Public Health

Current awareness updates

Statistics on alcohol: England.
House of Commons Library; 2021.
[Research briefing. This note provides a summary of statistics on alcohol consumption among adults and children in England. Data on alcohol-related hospital admissions in England and alcohol-related deaths in
England, the UK and worldwide is also shown.]

Towards a dementia-inclusive society: WHO toolkit for dementia-friendly initiatives.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2021.
[This toolkit supports individuals, communities and countries in raising awareness of, and empowering people living with, dementia to remain in, and be a significant part of, their community. The toolkit provides practical guidance and tools that can support efforts, including planning and implementation activities, to create dementia-inclusive societies.]

Social isolation and loneliness among older people: advocacy brief.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2021.
[This brief highlights the growing public health and policy concern on these issues, made more salient by the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief summarises the scale, impact, and harms of social isolation and loneliness among older people and outlines what can be done to reduce them. It also describes several policy windows that offer opportunities for addressing social isolation and loneliness among older people and proposes a three-point global strategy for tackling these issues.]

WHO guideline on school health services.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2021.
[School health services are services provided by a health worker to students aged 5–19 in primary or secondary education, either within school premises or in a health service situated outside the school. Schools offer a unique opportunity to implement effective health services at scale for children and adolescents. Web Annexes found at the end of this summary link to intervention and implementation tools.]

WHO Guideline on the prevention of drowning through provision of day-care and basic swimming and water safety skills.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2021.
[This guideline addresses: provision of day-care for children under the age of 6 years and provision of basic swimming skills and water safety training to children aged 6 years and older. Developed following GRADE methodology, approved by the WHO Guideline Review Committee and intended for use by policy-makers and practitioners, the guideline issues strong recommendations in favour of both interventions for drowning prevention.]

Alcohol and drug misuse prevention and treatment guidance.
Public Health England (PHE); 2021.
[Information and other resources to support commissioners, service providers and others providing alcohol and drug interventions. 11 August 2021: Added new group: Opioid substitution treatment good practice resources.]

Supporting mental healthcare in a maternity and neonatal setting: good practice guide and case studies.
NHS England; 2021.
[This guide is for commissioners and staff involved in maternity and neonatal care. It describes the underpinning principles of and good practice for supporting good mental health and psychological wellbeing in maternity and neonatal settings. It also considers the role of specialist maternal mental health services (MMHS) in supporting this function.]

Improving non-emergency patient transport services.
NHS England; 2021.
[This report sets out a new national framework for non-emergency patient transport services to support them in becoming consistently more responsive, fair and sustainable.]

PCN winter planning tool.
Primary Care Commissioning (PCC); 2021.
[PCC has published a winter planning tool to support PCNs in preparing for the winter pressures that are anticipated. The tool is free to download and contains an introductory sheet with instructions for completion. We have also recorded a short video guide to using the tool.]

Responding to pandemics and other disease outbreaks in homeless populations: a review of the literature and content analysis.
Babando J. Health & Social Care in the Community 2021;-(6 April):13380.
[This review illustrates that the current breadth of academic literature on homeless populations has focused on tuberculosis rather than diseases that are more recent and closely related to COVID-19. Thematic content analysis revealed six themes that offer recommendations which include (1) education and outreach, (2) adapting structure of services, (3) screening and contract tracing, (4) transmission and prevention strategies, (5) shelter protocols and (6) treatment, adherence and vaccination.]

Government response to the independent review of drugs by Dame Carol Black.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2021.
[Part 2 of Dame Carol Black’s review set out 32 recommendations for a whole system approach to tackling drug misuse. As a result, the government is developing a long-term strategy which will present a whole-of-government response to drive down drug supply and demand to be published by the end of the year. Immediate actions include a new cross government joint combating drugs unit and development of a national outcomes framework to set out measurable goals for the combating drugs programme.]

Restrictive eating disorders in higher weight persons: A systematic review of atypical anorexia nervosa prevalence and consecutive admission literature.[Abstract]
Harrop EN. International Journal of Eating Disorders 2021;54(8):1328-1357.
[Although atypical anorexia (AAN) appears to occur more frequently than AN in communities, fewer patients with AAN are being referred and admitted to eating disorder specific care, particularly in the United States. Given the significant medical and psychosocial consequences of AAN, and the importance of early intervention, this represents a crucial treatment gap.]

Attentional bias in eating disorders: A meta-review.[Abstract]
Stott N. International Journal of Eating Disorders 2021;54(8):1377-1399.
[There is evidence for attentional avoidance and vigilance in eating disorders depending on stimulus properties (low vs. high-calorie food; high-body mass vs. low-body mass index photos of others) and attentional avoidance of food stimuli in those with anorexia nervosa. Sad mood induction may generate attentional bias for food in those with binge-eating disorder. There may also be attentional bias to general threat in eating disorder samples.]

Eating Disorders Awareness Week

1-7th March 2021

Beat Eating Disorders

Binge eating disorder will affect one in fifty of us in our lifetime, it is the most common but least understood. It isn’t about being greedy or lacking in willpower, but a serious mental illness which many suffer with alone, often with the fear of how others might react the reason they don’t reach out for help.

Beat Eating Disorder have a range of resources to help spread awareness and start conversations on this topic. Click here to access.

The Library also has a selection of Eating Disorder texts. Visit our catalogue to view the range of titles. We can send these directly to you if you cannot access the Gosall Library. Please email: academic.library@lscft.nhs.uk stating the book you would like to borrow.

Mental health trusts work in partnership to support people affected by eating disorders

NHS England, August 2019

This case study show how CONNECT, a regional service in Yorkshire aimed at improving care for adults with eating disorders, worked in partnerships to better support people with mental health issues.  The CONNECT Service offers a variety of treatment options based on a person’s needs including early intervention, home-based treatment or inpatient treatment.

Click here to view the case study.

Best practice in the engagement and empowerment of families and carers affected by eating disorders

Beat Eating Disorders, July 2019

Guidelines that call for all healthcare providers to adopt eight best practice standards, encouraging them to:

  • 1. Have a policy that ensures optimum involvement of and support for all carers as soon as a loved one starts treatment.
  • 2. Train all service staff in the application of the policy and these standards with particular focus on the importance of carers as a resource for recovery.
  • 3. Provide all carers with useful and comprehensive information about eating disorders when their loved one receives a diagnosis.
  • 4. Offer all carers and siblings an assessment of their own needs when a loved one receives an eating disorder diagnosis, continue to monitor their wellbeing throughout the sufferer’s treatment and, where necessary, refer carers to specialist services.
  • 5. Offer all carers options for peer-to-peer support.
  • 6. Offer all carers opportunities to learn the necessary skills to provide optimum support for their loved ones.
  • 7. Inform and engage carers when a loved one faces a transition between services and ensure that effective communication between both services and carers takes place.
  • 8. Provide a mechanism by which carers’ input and feedback is sought and acted upon.

Click here to view the guideline.