Tag: NHS

Latest Depression & Anxiety bulletin

Dear all,

The latest Depression & Anxiety Bulletin from Mersey Care Evidence and Library Service is ready for you to view at https://www.evidentlybetter.org/depression-anxiety/2026/05/11-may-2026/

In this edition:

  • Key target hit with 8,500 extra mental health workers in the NHS
  • Mental illness is pregnancy’s number one complication. It’s time to support those who suffer from it
  • Supported housing crisis costs NHS mental health services in England £102 million a year
  • MDMA-assisted therapy for depression: a promising but early first step
  • Plus much more

Please let us know if there are other people who you think might benefit from receiving this bulletin.

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Source: KnowledgeShare

We’ve only just begun: Action to improve young people’s mental health, education and employment.
Resolution Foundation; 2024.

(This report is the culmination of a three-year research programme exploring the relationship between the mental health and work outcomes of young people. The research was funded by the Health Foundation and is part of their broader Young people’s future health inquiry. It finds that more than 1 in 3 (34%) of young people aged 18–24 reported symptoms that indicated they were experiencing a common mental health disorder like depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder.)

Cold at home: How winter cost of living pressures continue to impact older people and what more needs to happen to support them.
Age UK; 2024.

(This report highlights concerns about the ongoing impact of the cost-of-living crisis on older people who are not receiving support from the benefits system. Many of these people are likely to be eligible for support but will still be missing out for a variety of reasons. Government figures show that an estimated 800,000 pensioners are eligible for Pension Credit but are missing out on this much-needed support.)

Reducing the harm from illegal drugs.
House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts; 2024.

(In response to Dame Carol Black’s review in December 2021, the From Harm to Hope strategy was launched. Two years on from when this strategy’s implementation began, overall progress has been mixed. This report outlines progress made and gives recommendations on next steps for the cross-departmental Joint Combating Drugs Unit in implementing this strategy.)

What patients want: a vision for the NHS in 2030.
Healthwatch England; 2024.

(Using experiences of care from more than 10 million people collected over the past 10 years, Healthwatch sets out where they think the NHS should be in six years and how it can get there.)

Smoking profile: March 2024 update.
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID); 2024.

(An overview of the extent of smoking, smoking-related harm and the measures being taken to reduce this harm at a local level in England.)

Health hubs: A community-centred prevention initiative to address health inequalities.
NHS Providers; 2024.

(Prevention is a crucial part of the NHS’s approach to improving population health and tackling health inequalities. One community-centred prevention initiative to address health inequalities is the creation of health hubs. This long read explores what health hubs are, how they can improve access for groups facing health inequalities, their broader social and economic benefits, and the role of trust leaders in their development.)

If you would like to receive personalised updates regarding your own interests, please complete the following form and send it to our team: academic.library@lscft.nhs.uk

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Podcast

The cost of the living crisis

Source: The King’s Fund

Anna Charles speaks to Torsten Bell, Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation, Helen Barnard, Associate Director at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Marie Gabriel CBE, Chair of North East London Integrated Care System and Cormac Russell, Founding Director of Nurture Development, to find out how the cost-of-living crisis is impacting the nation’s health and wellbeing and what the health and care system can do in response.

Listen here: The cost-of-living crisis: is the nation’s health paying the price? | The King’s Fund (kingsfund.org.uk)

Racism and the NHS

Combatting racial discrimination against minority ethnic nurses, midwives and nursing associates

Source: The King’s Fund

This resource is designed to support nurses, midwives and nursing associates, providing advice on the action they can take if they witness or experience racism. It also supports those in leadership roles to be inclusive leaders.

A working partnership

A guide to developing integrated statutory and voluntary sector mental health services

Source: Centre for Mental Health

Increasingly, the NHS and the voluntary and community sector (VCS) are being expected to work together to shape and deliver integrated mental health (and other health) services. This guide has been developed drawing on the experiences of a significant number of people actively involved in the development of integrated mental health services across the country from a range of perspectives. It reflects the many common themes and suggestions they shared.

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Suspected acute viral respiratory infections: managing outbreaks in schools. UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA); 2022.
(Guidance for local UKHSA centre health protection teams about assessing and managing outbreaks of suspected acute viral respiratory infections in schools.)

COVID-19: testing during periods of low prevalence.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA); 2022.
(Explains the purpose of ongoing testing and sets out who is currently eligible for access to testing and when tests should be used.)

Moderate alcohol consumption linked with higher iron levels and poorer thinking skills Alzheimer’s Research UK (July 2022)

(UK researchers have found moderate alcohol consumption is linked with higher iron levels in a region of the brain and was associated with poorer thinking skills. Above seven units weekly was associated with higher iron levels in a part of the brain called the basal ganglia, which is responsible for movement.)

NHS to roll out variant busting booster jab from September ahead of winter (NHS England; August 2022)

(The NHS will become the first healthcare system in the world to use the next generation, bivalent COVID vaccine when it kickstarts the autumn booster rollout in early September.)


A community-powered NHS

Making prevention a reality

Source: The King’s Fund

This report finds that by moving towards community-powered health –working collaboratively with communities as equal partners in the design and delivery of health care – can help make prevention a reality, protect the NHS’s future and improve health for all.

Was the NHS overwhelmed last winter?

Nuffield Trust

Throughout the pandemic, politicians and other policy-makers have emphasised the need to protect the NHS from collapse or overwhelm but even before Covid-19, the health service struggled to stay above water given worsening capacity, staffing and demand issues, especially during the colder months. This briefing looks at what happened to urgent and emergency hospital care last winter, when another wave of the virus hit the country during a time when it would be stretched to its absolute limits even without a pandemic.

How does the NHS work and how is it changing?

The King’s Fund Animation

Watch The King’s Fund new animation to discover the key organisations that make up the NHS and how they can collaborate with partners in the health and care system to deliver joined-up care.

Watch here: How does the NHS in England work and how is it changing? | The King’s Fund (kingsfund.org.uk)

Beds in the NHS

Royal College of Emergency Medicine Acute Insight Series

This report shows that an additional 13,000 staffed beds are required in the NHS across the UK to drive meaningful change and improvement. Meaningful change and improvement would constitute a significant improvement in A&E waiting times, ambulance response times, ambulance handover delays, and a return to safe bed occupancy levels.