July 2010

College news
Other news
Online

 

Professor Dinesh Bhugra  

College news

 

 

Presidential update: what’s new?

The President, Professor Dinesh Bhugra, updates members on College activities and hopes to meet members at the International Congress in Edinburgh, 21- 24 June 2010.

 

 


Dr Laurence Mynors-Wallis

 

 

 

Schizophrenia

 

 

 

The British Journal of Psychiatry

 

 

 

 

The Queen’s speech
  • College welcomes new Registrar

    Congratulations to Dr Laurence Mynors-Wallis on being elected as College Registrar, to take office at the International Congress in Edinburgh on 22 June 2010 from Professor Sue Bailey. Dr Mynors-Wallis is a Consultant Psychiatrist and Medical Director, Dorset HealthCare NHS Foundation Trust, and Honorary Senior Lecturer, University of Southampton Department of Psychiatry. In his electoral statement, Dr Mynors-Wallis highlighted his three main priorities as:

    1. "Supporting members: too many feel disenfranchised and see the College as remote, with little relevance to what we do.
    2. Leadership: to raise the confidence of psychiatrists who often feel undermined by national initiatives which subvert the medical role in mental health.
    3. Improving recruitment: to counter the stigma still present in general hospitals and the community so more able young doctors choose psychiatry.”

 

  • Important news on revalidation

    The Secretary of State for Health has written to the Chair of the GMC’s Council to ask him to delay the implementation of revalidation. The pilots will continue for an additional year to enable further evaluation. Revalidation will, therefore, not be introduced until 2012 at the earliest. Please continue to look at the GMC’s website for developments. 

 

  • Are your membership details up to date?

    Did you know that you can update your personal details via the Members’ Area of the website? By ensuring that your details are up-to-date on our database, you will receive the latest information regarding topical news, updates from your local Division and information from the Faculties, Sections, and SIGs that you belong to. To update your details: in the Members’ area, you can update your postal and email addresses, Faculty, Section and SIG memberships, job title and the area of psychiatry that you are working in. If you have not yet registered a username and password, or have forgotten your login details, then please follow the same link for more information. You can also update your membership details by post, by email or contact the Membership Data Office on 020 7235 2351 (extensions 6281 or 6280). 

 

  • Are you interested in translating our mental health information?

    Many of our award-winning mental health information leaflets have been translated into other languages including Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, Hindi, Greek, Gujurati, Persian, Polish, Punjabi, Russian, Spanish, Urdu and Welsh.  In order to do this, we have relied heavily (and very gratefully) on members of the College.  We are keen to expand our range of translated materials, especially in new languages. For instance, we have recently had requests for information in Portuguese, Ibo and Thai. If you are interested in helping us, contact Deborah Hart.

 

  • Alert to members: Good Psychiatric Practice

    All UK members of the College will receive, with their July Journals, a copy of our new College report Good psychiatric practice – Continuing professional development (2nd edn) (CR157).

 

 

  • The Queen’s speech: what affects us?

    The Health Bill: Implement the Government’s proposals for a sustainable national framework for the NHS; to support a patient-led NHS focused on outcomes; and to deliver on the commitment to reduce bureaucracy.

    Public Health: “Public health is everybody’s business and people will be encouraged to take greater responsibility for their own health.” The Government will create a new public health service led by the Department of Health, in which public health funding will be protected through ring fenced budgets. See details of the Queen’s speech here.

     


New online resource to support clinicians with developing leadership skills

 

 

 

 

 

ACPO guidance on police responses to people with mental ill health

 

 

 

 

 

Report demands better quality care in care homes

 

 

 

 

 

Mind Mental Health Media Awards 2010

 

Other news

 

New online resource to support clinicians with developing leadership skills

A free e-learning resource, LeAD, to support doctors and healthcare professionals develop clinical leadership skills has been launched by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement and DH e-Learning for Healthcare. This resource addresses the knowledge components of the Medical Leadership Curriculum (MLC) based on the Medical Leadership Competency Framework (Enhancing Engagement in Medical Leadership Project).

 

Guidance on police responses to people with mental ill health

The guidance Responding to people with mental ill health or learning disabilities’ has been developed for the Association of Chief Police Officers, drawing upon the expertise of health professionals, charities, third sector organisations and social care workers

 

Sainsbury Centre receives final grant from Gatsby Charitable Foundation

The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health has received agreement from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation for a final grant to sustain its work for the future. The final grant, equivalent to three years of its previous core funding, will help the Centre to carry on its work as it seeks alternative sources of funding in the coming years. Later in 2010, the Centre will announce a new name and seek to involve new partners, funders and supporters. The organisations supporting the Centre's future are the Mental Health Network of the NHS Confederation, Mind, the National Mental Health Development Unit, Rethink and the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

 

News from other organisations and the NHS

  • NICE seeks new professional members        
  • New resources: what to expect if your rights are restricted under the Mental Health Act

  • Healthcare for prisoners still inadequate
  • Drinking habits revealed
  • Prescription charges review
  • Insufficient information on medicines

  • State of nation report poverty, worklessness and welfare dependency in the UK
  • Labour MP Frank Field is to head a Government poverty review

 

Doctors can promote fairness and equality in health

A new report, How doctors can close the gap: tackling the social determinants of health through culture change, advocacy and education’, from the Royal College of Physicians, in partnership with leading health organisations including this College and the NHS calls on all doctors to make addressing the social determinants of health part of their everyday medical practice, reducing where they can the inequitable burden of disease.

 

Report demands better quality care in care homes

A new report by Counsel and Care, Campaigning for Quality Care in Care Homes’, calls on the new commission on long-term care to consider how to improve the quality of care as well as how the care system will be funded in the future. Pamela Wells, the author, was shocked to find her own experience being reaffirmed through the witness of others’ experience and learned that there was a lack of care of older and vulnerable people in many care homes.

 

Mental health patients fitted with tracking device

The South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust is fitting patients with ankle bracelets containing global positioning system (GPS) technology under a pilot scheme. The GPS device, known as a Buddi tracker, was originally designed for carers to track dementia patients who wandered from their homes. More than 60 medium- and high-risk patients detained at the trust have been fitted with the device as a condition of day leave or while they are transferred between hospitals.

 

NHS failing to support children with autism

According to the National Autistic Society (NAS), more than 70% of children with autism also have a mental health problem which is preventable or treatable, such as depression or obsessive compulsive disorder. However, these issues are often dismissed by health workers as "unfortunate" or "unavoidable" side-effects of autism and all too often they receive inappropriate, ineffectual and sometimes harmful treatments. The NAS said too many health professionals have no basic training on autism while many need support to adapt treatments for autistic children. Find out more out the ‘Need to Know’ campaign.

 

Mind Mental Health Media Awards 2010 are open for entries

Have you watched a TV programme, caught something on the radio or seen something online that you felt could make a difference to the perception and understanding of mental health? If so, tell Mind about it and they will approach the team or individual responsible and ask them to enter this year’s Mind Mental Health Media Awards. To be eligible, the entries must have been transmitted between 7 June 2009 and 7 June 2010. Closing date: 16 July 2010.

 

 


 

Models of madness in the Western world: Part 1

Online

 

 

 

 

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