Category: Uncategorized

Funding for public mental health helped address Covid 19 mental health challenges

A report by the Centre for Mental Health commissioned by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) to evaluate the Better Mental Health Fund nationally has found how investment in public mental health can reap the biggest benefits for local communities.

The evaluation finds that the Fund enabled local councils to support a wide range of activities to promote mental health, covering a spectrum of preventive and support-based interventions and projects for the general population, by tailoring their use of the Fund to the needs of their local communities.

Funding for public mental health from the OHID’s Better Mental Health Fund was given to local authorities in 40 of the most disadvantaged areas of England that experience higher rates of mental ill health and used to run 314 projects to address mental health challenges arising from the Covid 19 pandemic.

CentreforMH_MadeInCommunities_BMHF_0.pdf (centreformentalhealth.org.uk)

Updated NICE standards on alcohol-use disorders

NICE has updated its quality standard on alcohol-use disorders: diagnosis and management. It focuses on five key areas: the use of validated alcohol questionnaires, community support networks and self-help groups, triage assessment in specialist alcohol services, acute alcohol withdrawal and interventions to prevent relapse after unplanned withdrawal from alcohol in hospital.

Overview | Alcohol-use disorders: diagnosis and management | Quality standards | NICE

Online Cochrane Library of evidence to close

The online Cochrane Library of evidence Cochrane Reviews | Cochrane Library that also monitors the impact of Cochrane Reviews is to close at the end of March 2024, following the end of NIHR (National Institute of Health and Care Research) funding.

Cochrane Reviews will continue to be produced.

Cochrane UK in Oxford to close at the end of March 2024 | Cochrane UK

Acute inpatient mental health care for adults and older adults guidance published

NHS England has published guidance to support the commissioning and delivery of timely access to high quality therapeutic inpatient care, close to home and in the least restrictive setting possible.

NHS England » Acute inpatient mental health care for adults and older adults

Print copies of BNF and BNFC to stop being provided from November 2023BNF

NICE has announced that upcoming editions of the BNF and BNFC, to be published in November 2023, will be the last to be published as print copies in favour of mobile and app based versions of the reference item.

In a blog post the organisation stated: “Following extensive user research showing an increasing preference for the online and mobile app versions, and in line with the NHS’s plans to digitise, connect and transform, NICE has made the decision that the upcoming print edition of BNF86 and BNFC 2023-24 will be the last to be supplied by NICE to the NHS in England. These final print editions supplied by NICE are scheduled to be distributed in October and November 2023.”

NICE to stop supplying print copies of BNF and BNFC to support use of up-to-date content, and drive sustainability and digital transformation | Blogs | News | NICE

Improvement of mental health services held back by workforce shortages, report finds

Workforce shortages are constraining the improvement and expansion of NHS
mental health services and demand continues to outstrip supply, a House of Commons Public Accounts Committee report has found.
It says data and information for NHS mental health services—which are vital for managing performance, developing new services and addressing inequalities—also still lag behind that available for physical health services

Progress in improving NHS mental health services (parliament.uk)