1. Update from the
President: Professor Dinesh Bhugra reflects on his first
month
2. Working at the CAMHS/adult
interface: good practice guidance for the provision of psychiatric
services to adolescents/young adults
3. Mental health survey of
MPs, Lords and Westminster staff: MPs forced to hide mental health
problems
4. Ivan Lewis announces
appointment of Anne Williams as new National Director for Learning
Disabilities
5. Oxford team wins NHS
health and social care award
6. Developing the
curriculum for the new role of medical examiners
7. Regulations and
assessor training
8. What's
new
1. Update from the
President: Professor Dinesh Bhugra reflects on his first month
The summer is traditionally a time for
holidays and taking a well-earned rest – but the first few weeks of
my presidency have been extremely busy.
The Central Executive Committee, in its July
meeting, approved three new College leads: on Care Pathways,
Disaster Preparedness and Public Mental Health. The interviews for
the first two leads are being held soon. We have had tremendous
interest in these posts and we hope to make good appointments.
We are setting up a Fair Deal Campaign
steering group to oversee and co-ordinate the separate projects
that will address each of the campaign’s eight priorities. I hope
to announce the names of the chair and members of the group
shortly.
The Fair Deal
campaign will only succeed with full support from all
of the College divisions, and I am excited about the opportunities
for members to get involved. We will be inviting the divisions to
submit proposals for local projects that can feed in to the
national campaign, and I look forward to hearing your ideas.
I believe that the College’s strength lies in
its membership. One of my top priorities is to ensure the College
remains relevant to its members by rewarding excellence. That is
why we have decided next year to hold an annual Awards
Ceremony to recognise excellence and acknowledge best practice
within psychiatry.
I hope that the prestigious ceremony will
highlight the achievements of members, boost morale among the
profession, and raise the profile of psychiatry among the
public.
There will be eight awards, including
Psychiatric Team of the Year, Psychiatrist of the Year (voted for
by patients and carers), Academic of the Year, Public Educator of
the Year, two Trainee awards and a Lifetime Achievement award. More
details – including how to nominate yourself or a colleague for an
award - will follow soon.
Another priority is to build stronger links
between the College and other stakeholders. In the last few weeks,
I have attended meetings with the NHS Confederation, CEOs and
Medical Directors of three regions, the Care Services Improvement
Partnership (CSIP), the lead for Delivering Race Equality in Mental
Health Care (DRE), the MMC Programme Board, the National
Clinical Assessment Service (NCAS), and various MPs including Anne
Milton, Conservative lead on mental health, Lynne Jones, chair of
the All Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health, and Liberal
Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb.
Strength lies in numbers, which is why I am
also exploring new approaches to joint working with other medical
royal colleges. I have already had several meetings with the RCGPs.
I hope we will see greater collaboration with them in future,
including more opportunities for joint statements on NHS reforms
and mental health issues, and joint papers on the link between
mental health and physical illness.
Throughout the autumn I will continue to
travel around the country, attending various divisional, faculty
and special interest group events. I look forward to meeting more
of you over the coming months. Meanwhile feel free to let me know
your concerns, your ideas and suggestions for improving psychiatric
health care. I will be delighted to visit and meet with
psychiatrists in your local areas. Email: patopresident@rcpsych.ac.uk
2.
Working at the CAMHS/adult interface: good practice guidance for
the provision of psychiatric services to adolescents/young
adults
The Child and Adolescent and
General and Community Faculties have prepared a joint paper
which lays out good practice guidelines for psychiatrists
working at the interface between CAMHS and adult mental health
services.
The report, Working
at the CAMHS/adult interface: good practice guidance for the
provision of psychiatric services to adolescents/young
adults, acknowledges the lack of clarity in the
UK about where CAMHS ends and adult services begin – a
problem that results in service gaps and considerable unmet need.
The report’s authors (Drs Clare Lamb, David Hall, Raphael
Kelvin and Michael van Beinum) argue there is a need for improved
provision of developmentally appropriate mental health services to
those over 16-years-old, and planned arrangements and programmes
for transition of care from child to adult services.
The report recommends:
- local CAMHS and adult services agree on
arrangements for the transfer of care to adult mental health of
young people with severe mental disorder (schizophrenia and related
psychoses, bipolar disorder, severe OCD, severe depressive
disorder, severe or chronic eating disorder);
- protocols are written for the transfer of
care of young people who are in treatment with children’s mental
health services and are within certain diagnostic groups (ADHD,
autistic spectrum disorder, emerging borderline personality
disorder, mild to moderate learning disability, psychological
sequelae of chronic physical illness or abusive experiences);
- local CAMHS and adult mental health services
agree pathways of care and treatment protocols for self-harm and
emergency presentations to A&E departments;
- When admission to an adult unit is
unavoidable, it should be short term only and guided by a
CAMHS/Adult shared protocol of care.
Adult and child and adolescent psychiatrists
must work more closely together, with ongoing dialogue and joint
training events at both a local and national level. Providers
should also work with commissioners of services to ensure resources
are made available for young service users
3.
Mental health survey of MPs, Lords and Westminster staff:
MPs forced to hide mental health problems
A new survey of MPs, Lords and staff published
in July provides an insight into the kinds of mental health
problems they face and their fear of being found out. The report,
produced by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health,
with the support from the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the
mental health charities Mind, Rethink and Stand to Reason, reflects
concerns that it is still difficult to talk about mental health
issues especially for those in the public eye.
An anonymous questionnaire was completed by 94
MPs, 100 Lords and 151 parliamentary staff found:
- 27% had personal experience of a mental
health problem including 19% of MPs, 17% of Peers, 45% of
staff
- 94% had family or friends who have
experienced a mental health problem
- 86% of MPs said their job was
stressful
- 1 in 3 said work-based stigma and the
expectation of a hostile reaction from the media and public
prevented them from being open about mental health issues.
The report is critical of the law forcing MPs
to give up their seat for life if they are sectioned under the
Mental Health Act for six months. By comparison, if an MP is
physically incapable of working for six months due to a serious
illness, he or she would not be forced to stand down. The
majority of MPs who responded thought this rule was discriminatory
and needs to be changed.
The joint chairs of the All Party
Parliamentary Group on Mental Health, Lynne Jones MP, Tim Loughton
MP and Sandra Gidley MP, unanimously agreed that the perception
that an MP would damage their career by being open about an
experience of mental distress needs challenging.
Despite significant numbers of people working
in Parliament experiencing mental distress, over half of MPs did
not think they had sufficient understanding of the Disability
Discrimination Act to make reasonable adjustments for a staff
member with a mental health problem and only 17% had received
any mental health awareness training.
The All Party Parliamentary Group on Mental
Health's recommendations include:
- the urgent need to repeal laws that prevent
people with experience of mental health problems from standing for
Parliament
- a review of laws that force MPs to
automatically lose their seat if sectioned under the Mental Health
Act for six months
- encouraging MPs and Peers to be more open
about their experiences of mental health problems and to introduce
a protocol that would support individuals to be transparent about
dealing with mental health issues in public life
- ensuring that MPs, Peers and staff have the
opportunity to undertake mental health awareness training
- ensuring that the health check offered to MPs
includes a discussion with a relevantly trained clinician on mental
health issues.
4.
Ivan Lewis announces appointment of Anne Williams as new National
Director for Learning Disabilities
On 5th August, Ivan Lewis announced
the appointment of Anne Williams as the new National Director for
Learning Disabilities at the Department of Health. Her
responsibilities will include driving forward delivery of policies
to make sure people with learning disabilities are treated as equal
citizens in their communities, in healthcare and beyond. She will
also oversee the next stage of the cross-Government 'Valuing People
Now' strategy, for publication later this year, as well as the
implementation of the strategy.
Anne said: "I have a longstanding commitment
to people with learning disabilities and their families. I am
especially keen to see that every person benefits from the
developments that will be outlined in the strategy, particularly
those with profound and complex disabilities and those whose
behaviour challenges services."
Anne Williams is the current Strategic
Director of Salford City Council and Immediate Past President of
the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services
(ADASS).
5.
Oxford team wins NHS health and social care award
The team's innovative approach to improving
care for people with bipolar disorder was recognised during an
event at Wembley stadium held as part of the NHS 60th birthday
celebrations in July.
The project, which scooped the 'NHS Live'
award, is a collaboration between the Department of Psychiatry at
the University of Oxford and Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire
Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. The team worked together to
come up with a text messaging system for people with bipolar
disorder that would enable them to monitor their own condition and
keep GPs up-to-date with how they're feeling.
'I am delighted that our project has been
selected from so many for the NHS Live award,' said Professor John
Geddes of Oxford University. 'We believe our text messaging system
is a great way of improving support for those with bipolar disorder
and it allows them to take much more control of the way they live
with their condition. We’ve created something that can really make
a difference to the way care is provided.’
6.
Developing the curriculum for the new role of medical
examiners
Professor Peter Furness, President elect of
the Royal College of Pathologist, is chairing a group which is
devising the curriculum for the new role of Medical Examiners.
These doctors will have the task of ensuring that referrals to the
Coroner are as well founded as possible.
The Group is asking for examples from different areas of
medicine and from coroners of recent decisions on referrals that
they have had to make or advise on. Dame Lesley Southgate is
collecting examples from mental health.
Please send any information to her at l.southga@sgul.ac.uk or
lisabennet@dial.pipex.com or
contact her on tel: 020 8725 0816 (messages via St Georges)
fax 01920 870116.
The Mental Capacity (Deprivation of Liberty: Standard
Authorisations, Assessments and Ordinary Residence) Regulations
2008 and The Mental Capacity (Deprivation of Liberty: Appointment
of Relevant Person's Representative) Regulations 2008 come into
force on 3 November 2008.
8. What's
new