Too clean or not too clean?: The Case for Targeted Hygiene in the Home and Everyday Life

Royal Society for Public Health, July 2019

Royal Society for Public Health making the case for targeted hygiene in the home and everyday life, as the most effective framework for preventing the spread of infection and supporting a healthy microbiome. It finds while there is a general understanding among the public about the importance of a healthy microbiome, there is much public confusion about the relationship between dirt, germs, cleanliness and hygiene. Moreover, although the importance of hygiene is well understood, the times and situations where it is most necessary are not. A worrying one in four (23%) of those surveyed believed hygiene in the home was not important, thinking children need to be exposed to harmful germs to build their immune system. The best way to be hygienic and allow our good bacteria to thrive is to practise Targeted Hygiene – implementing the correct cleaning techniques at the most crucial moments. If the understanding of the importance of targeted hygiene can be communicated more widely, it has the potential to reduce the burden on the NHS, promote healthy microbiomes, and reduce the spread of antimicrobial resistance.

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Making the right choices: using data-driven technology to transform mental healthcare

Reform, July 2019

This report from the thinktank Reform examines the current landscape of data-driven technologies and their applications in mental health care, highlighting areas where these tools offer the most potential for the NHS and its patients. It discusses what makes mental health different from other areas of health, and the implications this has for the application of data-driven tools. It also examines barriers to implementation, and proposes ways to move forward.

Click here to view the full report.

Making Every Contact Count bulletin – July 2019

The Gosall Library, July 2019

This Library bulletin provides further reading to support the ‘Making Every Contact Count’ programme. There are links to recent research papers and articles in each of the MECC areas to give you further background information and evidence to consolidate what you have learned in your training, and to give you ideas and confidence for using MECC in your day-to-day encounters.

Click here to view the bulletin.

Reducing the need for restraint and restrictive intervention

Department for Health and Social Care, June 2019

This guidance is for health services, social care services and special education settings. It sets out how to support children and young people with learning disabilities, autistic spectrum conditions and mental health difficulties who are at risk of restrictive intervention.

Click here to view the guidance.

Celebrate me: capturing the voices of learning disability nurses and people who use services

Foundation of Nursing Studies, June 2019

This initiative aimed to engage with nurses and people using services to gather evidence and demonstrate the impact of learning disability nursing, from experience, to help sustain its future. The outcomes from the extensive engagement have enabled us to highlight everything that there is to celebrate about learning disability nursing (the impact) and what needs to be championed for the future (to sustain it), from the voices of learning disability nurses and those of people with a learning disability and their families.

Click here to view the full report.

Hidden no more: dementia and disability

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia, June 2019

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia report that identifies that according to domestic law and international convention, dementia is a disability. Thousands of people who responded to an All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) inquiry agreed that they see dementia as a disability. But they told the APPG that society is lagging behind and failing to uphold the legal rights of people with dementia. The evidence reveals that, across the country, people with dementia are not having their disability rights upheld. This report seeks to highlight the human impact that this has on people living with dementia. It focuses on themes of equality, non-discrimination, participation and inclusion.

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Missed opportunities: What lessons can be learned from failings at the North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, June 2019

A report on the Ombudsman’s investigations into the deaths of two vulnerable young men. It finds significant failings in their mental health care and treatment.

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Ageing cohort of drug users

Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, June 2019

This report from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) explores the specific issues for older people with a drug problem focusing on those who have had a drug problem for an extended period of time. It describes the health and social care needs of this population, and identifies effective services responses and best practice. It finds that the past decade has seen a shift in the age profile of those seeking treatment for drug use. An ageing cohort, who have survived lengthy histories of heavy drug use, now account for an increasing portion of the treatment group in the UK and Europe.

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Adaptions without delay: A guide to planning and delivering home adaptations differently:

Royal College of Occupational Therapists, June 2019

This guide is to address delays in the delivery of all types of adaptations (minor and major) across all tenures that occur when people receive a disproportionate response to their need for an adaptation. Delays in installing adaptations can increase the risk of health and social care needs developing or increasing. A person waiting for an occupational therapy assessment where the situation and need for an adaptation is relatively simple and straightforward should therefore be avoided.

Click here to view the full report.