Month: September 2018

Evaluation of the Advocacy in Wirral’s Independent Mental Health Act and Psychiatric Liaison Advocacy Services

Applied Health and Wellbeing Partnership, September 2018
Advocacy in Wirral (AiW) is a peer-led service which provides support, information and representation to people experiencing mental ill-health. AiW work across a range of areas, including community advocacy, welfare benefits, primary care advocacy, drug and alcohol advocacy, Independent Mental Capacity Act advocacy, and hospital advocacy. Hospital advocates provide advice and practical support regarding a range of issues, including welfare benefits, housing, employment, debts and legal issues. Hospital advocates can also attend ward rounds, accompany clients to meetings, and represent clients at local and regional meetings, helping to promote the needs of their client and bring about changes to the support and care of the client. Two elements of the AiW hospital advocacy service, Independent Mental Health Act (IMHA) advocacy and Psychiatric Liaison (PL) advocacy, have been evaluated to explore effectiveness and identity impacts and outcomes.
Click here to view the full report.

The government response to the Learning Disabilities Mortality Review (LeDeR) Programme 2nd annual report

Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England, September 2018
Response that accepts the recommendations of The Learning Disabilities Mortality Review (LeDeR) Programme: Annual Report 2017 – University of Bristol Norah Fry Centre for Disability Studies and sets out a plan of action for each one.  The actions will help address the inequality in life expectancy between people with learning disabilities and the wider population by ensuring that staff supporting people with a learning disability understand their needs and can make adjustments to the way care is provided, to help people reach their full potential.
Click here to view the full report.

Protecting people Promoting health: A public health approach to violence prevention for England

Department of Health, September 2018
This document outlines the extent and impact of violence nationally, covering violence in the general population as well as specific violence types that can impact dramatically on different sectors of society: child maltreatment, youth violence, intimate partner violence, sexual violence and elder abuse. It also provides information on how to access local intelligence on violence and related harms. The document describes some of the key risk and protective factors for violence and collects together details of interventions and policy measures that have been effective in preventing violence , giving examples of where these are already being employed in England. It also outlines the policy frameworks already in place to support violence prevention.
Click here to view the full report.

Preventing suicide: A community engagement toolkit

World Health Organization, September 2018
Communities play a crucial role in suicide prevention. This toolkit follows on from the World Health Organization (WHO) report Preventing suicide: a global imperative (WHO, 2014) by providing practical steps for engaging communities in suicide prevention activities.
Click here to view the full report.

Coping through Football: evaluation report 2018

Centre for Mental Health, September 2018
Does the ‘Coping Through Football’ programme deliver benefits to the physical and mental health of people living with mental health difficulties? Coping Through Football was founded by London Playing Fields Foundation, who started the initiative in 2005 in collaboration with North East London Foundation Trust and Leyton Orient Trust. It was conceived in response to the fact that the biggest cause of death of 20-49 year old men was suicide and that given that community mental health services were stretched to the limit, there was an over reliance on medication as a treatment. The report finds that for two out of three participants (39% of whom have schizophrenia) there was a positive change in lifestyle choices around healthy eating and smoking. 54% of participants went on to volunteering, education and training or employment. The report also records that there was a 12% reduction in the number of overnight hospital stays for those who were involved in the project. The report that the Coping Through Football programme is a low-cost intervention in the mental health sector. The cost of one person attending the programme every week for a year was £1,700, which is equivalent to four days in a mental health inpatient bed, or five A&E attendances. Our analysis also highlighted that “the annual cost of Coping Through Football for one year is the equivalent of the costs of schizophrenia to society for just over one person.
Click here to view the report.

Priced out: home ownership and public service workers

Unison, September 2018
Unison research considering the cases of an NHS cleaner, teaching assistant, librarian, nurse and police community support officer and their ability to afford  to buy their own homes.  It finds that saving money for a down payment on a property would take decades – or more than a century for public sector staff in some parts of London.
Click here to view the full report.

Suicide prevention and peer support in the armed forces: Looking after your team

Ministry of Defence, September 2018
This guide gives advice on how to identify signs that someone may be having difficulties, ways of offering support and information on where help can be found. It builds on the range of support already available to service personnel who are struggling with their mental health, including access to specialist mental health medical care, training and education on good mental fitness and the Combat Stress 24-hour Mental Health Helpline.
Click here to view the guide.

Exploring The Feasibility And Acceptability Of Using Tele-Therapy For UK Veterans With PTSD

Combat Stress, September 2018
Combat Stress report on a year-long tele-therapy pilot study, funded by The Forces in Mind Trust (FiMT) and undertaken by Combat Stress, has shown it to be an accessible, flexible and cost-effective approach to delivering trauma-focused therapies. Tele-therapy provides therapy through a live video connection, over the internet such as Skype. The purpose was to trial an alternative type of therapy to overcome issues that prevent veterans from seeking help.
Click here to view the report.

Initial code of conduct for data-driven health and care technology

Department of Health and Social Care, September 2018
This code provides clarification of:

  • what is expected from suppliers of data-driven technologies
  • what the government will do to support and encourage innovators in health and care, including the development of trusted approval systems and a coherent pathway for suppliers to enter the market

The code provides the basis for ongoing engagement and conversation on how we should use new technology to provide better and more sustainable services, with:

  • our partners in academia, industry and the health and care system
  • patients
  • clinicians
  • the wider public

The code provides the basis for the health and care system and suppliers of digital technology to enter into commercial terms in which the benefits of the partnerships between technology companies and health and care providers are shared fairly.
Click here to view the code.