College news
1. Become a Friend of the
College Archives (FOCA)
2. Review of the Annual
Meeting 2009
3. New College report claims
'slow progress' in improving mental health services for BME older
people
4. Equality Bill - Update on
Section 141 of the Mental Health Act
5. Practice direction for
tribunal reports
6. New information leaflet -
My smoking, my mental health, my body
7. New books from RCPsych
Publications
Other news
8. Starter grants of up to
£30,000 for clinical lecturers
9. A guide to finance for
hospital doctors
10. 'Significant barriers'
prevent patients accessing exercise on
prescription
11. Depression 'costing
economy £8.6bn a year'
12. What's new
online?
1. Become a Friend of the College Archives (FOCA)
A new group has been established to support
the College in the preservation, promotion and use of its
historical archive, and to generate greater interest in the history
of the College and of psychiatry more widely. Membership of the
Friends of the College Archives (FOCA) is open to all College
members. Non-members may also join with a College member’s support.
FOCA members will benefit from:
- Newsletter by post, three times a year.
- One meeting a year at the College, usually in
connection with a display or presentation.
- A history session at the Annual Meeting.
- Annual visit to a site of historical interest
such as an old asylum.
- Encouragement of history projects relating to
psychiatry.
Membership costs £25 per year. To join, please
contact the
Archivist. Telephone: 0207 235 2351 Ext 169.
Francis Maunze, Archivist
Dr Fiona Subotsky, Honorary
Archivist
2. Review of the Annual Meeting 2009
The highly successful Liverpool conference
attracted 1,200 delegates from all over the world. The conference
provided ample opportunity for networking, to hear about the latest
developments in psychiatry and to update existing skills. We are
delighted to report that feedback has shown 100% of delegates found
their overall experience excellent or good. Delegates said:
- “Probably the best I’ve attended”
- “Stimulating, challenging material and
good networking opportunities”
- “The venue was perfect, lectures very
high quality”
- “Quality of the presentations – first
rate”
- “Superb conference. The best I’ve been
to for years”
- “A high point of psychiatry”
Audio recordings from the conference
are available. Please complete
this form if you wish to purchase the conference
recordings.
Date for your diary: Annual Meeting of the
Royal College of Psychiatrists, Edinburgh,
21 – 24 June 2010
Sonia Walter, Conference Manager
3. New College report claims ‘slow progress’ in improving
mental health services for black and minority ethnic older
people
Little progress has been made in improving
mental health services for black and minority ethnic (BME) older
people over the last eight years, according to a revised College
Report. CR156, Review of the College Report 103: Psychiatric
Services for Black and Minority Ethnic Older People, examines
what changes have occurred in services offered to BME older people
since the College’s original report was published in 2001. Although
a few examples of good practice have emerged, the 2009 report
claims progress in developing and improving services “has been
slow”.
Professor Ajit Shah and Dr Simon Adelman, the
authors of the report, said: “With a growing BME elderly
population, the time is now right to build on previous work to
further develop culturally appropriate and sensitive mental health
services for older people from BME groups.”
The report makes six major new
recommendations, including:
- Projects to evaluate the effectiveness of
professional interpretation services and new ways of providing
information to BME older people e.g. cassettes, CDs, videos and
DVDs.
- Funding to develop diagnostic tools for
dementia and depression in languages spoken by BME older people
that can be administered by an English-speaking mental health
practitioner with the aid of a professional interpreter.
- Widening the existing annual census of
psychiatric services to examine BME older people’s access to
services in all settings, including in the community.
- Establishing a new RCPsych working group, as
part of the College’s Old Age Psychiatry Faculty, to address this
neglected area.
4. Equality Bill – Update on Section 141 of the Mental Health
Act
In July 2008, the College worked with the
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health (APPGMH) to produce
Mental Health in Parliament, a report based on a survey of
MPs, Peers and their staff on their experience and knowledge of
mental health. The report found that one in five MPs surveyed has
had an experience of a mental health problem but fears disclosing
this because of the stigma and discrimination associated with
mental health problems.
Mental Health in Parliament highlighted one significant
area where the law discriminates against mental health in
Parliament, Section 141 of the Mental Health Act. Under these
provisions an MP automatically loses his or her seat in Parliament
if detained under the Mental Health Act for a period of more than
six months. There are no similar provisions for physical illnesses,
nor for someone detained under the Mental Capacity Act.
Over the past year, the College has been working with the APPGMH
and other mental health organisations to campaign on this issue in
Parliament. Dr Tony Zigmond, the College lead on mental health law
reform, recently gave
evidence to the
Speaker's Conference on Parliamentary Representation, and we
have been working with Parliamentarians to see if an amendment can
be made to the Equality Bill to remove the discriminatory
provisions. Mark Harper MP, the Conservative disability spokesman,
tabled an amendment which was
debated in the Commons, and also kept the pressure on the
Government by asking a
Prime Minister’s Question on the issue.
The Prime Minister and Solicitor General have
both said in Parliament that they will look at the issue. In 2004,
the Government planned to repeal Section 141 in the Mental Health
Bill, but the later version of the Bill in 2007 did not contain the
provision to do so. We will continue to pursue the issue with
Government and civil servants. You can read the
briefing on Section 141 and more
on the Equality Bill on the College website.
Neil Balmer, Public Affairs
Manager
5. Practice direction for tribunal reports
The Royal College of Psychiatrists recently
met with members of the Tribunals Judiciary to discuss issues
around reports for First Tier Mental Health Tribunals. The
Tribunals Judiciary is calling for greater consistency in the
style, quality and content of clinicians’ reports across the
country and the College is offering assistance in promoting
improvements.
Practice Direction outlines the requirements for
clinicians’ reports submitted for a tribunal.
Clinicians’ reports must contain an up-to-date
clinical report with the current information relevant to the
detention criteria. The report must describe the patient’s relevant
medical history but long extracts from previous medical records
should be avoided. It must be written or countersigned by the
patient’s responsible clinician.
It is a legal requirement for clinicians to
submit reports within three weeks from the date of receipt. Delays
in submission of a clinician’s report can result in Tribunal
adjournment. The Tribunals Judiciary has advised the College it
will consider issuing subpoenas if reports are not received on
time. The College and the Tribunals Judiciary will continue to work
together in order to improve the quality and consistency of reports
and further guidance from the College will be forthcoming.
Katie Gray, Policy
Analyst
6. New information leaflet – My smoking, my mental health, my
body
The College’s Public Education Editorial Board
has published a new public information leaflet,
My Smoking, my mental health, my body. The leaflet is for
anyone who has a mental health problem and is worried – or just
curious – about how smoking affects your body and your mental
health and how to stop smoking. The leaflet was written by Drs
Jonathan Campion and Ken Checinski from St George’s, University of
London.
7. New books from RCPsych Publications
Emergency Department Handbook: Children and Adolescents with Mental
Health Problems - edited by Tony Kaplan.
Everything a practitioner needs to know about
dealing with young people who present in an emergency department
with mental health problems. It includes examples of clinical
problems and what to do about them.
Spirituality and Psychiatry - edited by Chris Cook, Andrew
Powell and Andrew Sims.
Spirituality is a crucial but sometimes
overlooked aspect of mental well-being and psychiatric care. This
evidence-based text explores the nature of spirituality, its
relationship to religion, and the reasons for its importance in
clinical practice.
Other news
8. Starter grants of up to £30,000 for clinical lecturers
The Academy of Medical Sciences, in
collaboration with the Wellcome Trust, is running a £5 million
grant programme for
research-active clinical lecturers. The scheme will provide
‘starter’ funds to enable research active clinical lecturers to
pursue their research work, gather preliminary data and strengthen
their applications for longer-term fellowships and funding. The
maximum grant available is £30,000 and the deadline for
applications is 1 September 2009.
9. A guide to finance in the NHS for hospital doctors
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges (AOMRC)
and the Audit Commission have jointly published a short, practical
manual to help hospital doctors get to grips with the way money
works in the NHS. They hope that by understanding how money flows
and some of the principles of financial management in the NHS,
hospital doctors will be able to deliver better patient care. The
manual,
A Guide to Finance for Hospital Doctors, explains Trust
finance regimes, budget management, and how to make the best use of
the money available. Watch a video of Professor Dame Carol Black,
chair of the AOMRC, and Andy McKeon, managing director for health
at the Audit Commission, discussing the guide and the importance of
clinical engagement in financial management on the
Audit Commission website.
10. ‘Significant barriers’ prevent patients accessing exercise
on prescription
A recent report from the Mental Health
Foundation claims there are still significant barriers preventing
patients with mild or moderate depression from accessing exercise
on prescription.
Moving on Up, published in June 2009, evaluated how
exercise referrals had worked in five pilot sites: Bedfordshire,
Camden, Northamptonshire, Cambridge and Wirral. Although the scheme
brought many positive outcomes for people, barriers included
budgetary constraints, delays in the time between referral and
assessment, and limited knowledge about the scheme among referrers.
The report makes a series of recommendations for the commissioners,
providers and users of exercise referral schemes.
11. Depression ‘costing economy £8.6bn a year’
The Liberal Democrats claim depression is
costing the economy £8.6bn a year – a rise of £3 billion since
1999. The Research Service of the House of Commons Library
calculated
the figures by multiplying average earnings by the number of
people who are out of work and claim benefits (Incapacity Benefit
and Severe Disability Allowance) due to depression.
Liberal Democrat MP Jo Swinson, who chairs the All-Party
Parliamentary Group on Wellbeing, said: “This is shocking evidence
of the dramatic scale of the cost of depression in this country.
More Government focus on mental health and wellbeing makes economic
sense. Measures to tackle workplace stress, encourage responsible
lending and keeping people in work would benefit us all. Ministers
can no longer allow mental health care to be a Cinderella
service.”
12. What’s new online?