Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

COVID-19 vaccines for autumn 2022: JCVI advice, 15 August 2022.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2022.
(Statement setting out the latest advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on COVID-19 vaccines for autumn 2022.)

NHS prescription charges in England.
House of Commons Library; 2022.
(The cost of an NHS prescription, who is entitled to free prescriptions and how to get help with prescription costs.)

Homeless hostel residents and staff struggle to access health and social care services.
The Mental Elf; 2022.
(In her debut blog, Ava Phillips summarises a paper that finds both people living in homeless hostels, and staff working there, feel marginalised and struggle to access the health and social care they need.)

As waiting lists grow for anxiety disorders, should we be turning to digital interventions?
The Mental Elf; 2022.
(Theo Kyriacou and Andie Ashdown explore a recent systematic review that brings together two decades of research, which suggests that digital health interventions for anxiety disorders may be a more effective alternative to inactive controls, such as waiting-list groups.)

No place for cheap alcohol: the potential value of minimum pricing for protecting lives.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2022.
(Pricing policies and taxation are among the most effective measures that policy-makers can use to address these harms, but they remain underutilized across the Region. This report reviews the status of implementation of minimum pricing globally, provides an overview of the most recent evidence behind the policy, addresses its main strengths and limitations and offers practical considerations for countries.)

Library Support

Literature Searching

Literature searching puts evidence based practice at the forefront of clinical practice- allowing you to find appropriate articles which could have a direct impact upon patients, service planning, clinical support, further research or simply to keep up to date with your area of expertise.

Evidence can support:

  • An audit
  • A care pathway
  • A guideline
  • Protocol development
  • Direct patient care
  • Service planning and decision making
  • Presentations/ training
  • Research
  • Systematic Reviews

Literature searching provides you with the information you need to find the types of articles that will help you with your clinical practice or research. It is a skill that can be developed and should be incorporated into daily practice.

The Library can support you with training on this topic – (either on a 1:1 basis or as a group) should you wish to develop your skills in this area. Please contact; katie.roper@lscft.nhs.uk to arrange a session.

We also provide literature searching as part of our service. Simply fill out the form below and send it back to academic.library@lscft.nhs.uk.

Literature-Search-formDownload

We kindly ask that you give us 10 working days to find the evidence for your request.

Community network

There is no community without people: the staffing challenges facing community health services and how we can address them

Source: NHS Providers

This briefing sets out the key workforce pressures facing community health providers, alongside suggested solutions and policy enablers to increase workforce capacity in the sector. The content has been directly informed by the views and experiences of community provider leaders.

For more information click here.

Library Bulletin

Digital Mental Health

The current bulletin for Digital Mental Health, produced by Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust, is now available to view and download.

Digital-Mental-Health-bulletin-August-2022Download

Some articles may require an Open Athens account to read the full text articles. For support accessing any of the articles within the bulletin please contact: academic.library@lscft.nhs.uk

House of Commons Justice Committee

Women in prison

Women represent less than 5 per cent of the total prison population. They are often sentenced to custody for non-violent, low-level but persistent offences, and are more likely than men to be sentenced for short periods of time. Female offenders are often the most vulnerable in society and have varied and complex needs. Many have experienced mental health problems, substance misuse, homelessness, abuse and trauma in their lives. The Ministry of Justice recognised these challenges in its 2018 Female Offender Strategy, which set out its strategic priorities to see fewer women coming into the criminal justice system; fewer women in custody (especially on short sentences); and a greater proportion of women managed in the community successfully, with better conditions for those in custody. This report assesses its performance to date against those priorities.

For more information click here.

Public Health

Current awareness updates

Family hubs and start for life programme: local authority guide.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2022.

(Guidance and sign up form for local authorities pre-selected to take part in the family hubs and start for life programme.)

Commissioning quality standard: alcohol and drug services.
Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID); 2022.
(Guidance for local authorities to support them in commissioning effective alcohol and drug treatment and recovery services in their areas.)

Direct and indirect health impacts of Covid-19 in England: emerging Omicron impacts

Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2022 This paper (produced together with the Office for National Statistics) gives an overview of the direct health impacts of Covid-19 in terms of morbidity and mortality and the indirect impacts arising through behavioural changes and health system pressures.

Public Health Outcomes Framework: August 2022 data update

Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID); 2022.

The Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) examines indicators that help health and care professionals and the public to understand trends in public health. The data is presented in an interactive tool that allows users to view it in a user-friendly format. The data tool also provides links to further supporting information, to aid understanding of public health in a local population.

Women and Equalities Committee

Menopause and the workplace

Source: The King’s Fund

This report explores menopause as a health issue, a workplace issue and, fundamentally, as an equality issue, in relation to which people need better legal protection. It seeks to raise awareness across wider society, drive change among employers, and encourage a proactive and collaborative approach by the government.

Library Bulletin

Psychiatric nursing

The current bulletin for Psychiatric nursing, produced by Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust, is now available to view and download.

Psychiatric-Nursing-bulletin-August-2022Download

Some articles may require an Open Athens account to read the full text articles. For support accessing any of the articles within the bulletin please contact: academic.library@lscft.nhs.uk

Disabled people and health care services

Getting our voices heard

Disabled people face poorer experiences of – and worse access to – health and care services than people who aren’t disabled and these health inequalities have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. In this context, it’s vitally important to include disabled people in planning, designing and developing health and care services. This King’s Fund long read, with Disability Rights UK sets out what we found out about how disabled people are currently involved in health and care service design, and what good might look like.

Key messages include:

  • 60 per cent of those who died from Covid-19 in the first year of the pandemic were disabled. The health inequalities disabled people already faced were made worse by the pandemic and a decade of austerity. In this context, it’s vitally important to include disabled people in designing and planning health and care system responses.
  • Health and care services need to understand the broad diversity of disabled people’s identities and experiences, and adopt a social model approach to disability, understanding that people are disabled by barriers in society, rather than by impairments or health conditions.
  • Health and care professionals need to value disabled people’s expertise through properly recognising the value of lived experience and ensure disabled people’s voices are central to any plans right from the start.
  • Disabled health and care staff are potential partners in this work, with their perspectives of both using and delivering services.
  • Disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) can strengthen their impact by working with other local DPOs and user-led organisations, understanding which parts of health and care systems they can best influence, and supporting health and care organisations to meaningfully engage with disabled people.
  • Both health and care organisations and DPOs need to improve their understanding of how people’s multiple identities shape their experiences, and embrace diversity of voices, opinions and challenges as an opportunity to think differently.
  • Ensuring disabled people’s voices are heard requires constant attention. While there are some examples of good practice, we heard many stories we heard where involvement wasn’t happening or felt tokenistic.

(The King’s Fund)