Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper published

A White Paper on the government’s proposals to help more disabled people and people with health conditions to start, stay and succeed in work has been published. It pledges to invest in employment support for disabled people and people with health conditions, ensure people can access the right support at the right time and have a better overall experience when applying for and receiving health and disability benefits reform the benefits system for the future so it focuses on what people can do rather than on what they cannot.

Charities acknowledged for outstanding contributions to health and wellbeing

Ten charities including one that operates in Lancashire have won a 2023 GSK IMPACT Awards. One of the ten was Red Rose Recovery, based in Preston and across East Lancashire, which runs recovery systems and creates opportunities for people affected by substance misuse, mental health and offending behaviours. The ten organisations will receive a £40,000 donation, plus two places on a free training and development programme. The overall winner will be announced at the GSK IMPACT Awards Ceremony on 18 May

2023 GSK IMPACT Award winners | The King’s Fund (kingsfund.org.uk)

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.