Category: Current Awareness

Current awareness updates

Restricting promotions of products high in fat, sugar or salt by location and by volume price.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2022.

[Outlines the provisions of the Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) Regulations 2021, and provides assistance in understanding and applying them.]

United against health inequalities: a commitment to lasting change NHS Providers, April 2022

(This survey of trust leaders shows high board-level commitment and strategic emphasis on tackling health inequalities and commitment to making action on health inequalities ‘core business’. However, they describe several barriers to progress with nearly two in three (65 per cent) saying that wider pressures on the system and operational challenges hinder their ability to progress work on reducing health inequalities. Nearly half of trust leaders expressed concerns about the lack of access to data about health inequalities within trusts (49 per cent) and across the health system (48 per cent).)

Coronavirus Act 2020 two years on.
House of Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee; 2022.
[This report sets out concerns about parliament’s lack of ability to scrutinise and amend emergency provisions in the Coronavirus Act over the past two years and draws out the lessons that can be learnt in legislating for future emergencies.]


Covid-19: The public inquiries.
House of Commons Library; 2022.
[The Covid-19 pandemic was a severe test of the state’s preparedness, resilience and co-ordination. The response from the UK Government and devolved administrations has raised broader questions about how effectively the challenges have been met. There have been longstanding calls for a public inquiry to be held into the UK’s pandemic response. Two public inquiries have been set up: one by the UK Government and one by the Scottish Government.]

Shifting the Dial: evaluating a community programme to promote young Black men’s mental health.
Centre for Mental Health (CMH); 2022.
https://www.centreformentalhealth.org.uk/publications/shifting-dial
[Young Black men are overrepresented in restrictive mental health settings, but are less likely to get early community-based mental health support. This report shares learning from a three-year project to promote the mental health and wellbeing of young Black men in Birmingham. The project built upon the findings from CMH’s evaluation of an earlier pilot, Up My Street. Shifting the Dial has worked with more than 500 young Black men.]

Can fermented foods boost mental health? Medscape: March 22, 2022

(Commentary by Dr Drew Ramsey)