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News from other organisations and the
NHS
BMA Award Research Grants: to assist
research into schizophrenia
The BMA awards research grants each year
(totalling approximately £500,000) to encourage and further medical
research in a variety of areas. The
Margaret Temple award is to assist research into schizophrenia.
The application deadline is 15 March 2013. This grant and others
will be available to apply for on BMA from 11 December
2012.
NHS Mandate published
The Mandate
sets the ambitions for the health service for the next two years
and will be issued to the NHS Commissioning Board. Responding
to its publications, Professor Sue Bailey said the commitment to
value mental and physical health equally was a major step forward
and will be important in addressing stigma and discrimination.
She said: “Parity should be the ‘golden
thread’ running through the whole of healthcare, but it is not just
an issue for the NHS. We advocate a cross-government approach to
achieving parity, with an important role for education, welfare
reform and criminal justice.”
Rise
in Club Drug User Treatments
The number of people needing treatment for
"club drugs" such as ecstasy, ketamine and "meow meow" is creeping
upwards. The report from the National Treatment Agency (NTA)
‘Substance
Misuse Club Drugs: Emerging Trends and Risks’ found that
around one million people were estimated to have used club drugs
last year (2011/12).
New
Mental Health Legislation Resource to support those delivering
mental health services in England
The Mental Health Providers Forum has launched
the
Mental Health Legislation Resource. This Resource brings
together the most commonly used legislation in Mental Health in
England. It includes the revised Mental Health Act 2007, the Human
Rights Act 1998 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
Centre for Mental Health: A
liaison psychiatry service in every hospital can save the NHS
millions and improve lives
The report,
Liaison Psychiatry in the Modern NHS, finds that liaison
psychiatry services can save an average hospital £5 million a year
by reducing the number and length of admissions to beds. It adds
that even bigger savings could be achieved in future if liaison
psychiatry services were extended to work in the community to
prevent crises from happening at all. Dr Paul Gill, Chair of the
College’s Faculty of Liaison Psychiatry, said: "This report is most
welcome. For too long, patients in our acute hospitals have not had
reliable access to skilled mental health care. Hospitals that do
have access to liaison psychiatry services attest to their value
and importance. Quality improvement programmes, such as PLAN,
already exist, and assist liaison teams in evaluating and improving
their service."
Department of
Health
- Department seeks views
on good practice in delivering services for people with learning
disabilities
- Dementia challenge
progress report
- Change4Life launches
smartphone drinks tracker app
- Public health approach
to violence prevention outlined
- Amendments to the high security psychiatric services directions
2012
Department of Work and Pensions
An Access to Work grant is
money for practical support to help you do your job. It’s for
people with a disability, health or mental health condition. The
money you get can pay for things like:
- specialist equipment
- travel when you can’t use public transport
- a communicator at a job interview
How much you get depends on your circumstances. It’s only
available in England, Scotland and Wales.
Update from NICE
- Opportunities for members: NICE recruiting topic experts
- Consultation on potential topics for NICE Good Practice
Guidance: 2012–14
- Social and emotional wellbeing – early years
Major healthcare organisations pledge
support for staff who speak up to raise concerns
NHS Employers have launched the Speaking Up charter. This is
the first charter outlining a commitment by the NHS Employers
organisation, regulators, health unions, professional associations
and bodies to work together to support staff when raising a safety
concern or issue at work. Twenty-eight organisations have signed
the new charter, which will help organisations fulfil their
commitment to staff who raise concerns.
Over the Limit: the truth about
families and alcohol
4Children have published a report
into the scale of alcohol and drug use in Britain, and the steps
that need to be taken to prevent families hitting crisis point. The
report finds that over 2 million parents drink every day, and 6% of
children are living with a dependant drinker (around 700,000
children) and between 250,000 and 350,000 children living with a
problem drug user in the UK.
Cello’s Talking Taboos - ‘talking
self-harm’
This
report was launched at an event at the Houses of Parliament
chaired by Claire Perry, MSP. It calls for more knowledge,
awareness and understanding around self-harm in a bid to establish
a consistency of responses to provide for young people.
Mindfulness Practice for Doctors: a 3
day experiential weekend
Friday 22 February - Sunday 24 February 2013, Ammerdown
Conference Centre, Somerset.
Medicine is a stressful profession, especially in the current
climate of accelerated change. Doctors are expected to provide
first class care to patients at all times: but how do we take care
of ourselves? Come and think about this mindfully and learn how to
practice mindfulness in a calm and relaxed setting. There will
be time to talk, walk, reflect, and meditate in the beautiful
Somerset countryside and in good company. All doctors welcome.
Suitable for beginners to mindfulness practice. To make a booking
please contact Mrs. Kelly Young on 01761 433709 or by email :
bookings@ammerdown.org
A deposit of £65.00 will be required to secure your booking Any
questions: feel free to contact Gwen Adshead or
Shaun
Bhattacherjee
Psychosocial Consequences of Disasters,
Athens, March 2013
The Hellenic Psychiatric Association, in
collaboration with the World Federation for Mental Health, is
organizing an International Congress on the
Psychosocial Consequences of Disasters, from 6 - 9 March
2013 in Athens, Greece.
Children in cells amid health
fears
An investigation has
revealed children as young as 11 were held in police cells last
year because officers thought they were mentally ill. There were
347 such detentions, some for more than 24 hours, figures show. Two
of the 347 under-18s, who had not necessarily committed a crime,
were detained for more than 24 hours. Two forces detained one child
each for longer than 24 hours, according to figures obtained
through Freedom of Information requests.
Antenatal depression support call
The Royal College of Midwives has said that
more needs to be done to spot and support women suffering with
antenatal depression, which is less known and talked about than
postnatal depression. A new poll found that more than a third of
women who suffer depression during pregnancy have suicidal
thoughts. And four in five mothers surveyed who suffered with
depression in pregnancy went on to struggle with postnatal
depression.
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