Month: December 2018

JAMA Psychiatry – November 2018

The November edition of JAMA Psychiatry is now available.  This issue includes articles on using brain-based phenotyping to improve discovery in psychiatry, and a randomized controlled trial of the effect of cannabidiol on medial temporal, midbrain, and striatal dysfunction in people at clinical high risk of psychosis.
Click here to access the full text articles.  You will need to login with your LCFT OpenAthens account.

Help at home: Use of assistive technology for older people

National Institute for Health Research, December 2018
This review presents a selection of recent research on assistive technology for older people funded by The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and other government funders. This has been selected with help from an expert steering group. In this review we focus on research around the use of technology in the home, remote monitoring systems and designing better environments for older people.
Click here to view the full report.

Independent Evaluation Of The Guinness Partnership’s Dementia Project

Housing LIN, November 2018
Evaluation of the progress made in becoming a more dementia-friendly organisation. The Guinness Partnership implemented a two year project in 2015 to take forward developments, initially in two pilot areas of Havant and Manchester with a view to rolling out successful approaches more broadly.
Click here to view the full report.

Empowering NHS leaders to lead

Department of Health and Social Care, November 2018
This review was led by Sir Ron Kerr and explored 3 challenges faced by executive leaders across the NHS:

  • expectations and support available for leaders
  • alignment of performance expectations at the organisational and system level
  • level of administrative burden placed upon executive leaders

The review makes a number of recommendations to address these challenges.
Click here to view the full report.

A Space to Talk: An evaluation of the WISH Centre’s services with young people who self-harm

Centre for Mental Health, November 2018
How can services meet the needs of young people who self-harm? The report analyses outcome data and by enganging with users of WISH services and stakeholders, finds that the WISH Centre’s work makes a difference to young people, by combining counselling and psychotherapy with facilitated peer support and outreach to young people in schools and communities. Young people who attend WISH have far fewer A&E attendances during that time than before, and at least two-thirds of young people had improved wellbeing after receiving therapy and over 80% reduce or stop self-harming. It concludes that The WISH Centre’s approach creates a safe space in which young people can get expert help in dealing with difficult issues and feelings while also helping each other. And by reaching out into schools and communities it helps to tackle stigma and make it easier for young people to seek help.  The report calls for:

  • CCGs and local authorities across the country to commission services similar to WISH to support young people struggling with self-harm;
  • Commissioning more for young men, and a specific offer for young people who identify as LGBT;
  • More support for parents, carers, teachers and other professionals;
  • Awareness-raising and myth-busting about self-harm to encourage young people to seek help.

Click here to view the full report.

Children’s Mental Health briefing: A briefing by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England

Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England, November 2018
Report that finds improvement in the provision of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in most areas in the country, yet with the exception of eating disorder services, the provision of services in the youth justice system and in perinatal mental health care, the rate of progress is slow. A vast gap remains between what is provided and what children need. As a result, the current rate of progress is still not good enough for the majority of children who require help but are not receiving it. Main findings include:

  • Of more than 338,000 children referred to CAMHS last year, less than a third (31%) received treatment within the year.
  • Another 37% were not accepted into treatment or discharged after an assessment appointment, and 32% were still on waiting lists at the end of the year.
  • Less than 3% of children in England accessed CAMHS last year, a small fraction of those who need help. This is partly because many children who seek help are not accepted into treatment, but also because many children do not know they have a problem or do not seek help.
  • Of those children who did enter treatment, around half did so within six weeks.
    However, nearly 80% of children entering eating disorders treatment are seen within four weeks.
  • Most areas are increasing funding for CAMHS, but parity with spending on adult mental health services remains a distant prospect. Nearly fifteen times as much is spent on adult mental health as on child mental health.
  • In cash terms this means children’s mental health services require an additional £1.7bn a year to achieve equivalent funding to that provided to adult mental health
  • Some areas are already far exceeding the existing NHS target to be treating a third of children with significant need (based on 2004 levels of prevalence) by 2021. Yet for every area exceeding what NHS England expects of them, there is an area failing to deliver.

Click here to view the full report.

Seven principles for public engagement in research and innovation policymaking: A guide from Nesta’s Inclusive Innovation team

Nesta, November 2018
Why should researchers, innovators and those whose jobs it is to regulate technology engage with people who aren’t like them on topics like research and innovation?

  • To give those in power a broader range of potential futures to aspire to
  • To encourage researchers and policymakers to think about broader social, political and ethical issues
  • To improve research and innovation
  • To make sure the benefits of research and innovation are shared widely

Proposes the following 7 key principles:

  • Supported by those with the power to change things
  • Open to experimentation
  • Designed with a clear goal in mind
  • Sensible about measures of success
  • Targeted at specific audiences and communities not the general public
  • Beneficial for participants
  • Informed and facilitated

Click here to view the full report.

Voluntary Reporting On Disability, Mental Health And Wellbeing: A Framework To Support Employers To Report Voluntarily On Disability, Mental Health And Wellbeing In The Workplace

Department for Work and Pensions, November 2018
The government believes that transparency and reporting can support the cultural change required to build a more inclusive society. The voluntary reporting framework has been developed by the government in partnership with leading businesses and third sector organisations to support employers to voluntarily report information on disability, mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.
Click here to view the full report.

Using the Care Review Tool for mortality reviews in Mental Health Trusts: Guidance for reviewers

Royal College of Psychiatrists, November 2018
Guidance for NHS mental health trusts to ensure ways of improving services are learned from patients’ deaths is unveiled today.  The guidance, drawn up by the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych), focuses on patients with severe mental illness and on four ‘red-flag’ scenarios, including where concerns have been raised by families and carers or where patients have experienced psychosis or had an eating disorder. To ensure any opportunities for learning are not missed, trusts are also encouraged to review a sample of other patients’ deaths, such as those with dementia.
Click here to view the full report.