1. Seasons
greetings from the Editor of RCPsych news: Dr Ros Ramsay
2. 100,000 mental
health professionals to receive ‘debt first aid’ advice
3. Getting
It Right: RCPsych and leading health bodies unite to stop
discrimination against people with a learning disability in NHS
care
4. 'Making Every
Adult Matter': new campaign from Homeless Link, DrugScope, Clinks
and Mind
5. Support for
doctors with mental health concerns – Doctors’ Support Network
(DSN):
6. GMC appoints
Chair for UK Revalidation Programme Board
7. Scotland:
Concern over mentally ill inmates
8. National
Patient Safety Agency - Confidential health service opens for
doctors and dentists
9. Prisoners with
learning difficulties face discrimination: Report
10. Ed Balls
and Alan Johnson boost child mental health services
11. NHS
Partnership wins Forces Mental Health Treatment Contract
12. Ministers
back 'fit note' plans
13. Mental
health care call for ethnic minorities
14. What's
new?
1. Seasons greetings
from the Editor of RCPsych news: Dr Ros Ramsay
Welcome to the first College 2009
e-newsletter. The e-news started two years ago and we’d like
to hear from College members your views about it – what you like or
don’t like about the content and format. (We send the e-news
to all 8000 members for whom we have an email address and think it
gets through to about 7000 but we get little direct feedback – 1-2
emails every six months. We also know there are 3000 hits in the
first week)
Are we getting the right balance of news items
across different specialties and from different parts of the UK and
overseas? We’d also welcome any comments about the
format. What sort of changes should we look at
making? Please let us know your views so we can try and
develop the e-news to meet your needs.
Seasons greetings to you all from Deborah Hart
(Communications and Policy) and Dr Rosalind Ramsay (Editor).
2. 100,000
mental health professionals to receive ‘debt first aid’
advice
In response to the current economic crisis,
the College is sending health professionals special guidance on
supporting patients with debt and mental health problems.
The announcement about the guidance came on
the day that the Conservative Shadow Secretary of State for Health,
the Rt. Hon Andrew Lansley MP, delivered a speech about the impact
of the economic crisis on the mental health of the UK population at
the Mental Health Network conference in York.
Professor Dinesh Bhugra, President of the
Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “We welcome Mr Lansley's
recognition that the economic down-turn will impact on the UK's
mental health. All political action at this time is important.
Research and clinical experience tell us that the more debts people
have, the more likely they are to have a mental health problem.
Health and social care professionals are well placed to help their
patients during these difficult times.”
“The initiative we are launching today will
result in over 100,000 professionals receiving advice on supporting
patients with debt and mental health problems. This is an important
partnership between the College and the Financial Services
Authority.”
3. Getting It Right: RCPsych and
leading health bodies unite to stop discrimination against people
with a learning disability in NHS care
Leading health bodies, including the College, have joined forces
with Mencap to produce a best practice guide for health
professionals on improving healthcare for people with a learning
disability.
The health bodies, that represent over one
million health professionals in the UK, came together in response
to the publication of Mencap’s Death by Indifference
report. In the report, Mencap exposed the shocking deaths of six
people with a learning disability who had died unnecessarily in NHS
care.
Dr
Roger Banks, Vice President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists
and member of the Getting it Right coalition, said:
"Getting it Right is about getting clinicians to search
beyond the learning disability to find and alleviate the causes of
individual suffering."
An interactive website accompanies the guide -
www.mencap.org.uk/gettingitright
4.
'Making Every Adult Matter': new campaign from Homeless
Link, DrugScope, Clinks and Mind
A
new national campaign has been launched to
help support some of the most excluded and vulnerable people in
Britain. The initiative will seek to improve policy and service
provision for those adults with complex and multiple needs,
following the publication of recent research which shows that much
more needs to be done, as around 7 in 10 people seeking drug or
alcohol treatment experience mental health issues, and 13% of care
leavers are homeless by the age of 19.
Jenny Edwards, Chief Executive of Homeless
Link, commented: “This new coalition, Making Every Adult Matter,
bringing together frontline experience from across four sectors,
creates a powerful new voice for system and service change on
behalf of people who are on the margins of society. We will seek
recognition of the issue so people with multiple needs become
visible within local and national thinking. There is an
overwhelming business case to join together the services people
need far more effectively so that they can move forward in their
lives.”
5. Support for doctors with
mental health concerns – Doctors’ Support Network (DSN):
Dr Fiona Donnelly MBChB Dip Psych MRCPsych
Chair DSN
Email: chair@dsn.org.uk; f_donnelly@hotmail.com
Dr Angelika Luehrs MBBS MD MRCPsych
Vice Chair DSN
Email: groups@dsn.org.uk; angelika.luehrs@hotmail.co.uk
The Doctors’ Support Network (DSN)
www.dsn.org.uk was
founded in 1996 as a small self-help group for doctors with mental
health concerns. We are now a national charity with more than 500
members. We are a vulnerable group due to both the stigma
related to our illnesses and our status/registration as
doctors. To ensure confidentiality, we ask that full members
have been medical doctors at one point, and to ensure the
security of the organisation we ask for evidence of a medical
qualification. All enquiries regarding DSN are
confidential.
DSN aims to raise awareness of mental health
concerns and to encourage doctors to look after their mental health
and to seek help early. We have been campaigning to reduce the
stigma of mental illness and to improve working conditions with the
aim of preventing mental health problems. For example, we have been
at the BMJ Careers Fairs and College Annual Meeting and our details
are in the College Support Service Booklet. We contributed to the
DH document ‘Mental Health and Ill Health in Doctors’, and
took part in a panel discussion at the House of Commons on ‘Does
the professional community need care’. We have links with the GMC
and NCAS to support and improve the management of doctors with
mental health concerns.
We believe that contact with other doctors
can help our recovery. DSN is well placed to support those who
are beginning the slow process of re-establishing themselves after
a breakdown or other mental crisis. DSN is not group therapy, but
aims to complement other sources of support available to doctors.
The debate email forum facilitates the exchange of opinion etc and
has resulted in the publication of a book Doctors as
Patients. We also have a support email forum. There are
regular support meetings in Cardiff, York, and Bristol with London
meetings restarting in 2009. The bimonthly newsletter lists
forthcoming events such as regular social outings. We run the
Doctors’ Support Line (DSL), a confidential and anonymous peer
support helpline for doctors. Medical students have their own group
within DSN and a moderated email students’ support forum.
Email: secretary@dsn.org.uk; Tel:
0870321 0 642 (for information about DSN – please leave a message
and your call will be returned as soon as possible).
DSL: 0870 765 0001.
6. GMC appoints Chair
for UK Revalidation Programme Board
The GMC is pleased to announce the appointment
of Sir Michael Pitt as chair of the new UK Revalidation Programme
Board. Sir Michael is currently chair of the South West Strategic
Health Authority. The Board will oversee the delivery of the
revalidation process by the four countries of the UK. The board
will report directly to the GMC and include representatives from
the four administrations, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges,
the GMC, BMA and patient organisations as well as the NHS and other
healthcare providers. The first meeting is expected to take place
early in 2009.
The GMC plans to introduce licences to
practise in the autumn of 2009. Licensing will be the first step
towards the introduction of revalidation.
7. Scotland:
Concern over mentally ill inmates
Prison is inappropriate for people with severe
mental health problems, according to a report from Scotland's chief
inspector of prisons.
Dr Andrew McLellan said there were at least
315 prisoners in Scotland's jails who had a severe and enduring
mental illness, accounting for 4.5% of the prison population and
the number of inmates with such problems was rising.
The
chief inspector's report warned that imprisonment
could exacerbate the mental health problems of some prisoners. The
most common mental health problems among prisoners were
schizophrenia and bi-polar affective disorder. Dr McLellan pointed
to a "greater reliance on medication than would be desirable" and
the use of segregation cells despite some inmates claiming this
could make mental health problems worse. The report called for the
use of segregation units to be ended.
Dr McLellan said: "Prisoners with severe and
enduring mental health problems can cause problems for staff and
for other prisoners. They are resource-intensive, can cause
disruption, and lead to a charged atmosphere." He added that these
problems were "exacerbated by overcrowding" and that were still
some "gaps in the identification of mental health problems and
needs in prison." The prisoners' "primary need is their mental
health and the appropriate place to address this is in a
hospital."
The report recommended identifying alternative
environments which can provide the necessary treatment and care for
such prisoners should be identified. It said: "Minimum standards of
treatment, intervention and support should apply to all prisoners
with severe and enduring mental health problems, regardless of
where they are located."
8. National Patient Safety Agency -
Confidential health service opens for doctors and
dentists
The National Patient Safety Agency
(NPSA) has announced the launch of the Practitioner
Health Programme, a confidential health service providing
specialist care and support for any doctor or dentist with a mental
or physical health concern or addiction.
Practitioner Health Programme lead, Dr Clare
Gerada, stated: "There is a tendency for doctors and dentists to
manage their own health concerns, to self medicate or to chat
informally to colleagues rather than seek a consultation and
treatment. For this reason health concerns sometimes go unreported
or unrecognised. This new service seeks to enable doctors and
dentists to access the support and advice they need in a
confidential and understanding environment. When doctors and
dentists are managing their health they are better equipped to
provide quality care for their patients."
9. Prisoners with learning
difficulties face discrimination: Report
Prisoners with learning difficulties suffer
systematic discrimination from the criminal justice system,
according to a recent report. The Prison Reform
Trust claims that defendants are being denied
medication or pressured into refusing a lawyer as a result of their
condition.
It found that prisoners with learning
difficulties are three times more likely to be placed in solitary
confinement, and five times more likely to have been subjected to
control and restraint techniques. The report says that an inability
to read or write may hamper prisoners' attempts to secure early
release. Juliet Lyon, director of the Trust, said: "This is a
harrowing account of what it is like to travel through the criminal
justice system in a fog of anxiety, not understanding what is
happening." Previous reports have estimated that up to 30% of
offenders suffer from learning difficulties.
The Trust is calling for system-wide reform,
including documents that are easier to read and understand, and the
use of community rather than custodial sentences wherever possible.
It has submitted its findings to the Bradley review of prisoners
with mental health problems, which is expected to report in the New
Year. The report, which took three years to produce, was based on
interviews with 154 prisoners with learning difficulties.
10. Ed Balls and Alan Johnson boost child mental health
services
There are plans to improve children’s mental
health services with a package of measures including a National
Advisory Council and the roll-out of extra support for children in
schools, announced the Children’s Secretary Ed Balls and Health
Secretary Alan Johnson.
The findings of this independent review, which
the Government commissioned in December 2007, set out a clear
vision for how children’s services and child and adolescent mental
health services can be improved to more effectively address the
mental health needs of children and young people.
Responding to a key recommendation in the
review, the Government is establishing a National Advisory Council
on Children’s Mental Health and Psychological Wellbeing. Its remit
is to ensure that the recommendations in the review are
addressed and the Government is held to account on progress.
The new body will be chaired by Jo Williams,
former Chief Executive of Mencap. The vice-chair will be Lesley
Hewson, Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist and Director
of CAMHS, Bradford District Care Trust.
The Government also announced:
- roll out of the £20m phase two of the
targeted mental health support Pathfinder Programme between 2009
and 2011. There will also be £500,000 in extra funding for a number
of existing authorities to develop work with their special schools
and pupil referral units
- additional funding of £500,000to improve
helpline support for parents/carers who are concerned about their
children’s mental health
- a national programme of support for local
services, to help them deliver the vision set out in the
report
A copy of the full report, and the Government
response can are at www.dcsf.gov.uk/camhsreview.
11. NHS
Partnership wins Forces Mental Health Treatment
Contract
The NHS rather than the Priory Group will
treat Armed Forces personnel with serious mental health problems
from February 2009. A partnership of seven NHS trusts was the
"clear winner" of a new contract to provide inpatient mental health
care to the forces, junior defence minister Kevan Jones said in a
written Commons statement.
The partnership, led by South Staffordshire
and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, will ensure
treatment is available close to the serviceman or
servicewoman's home unit.
The other six NHS trusts involved in the
partnership are Cambridge and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust,
NHS Grampian, Hampshire Partnership NHS Trust, Lincolnshire
Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Somerset Partnership NHS
Foundation Trust and Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation
Trust.
12. Ministers back 'fit note'
plans
Ministers have responded to a report
on helping more people stay in work rather than drift into long
term sick leave by proposing to support disabled
people and those who become ill to return to or stay in work
through better management of their conditions. There will be pilots
for schemes helping to get people fit for work, and a new National
Centre for Working-Age Health and Well-Being will identify gaps in
evidence and encourage new research.
Health Secretary Alan Johnson commented: "Sick
leave costs an estimated £100 billion per year - but helping people
stay in work doesn't just have an economic imperative, it has a
moral and social one too. Poor health can prevent people fulfilling
their potential, leaving them more likely to slip into poverty and
social exclusion. That is why we have set out a comprehensive
framework to help support employers and the NHS encourage
individuals back into the world of work as soon as possible."
Employee 'fit notes' are also to be brought in
as part of the Government's efforts to cut the amount of money lost
to the economy from workplace absenteeism. The idea is for GPs in
England to spell out those tasks workers can perform rather than
the traditional 'sick note' focusing on what they cannot do. There
will also be more support to help people back to work with firms
encouraged to promote healthier living.
Trials replacing paper notes with electronic
fit notes are underway and, if successful, the new system could be
in place by 2010. The new fit notes, outlining what duties an
employee could do, would be passed on to employers if he the
employee agreed.
The notes will form part of a package of
support offered by employers and health professionals to help staff
with problems stay in work and to return to the workplace as soon
as possible.
13. Mental health care call for ethnic
minorities
Some black and minority ethnic groups are
three or more times more likely than average to be admitted as
inpatients to mental health services, according to a study by the
Healthcare Commission. These groups are also
more likely to be detained on admission and more likely to be
admitted through the criminal justice system.
As a result, the Commission called for
healthcare providers, local authorities and other statutory
agencies to work together to prevent and better manage mental
illness in black and minority ethnic groups. It also urged
organisations that commission and provide mental health and
learning disability services to make a "renewed and strenuous"
effort to improve access to single-sex wards.
In mental health services, more than two
thirds of inpatients (68%) did not have access to single-sex wards,
the same as in 2007. Across learning disability services, 57% did
not have access to them. The census aimed to provide accurate
figures on the numbers of inpatients in mental health and learning
disability services in England and Wales on one day, 31 March,
and to encourage service providers to collect and monitor data on
all ethnic groups of patients.
14. What's new?