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News from other organisations
and the NHS
GPs put pressure
on Prime Minister over health reforms
The Royal College of General Practitioners
(RCGP) has
written to Prime Minister David Cameron listing changes that
must be made to the Health Bill to protect the principles of the
NHS. In its analysis paper,
The Government’s Health Reforms: An Analysis of the Need for
Clarification and Change, the RCGP provides
evidence which refutes the need for wholesale reorganisation of the
health service, and calls on the Government to protect the
principles of the NHS by changing or clarifying parts of the Health
Bill.
Law
Commission recommends radical overhaul of adult social care
law
The Law Commission has published
the
Final Report of its project to reform adult social care law.
Its recommendation for a single, clear, modern statute and code of
practice would pave the way for a coherent social care system. For
the first time, older people, disabled people, those with mental
health problems and carers will be clear about their legal rights
to care and support services. Local councils across England and
Wales will have concise rules detailing when they must provide
services.
Government to seek
legislation to protect society's most vulnerable people
Plans to strengthen the protection of
vulnerable adults by making it a legal requirement for all local
authorities to have a Safeguarding Adults Board were announced by
Care Services Minister, Paul Burstow. Safeguarding
Adults Boards provide leadership to those involved in adult
safeguarding work across the full range of safeguarding issues.
These range from serious incidents in hospitals and institutional
abuse in care settings to financial abuse and “scams”, bullying and
victimisation.
Mental
illness 'top reason to claim incapacity benefit'
An article published in
Occupational Medicine has found that mental health
problems have overtaken musculoskeletal disorders, such as back
pain, as the main reason for incapacity benefit claims. Claims for
musculoskeletal disorders fell by 50% over the 11-year study, while
mental health claims were steady.
New
report calls for major changes to disability assessment
A group of charities have published
a report calling for vital changes to the benefits assessment
to make it fairer for people with a fluctuating health conditions.
The charities state that huge numbers of people with conditions
like multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, HIV or arthritis are wrongly
being found fit to work after undergoing a Work Capability
Assessment for the out of work disability benefit, Employment
Support Allowance.
Stressed workers fear the sack
A survey by Mind of more than 2,000 adults found that work was
the biggest stress in most people's lives, but one in five believed
they would be in line for redundancy if they mentioned they had a
problem. Two out of three workers had been put under more pressure
by managers since the economic downturn, and a third felt stressed
by budget cuts in their workplace.
Review
urged after deaths in young offender institutions
Campaigners have called for
an independent review of young offenders' institutions and secure
establishments after the fifth apparent suicide of a teenager
in five weeks. Helen Shaw, co-director of the Inquest charity, said
the youth secure estate appeared "destabilised" and was failing to
meet the needs of young offenders. Five teenage deaths in five
separate establishments between March 16 and April 18, including
two who were on suicide watch, are being investigated.
Drink,
drugs and university....
Students and other young
people are notoriously immune to advice on healthy lifestyle
choices from their elders. But while most young people drink
heavily or take drugs in their teens and early twenties and survive
unscathed, a significant number regret the adverse impact that
drugs in particular have on their education. That's the message
from 33 young people in their teens and early twenties from all
walks of life who describe their experiences of drugs and alcohol
on youthhealthtalk.org. You
can read, watch and listen to people’s stories.
Department of Health: National Audit of Dementia Services
This
letter from Alistair Burns, National Clinical Director for
Dementia, gives early notice of a data collection starting in May
2011, which will ask for information from PCTs about the
establishment of memory services. This is part of a national audit
of dementia services being undertaken by the NHS Information Centre
for the Department of Health.
Men’s
Health Forum: health click mini manual
The
Men’s Health Forum provides a range of advice. Their
latest title provides a practical step-by-step
guide guide to encourage men to start using the
internet, to use it to look for health information, and empower
them to use it more effectively and safely.
NHS Evidence has
now changed
A new version of NHS Evidence has gone live.
It provides:
-
comprehensive access to medicines resources
- access to NICE Pathways
- continued access to
the world’s most respected evidence resources through the Health
Databases Advanced Search (HDAS)
- quality assured patient resources
- high quality public health information
-
access to quality-assured guidance
-
access to the QIPP (Quality, Innovation, Productivity and
Prevention)
Support
Great Push for Mental Health Initiative
The World Federation for Mental Health
(WFMH) is seeking your help to ensure that mental health and
neuropsychiatric diseases are not left out of resolutions that will
be developed at United Nations’ Special Session of Non-communicable
Diseases, September 2011. The WFMH wants to generate a network of
People Power to support its Great
Push for Mental Health Initiative which will be the guiding force
for the Federation’s future campaigns and programmes. We urge you
to sign now.
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