Month: February 2021

The Department of Health and Social Care’s legislative proposals for a Health and Care Bill

Integration and innovation: working together to improve health and social care for all

This White Paper sets out legislative proposals for a Health and Care Bill. The proposals are designed to support the health and care system to work together to provide high-quality health and care, so people can live longer, healthier, active and more independent lives.

NHS Confederation Mental Health Network

Working together to improve patient care: how PCNs are working in partnership to support people’s mental health

Source: The King’s Fund; Health Management and Policy Alert

Mental health disorders are one of the common causes of morbidity in England and primary care plays a key role in supporting patients’ mental health and wellbeing, so it has become a priority for many primary care networks (PCNs). This briefing provides examples of three models of partnership working that are currently under way in primary care to support mental health at place level.

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Syphilis: Public Health England action plan.
Public Health England (PHE); 2021.

(Addressing the increase in syphilis in England.)

The obesity paradigm and the role of health services in obesity prevention: a grounded theory approach.[Abstract]
Pearce C. BMC Health Services Research 2021;21(1):111.

(The aim of this research was to examine whether and how hospital and community-based health services incorporate adult obesity prevention into policy and practice. An alternative systems-level approach is needed to align health service responses with contemporary approaches that address obesity prevention as a complex problem.)

The impact of household energy poverty on the mental health of parents of young children.
Journal of Public Health; 2021.

(Energy poverty increases the likelihood of depression in parents. These findings merit policy attention since a mental health burden is in itself important, and more widely, parental well-being can influence child development and outcomes.)

Raising awareness of funding for vulnerable two-year-old children.
Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE); 2021.

(SCIE is helping the Professional Association for Childcare and Early Years (PACEY) to raise awareness about the 15 hours funded early years provision, particularly to more families who are vulnerable. This programme improves the health, learning and development of disadvantaged two-year-old children as well as being beneficial for the parent.)

‘Do No Harm’: Lived Experiences and Impacts of FGM Safeguarding Policies and Procedures, Bristol study.
FORWARD UK; 2021.

(The research reveals worrying evidence that FGM safeguarding policies are inadvertently causing a great deal of harm to families, communities and young girls, both in Bristol and potentially across the UK. Their targeted and heavy-handed approach have increased scrutiny, suspicion and stigmatisation of families in many areas of their lives, from schools, to healthcare, to overseas travel.)

Still not safe: the public health response to youth violence.
The Children’s Commissioner; 2021.

(This report assesses how effectively existing infrastructure within local authorities is being used to deliver a public health approach to preventing gang involvement and youth violence. The Children’s Commissioner concludes that two years on from her last report into this issue and a year after the Prime Minister promised to ‘cut the head off the snake’ of county lines, thousands of children are still not being kept safe.)

Dementia profile: February 2021 update.
Public Health England (PHE); 2021.

(Updated statistics on dementia prevalence, hospital admissions, care and mortality, at the national and subnational geographical areas in England. The dementia profile is designed to improve the availability and accessibility of information on dementia. The data is presented in an interactive tool that allows users to view and analyse it in a user-friendly format.)

Health and Care of People with Learning Disabilities 2019-20.
NHS Digital; 2021.

(The most recent release of the 2019-20 Health and Care of Learning Disability Publication. These are aggregated data on key health issues for people who are recorded by their GP as having a learning disability, and comparative data about a control group who are not recorded by their GP as having a learning disability.)

Statistics on Drug Misuse, England 2020.
NHS Digital; 2021.

[This report presents newly published information on hospital admissions attributable to drug-related mental health and behavioural disorders and on hospital admissions attributable to poisoning by illicit drugs.

The report also provides links to information on drug misuse among both adults and children from a variety of sources, including the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System and the Crime Survey for England and Wales (date range:01 Apr 2019 to 31 Mar 2020)]


Meet the Author

Milly Johnson

Milly Johnson is an international novelist, poet, after-dinner speaker, professional joke writer, script-writer, columnist, cruise correspondent, short-story writer and winner of Come Dine With Me. She lives in Barnsley with her partner, her teenage sons, rescue cats, her dog and Alan the rabbit.

After leaving university Milly trained for a while as an accountant in a building society, a job she truly hated. She supplemented her income by writing copy for greetings cards by Purple Ronnie. Having some of her poems turned into these popular greetings cards spurred her on in her writing and she started to write her first book.

A succession of jobs followed. In offices, mills, banks, sales, exports – she hated them all, but loved the women she worked with and they informed her writing. She worked with older women who showed her that friendships knocked down barriers of age, background, colour, creed. And she worked with younger women who were fabulously nutty. She ‘lived’ in her 20s and 30s – had some great times and horrific times and it coloured and enriched how and what she wrote.

When she was made redundant the week before finding out she was pregnant, Milly wrote off to greetings cards firms and asked them to buy her wares. And they did. She set up a little company called ‘Black Sheep’ and became a professional joke writer which was the best job she had ever had in her life. She was content, happy, working from home with a wonderful set of people to meet up with on work events… but there was just that one missing piece in her jigsaw. It was the silver medal job and there was only one gold – the novel.

Milly fell pregnant at the same time as two of her pals. Their journey through pregnancy was an insightful one and she experienced a lightbulb moment. Realising that extraordinary exists within the parameters of ordinary, everyday life she started to write a story about friendships, Yorkshire, pregnancy and work. And the rest is history.

She got her publishing deal when she was 40. She loves what she does and hopes that this comes through in her work.

As our featured author, Milly has kindly answered a few questions for us about books that have entertained and inspired her and her work as an author.

Read the interview here.

Read more about Milly, her path to becoming a writer and her books on her website or follow her on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook

Economic Evaluations

A resource for Occupational Therapy

This report outlines the economic evaluation examining the impact of occupational therapy in relation to financial costs of providing a service. The analysis compares the costs of occupational therapy with an alternate (control) intervention to determine whether occupational therapy is more beneficial that the other intervention, what is the difference in cost and how beneficial is occupational therapy in relation to costs, when compared with the control intervention.

An economic evaluation examines the impact of occupational therapy in relation to financial costs of providing a service. The analysis compares the costs of occupational therapy with an alternate (control) intervention to determine:
Is occupational therapy more beneficial than the control intervention to attain desired outcomes, such as increased independence or improved quality of life?
What is the difference in cost between occupational therapy and the control
intervention?
How beneficial is occupational therapy in relation to costs, when compared with the control intervention?

World Federation of Occupational Therapists. Economic Evaluations A
resource for occupational therapy. (2021). Geneva, Switzerland


As resources available to provide occupational therapy can be limited, economic evaluations are helpful to make choices regarding how financial investments are made.

Economic-Evaluations-A-resource-for-occupational-therapyDownload

Supporting the mental health of NHS staff

The role of NHS leaders in reducing mental health stigma and creating mentally healthy cultures

Source: The King’s Fund; Health Management and Policy Alert

This guide, funded by the British Medical Association and posted on the Mental Health at Work website, aims to provide practical advice, hints and tips to help NHS leaders and line managers to create mentally healthy cultures and support better mental health. It includes information about mental health stigmas, and how to break them down. It is the first of a series of resources aimed at NHS leaders, managers and champions.

For more resources to support mental health at work visit Mentalhealthatwork.org.uk