top doctor called on the beauty chain and other providers to do more to protect people against body image pressures.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights takes evidence from the NHS and the Care Quality Commission for their inquiry into the conditions in learning disability inpatient units.
The government has published the first cross-government suicide prevention plan. The plan has a focus on how social media and the latest technology, such as predictive analytics and artificial intelligence, can identify those at risk of suicide.
The fourth progress report of the suicide prevention strategy for England details what has been done to reduce deaths by suicide since the third progress report, published in January 2017.
This is an ambitious plan that includes a number of commitments which – if delivered – will improve the lives of many people. NHS leaders should be applauded for focusing on improving services outside hospitals and moving towards more joined-up, preventative and personalised care for patients. But some significant pieces of the jigsaw are still missing, and there should be no illusions about the scale of the challenge ahead.
The NHS Long Term Plan has been launched and long it indeed is, in every sense of the word, clocking in at a weighty 120 pages. Here’s my take on the top five things you need to know.
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West London NHS Trust has been rated Good overall by the Care Quality Commission.
The trust, which was formerly known as West London Mental Health Trust, was rated Outstanding for being caring, Good for being effective, responsive and well-led, and Requires Improvement for being safe, during the inspection which took place on dates between August and October 2018.
West London NHS Trust provides mental health and an increasing range of community healthcare services in west London and Berkshire.
The Chief Inspector of Hospitals has told Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust that it must make further improvements following its latest inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
Eight out of ten NHS trust finance directors say that funding pressures have led to longer waiting times for people who need mental health treatment, according to The King’s Fund’s latest quarterly monitoring report.
A total of £21.9m has been allocated for the development of a health and care campus on the Outwoods site at Queen’s Hospital in Burton. In addition, £1.6m has been approved to develop a mental health crisis care centre and detoxification suite at Harplands Hospital in North Staffordshire, as well as four crisis cafes in the county.
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The Women’s Mental Health Taskforce was formed in response to a rise in mental ill health among women.
The taskforce’s final report sets out how women’s experience of mental ill health can differ to men’s.
Taking part in regular physical activity is linked to a more positive outlook on general health in people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, according to a new report.
Examines the potential impact on protected groups of the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to replace current legislation with Liberty Protection Safeguards.
Thousands of Londoners experiencing a mental health crisis will be sent a specialist nurse and a paramedic in a car on blue lights.
By responding together, the specialist ambulance crew is expected to reduce mental health hospital admissions from 58,000 to 30,000 per year once it is rolled out across the capital.
As part of its inquiry into detention, the Joint Committee on Human Rights will hold two evidence sessions about the treatment of people with learning disabilities and autism in Assessment and Treatment Units (ATUs) and other inpatient units.
The Joint Committee on Human Rights hears from people with learning disabilities who have been detained, and from family members of people with autism who have been detained.
A highly innovative children’s hospital for the east of England has been given the go ahead today by Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
Up to £100 million of public capital has been made available for a completely new facility that is purpose-built to meet the needs of the region’s youngest patients. It will integrate mental and physical health and provide the highest quality services with ground breaking science and research.
Built on land adjacent to Addenbrooke’s Hospital and The Rosie Hospitals in Cambridge, the children’s hospital will bring together some of the world’s top scientists to explore new ways of diagnosing and treating some of the most challenging diseases of childhood.
The Independent Review of the Mental Health Act 1983 has set out recommendations for government on how the Act and associated practice needs to change.
One in eight (12.8%) of children and young people aged between five and 19, surveyed in England in 2017, had a mental disorder1 according to a major new report which provides England’s best source of data on trends in child mental health.