Serenity integrated mentoring schemes must stop, NHS England says

NHS England National Clinical Director for Mental Health sets out NHS England Professor Tim Kendall has published a position letter stating that serenity integrated mentoring (SIM) or similar models must no longer be used in NHS mental health services.  More specifically , it states, the following three elements must be eradicated from mental health services –

  • Police involvement in the delivery of therapeutic interventions in planned, non-emergency, community mental health care (this is not the same as saying all joint work with the police must stop).
  • The use of sanctions (criminal or otherwise), withholding care and otherwise punitive approaches, as clarified in National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance.
  • Discriminatory practices and attitudes towards patients who express self harm behaviours, suicidality and/or those who are deemed ‘high intensity users’.
  • Indeed, we will be working with experts by experience, clinicians and policing colleagues to agree a National Partnership Agreement that sets out principles for joint working with police.
  • Police may come into contact with people who have engaged in criminalised behaviour while carrying out their statutory obligations. This must not be conflated with active and routine involvement of police in mental health services.
  • It is clear the employment or secondment or otherwise embedding of police officers within CMHTs as part of routine appointments is not appropriate.

Professor Kendall states: “this is not the same as saying joint working with the police must stop – joint working is critical…It is clear the employment or secondment or otherwise embedding of police officers within CMHTs as part of routine appointments is not appropriate.”

It is thought 22 trusts had implemented the SIM model in their services.

NHS England » NHS England position on serenity integrated mentoring and similar models

Racism root cause of inequalities, report finds

Racism is the cause of health inequity, from birth through to adulthood and into later life, according to a report by the Race Equality Foundation. Researchers looked at Understanding Society data which found that racism is a key driver of ethnic inequalities in health, both directly and indirectly. It has an impact in childhood – with children from ethnic backgrounds being born at a lower birthweight and not hitting developmental milestones, to life-limiting long term illness, and mental illness in adulthood.

Suicide Prevention Bulletin

Suicide Prevention

The current bulletin for Suicide Prevention, produced by Merseycare NHS Foundation Trust, is now available to view and download.

For support accessing any of the articles within the bulletins please contact: academic.library@lscft.nhs.uk

Increased risk of domestic violence during and after pregnancy for people with schizophrenia, study finds

Pregnant and postpartum patients with schizophrenia are three times more likely to experience interpersonal (domestic) violence, compared with those without schizophrenia, a study carried out by the Women’s College Hospital in Toronto has found.

In a population-based cohort study of almost two million participants, 3.1 per cent of patients with schizophrenia had an emergency department visit for interpersonal violence during pregnancy or the first postpartum year, compared with 0.4 per cent of those without schizophrenia.

Concerns about the ‘digitally excluded’ raised

Have you noticed how difficult life can be nowadays without a smart phone or laptop? Digital technologies can change how care is delivered, making health and care services more accessible, flexible, person centred, and a better experience for patients and staff while also improving efficiency but until digitally enabled services are inclusive, there is no guarantee they will have this effect, a report by think tank the King’s Fund has said Moving from exclusion to inclusion in digital health and care | The King’s Fund (kingsfund.org.uk).

The authors have also looked in more detail at the barriers faced by digitally excluded people in a separate piece of work Connection Lost (kingsfund.org.uk).

Library Bulletins

Learning Disabilities and Community Health

The current bulletins for Learning Disabilities and Community Health, produced by Merseycare NHS Foundation Trust, are now available to view and download.

For support accessing any of the articles within the bulletins please contact: academic.library@lscft.nhs.uk

First Government Champion for Personalised Prevention announced

Professor John Deanfield CBE, a professor of cardiology at University College London, who led a review into the NHS Health Check in 2021, has been appointed the first Government Champion for Personalised Prevention. Professor Deanfield’s new role means he has been charged by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to explore and expand the role of technology in helping people better look after their health and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

He will, say the DGSC, lead a taskforce with expertise on health policy, health technology, behavioural science, big data and health economics, to develop a set of evidence-based recommendations to deliver a vision for a modern, personalised cardiovascular disease prevention service.

Government to consider radical new approach to prevent life-threatening cardiovascular disease – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)