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Found 1,157 results
  1. News Article
    Thousands of women in England with mental health problems are being given electric shock treatment despite concerns the therapy can cause irreparable brain damage. NHS data seen by The Independent reveals the scale of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) prescribed disproportionately to women, who make up two-thirds of patients receiving the treatment. Health professionals have warned the therapy can cause brain damage so severe recipients are unable to recognise family and friends or do basic maths. While some patients say the therapy profoundly helped them, leading mental charities have branded it “damaging” and “outdated” and called for its use to be halted pending an urgent review or banned entirely. Statistics obtained through Freedom of Information requests by Dr John Read, a professor at the University of East London and leading expert on ECT, showed 67% of 1,964 patients who received the treatment in 2019 were female. ECT was given to women twice as often as men across 20 NHS trusts in the UK, his research found. The trusts also said some 36% of their patients in 2019 underwent ECT without providing consent. A spokesperson added patients should be fully informed of the risks associated with ECT and the decision to deploy the treatment “should be made jointly with the person with depression as far as possible”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 19 June 2022
  2. News Article
    The mothers of two teenage boys who died after failures in their care have called on the government to make "urgent improvements" to how children with disabilities are assessed. Sammy Alban-Stanley, 13, and 14-year-old Oskar Nash both died in 2020. Inquests for both boys recorded they had received inadequate care from local authorities and mental health services. The calls were made in an open letter to the secretaries of state for health and social care, and education. Patricia Alban and Natalia Nash asked Sajid Javid and Nadim Zahawi to make fundamental changes to several care areas to prevent future deaths. The pair said they both experienced problems with support for disabled children and families. Services lacked understanding of neurological conditions like autism, they said. The pair also pointed to a lack of access to children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), and failure to assess or review the severity of a child's developing needs. Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 June 2022
  3. News Article
    Adult mental health patients in England have spent more than 200,000 days being treated in “inappropriate” out-of-area placements – at a cost to the NHS of £102m – in the year since the government pledged to end the practice. The Royal College of Psychiatrists, which carried out the analysis, says such placements, in which mental health patients can be sent hundreds of miles from home, are a shameful and dangerous practice that must stop. The government said it would end such placements by April last year but, in the 12 months since, 205,990 days were spent inappropriately out of area, at a cost equivalent to the annual salaries of more than 900 consultant psychiatrists, the college found. Dr Adrian James, the college’s president, said: “The failure to eliminate inappropriate out-of-area placements is a scandal. It is inhumane and is costing the NHS millions of pounds each year that could be spent helping patients get better. “No one with a mental illness should have to travel hundreds of miles away from home to get the treatment they desperately need.” He said investment was needed in local, properly staffed beds, alternatives to admission, and follow-up care in the community as well as government backing “to address the workforce crisis that continues to plague mental health services”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 13 June 2022
  4. News Article
    Leading doctors say they have concerns about the NHS reducing mentions of the word "women" in ovarian cancer guidance. They say "it may cause confusion" and create barriers to care. But NHS Digital, which writes the online advice, said they wanted to make it relevant for everyone who needs it. The updated guidance now says that people with ovaries, such as trans men, can also be affected. Until February, the NHS guidance began by explaining ovarian cancer was "one of the most common types of cancer for women". Now, the only specific mention of women comes on the third page with the explanation that ovarian cancer can affect "women, trans men, non-binary people and intersex people with ovaries". NHS Digital said the changes were introduced to make the advice more relevant and inclusive. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, which represents thousands of women's health specialists and pregnancy doctors, said the language used "does need to be appropriate, inclusive and sensitive to the needs of individuals whose gender identity does not align with the sex they were assigned at birth". But it added: "Limiting the term 'woman' to one mention may cause confusion and create further barriers for some women and people trying to make an informed choice about their care. "We would therefore support the use of the word 'woman' alongside inclusive language." Read full story Source: BBC News, 8 June 2022
  5. News Article
    The U.S. is facing high levels of burnout among health care workers, which could lead to serious shortcomings in patient care, a new report from the U.S. Surgeon General has found. Burnout among health care workers was a serious problem even before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the stress caused by the ongoing pandemic has made things much worse, said Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy. “The pandemic has accelerated the mental health and burnout crisis that is now affecting not only health workers, but the communities they serve,” Murthy said. “Already, Americans are feeling the impact of staffing shortages across the health system in hospitals, primary care clinics, and public health departments. As the burnout and mental health crisis among health workers worsens, this will affect the public’s ability to get routine preventive care, emergency care, and medical procedures. It will make it harder for our nation to ensure we are ready for the next public health emergency. Health disparities will worsen as those who have always been marginalized suffer more in a world where care is scarce. Costs will continue to rise.” The report calls for several steps to address the burdens on health care workers. These include: Protecting the health, safety, and well-being of all health workers by ensuring they have proper equipment, training, and are protected against workplace violence. Eliminating punitive policies for seeking mental health and substance abuse care. Reducing administrative and documentation burdens and improving health information technology and payment models. Prioritising health worker well-being on an organizational level—this includes providing competitive wages, paid sick and family leave, rest breaks, educational debt support, and other steps to ease the burden on health workers. Read full story Source: BenefitsPro, 6 June 2022
  6. News Article
    MPs from across the political spectrum have called for a ban on electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) as a treatment for mental illness in England, and want the practice to be subject to an urgent inquiry. MPs told The Independent they have serious concerns that women are disproportionally given electroconvulsive therapy, and argued that patients are not properly notified of the treatment’s potential side effects. Some patients have also reported that they weren’t asked to provide consent before it was administered. Dr Pallavi Devulapalli, a GP, called for the government to undertake an “urgent and comprehensive review” of the treatment as she warned that patients’ wellbeing was “at stake”. The calls come after The Independent previously reported that thousands of women were being given ECT despite concerns that it can cause irreversible brain damage. It comes after Dr Sue Cunliffe, who began receiving ECT in 2004, previously told The Independent that the treatment had “completely destroyed” her life despite a psychiatrist having told her there would be no long-term side effects. Dr Cunliffe, a former children’s doctor, said: “By the end of it, I couldn’t recognise relatives or friends. I couldn’t count money out. I couldn’t do my two times table. I couldn’t navigate anywhere. I couldn’t remember what I’d done from one minute to another.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 March 2023
  7. News Article
    Nine care home workers are facing trial for neglecting, verbally abusing and deliberately antagonising extremely vulnerable patients in care described as “devoid of kindness and respect” but also criminal. The six men and three women, aged 25-54, are being prosecuted after a reporter went undercover and filmed the behaviour for a BBC Panorama documentary. Opening the case at Teesside crown court in Middlesbrough, the prosecuting barrister, Anne Richardson, said the patients all resided at Whorlton Hall, a 17-bed independent specialist hospital unit near Barnard Castle, County Durham, operated by Cygnet Health Care. Richardson said caring for such residents was a “hard, demanding job, and that carers can face complex, difficult, obstreperous, and sometimes violent people who sadly do not realise what they are doing and cannot help their actions.” But they deserved to be treated with “kindness, respect and patience.” Richardson said the jury would hear evidence of ill-treatment which was “cruel and abusive”. It was “not only devoid of the respect and kindness that those residents deserved but was also a criminal offence”. It included care workers repeatedly saying words they knew to be triggers to patients, belittling those in their care and deliberately antagonising them. Read full story Source: The Independent, 8 March 2023
  8. News Article
    Covid-19 may not have taken as great a toll on the mental health of most people as earlier research has indicated, a new study suggests. The pandemic resulted in “minimal” changes in mental health symptoms among the general population, according to a review of 137 studies from around the world led by researchers at McGill University in Canada, and published in the British Medical Journal. Brett Thombs, a psychiatry professor at McGill University and senior author, said some of the public narrative around the mental health impacts of Covid-19 were based on “poor-quality studies and anecdotes”, which became “self-fulfilling prophecies”, adding that there was a need for more “rigorous science”. However, some experts disputed this, warning such readings could obscure the impact on individual groups such as children, women and people with low incomes or pre-existing mental health problems. They also said other robust studies had reached different conclusions. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 8 March 2023
  9. News Article
    Nearly three-quarters of children detained under the mental health act are girls, a new report has found, amid warnings youngsters face a “postcode lottery” in their wait for treatment. Average waiting times between children being referred to mental health services and starting treatment have increased for the first time since 2017 with the children’s commissioner describing support across the country as “patchy”. In the annual report on children’s mental health services, the watchdog warned that, although the average wait is 40 days, some children are waiting as long as 80 days for treatment after being referred in 2021-22. The analysis, published on International Women’s day, also says young girls represented the highest proportion of children detained under the mental health act last year, highlighting “stark and worrying” gender inequalities. Read full story Source: The Independent, 7 March 2023 Further reading on the hub: Top picks: Women's health inequity
  10. News Article
    Patients with rheumatic conditions who shielded during the pandemic feel "left behind", according to new research. The University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol conducted a study with patients about their experiences of shielding during the pandemic and how it continued to affect them. Researchers interviewed 15 rheumatology patients from the Bristol area. Pamela Richards, who suffers with arthritis, said the pandemic has been "a massive blow" to the way she lives. "I have never experienced anything like shielding, it heightened a sense of anxiety in me," said Ms Richards. "How do I get food? I cannot leave the house. How can I see friends? I was not allowed to." Ms Richards, who shielded for nearly two years during the pandemic, said that life has not returned to normal, despite no longer being advised to shield. "It is a new normal, which is about being on high alert and managing risk every day," she said. Researcher Christine Silverthorne said: "Many are still dealing with lasting physical and mental effects both from the experience of shielding and as a consequence of delays to their healthcare and treatment". Read full story Source: BBC News, 6 March 2023
  11. News Article
    A new study has found that the pandemic has severely affected people’s mental health and relationships all over the world, particularly for young adults. The third annual mental state of the world report (MSW) commissioned by Sapien Labs, a non-profit research organisation, conducted a global survey to better understand the state of mental health. The research compiled responses from over 400,000 participants across 64 countries, asking respondents about their family relationships, friendships and overall mental wellbeing. The survey found that there has been little recovery in declining mental health during the pandemic, which the group measures by a score called “mental health quotient”. It had found that average score had declined by 33 points – on a 300-point scale – over the past two years and still showed no signs of recovery, remaining at the same level as 2021. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 1 March 2023
  12. News Article
    A trust chief executive has suggested an inquiry team looking at 2,000 deaths is lacking in “expertise” and has created a “disproportionate impression” of the problems at his trust. Essex Partnership University Trust is at the centre of a high-profile inquiry into the deaths of patients over a 20-year period, which was sparked after serious concerns were raised over specific cases. The inquiry, led by Geraldine Strathdee, a former national clinical director for mental health, is reviewing the cases of 2,000 people who died while they were patients on a mental health ward in Essex or within three months of being discharged. In a letter to the inquiry, obtained by HSJ through a freedom of information request, trust chief executive officer Paul Scott wrote: “The headline number of c.1,500 or c.2,000 deaths used in publicity by the inquiry is, in my opinion, not a fair reflection of the deaths that would be of interest to the inquiry.” Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 1 March 2023
  13. News Article
    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended eight online therapies for anxiety and depression. NICE says the therapies have the potential to help more than 40,000 people in the UK. Each therapy must come with a formal assessment from an NHS therapist in order for it to be recommended. According to NHS Digital, there is a six-week waiting list for patients who need mental health support in England. There are hopes that introducing online digital therapies could ease pressure on the NHS. The treatments can help those with depression, anxiety, PTSD and body dysmorphia and are centred on the use of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) - a talking therapy which can help a patient manage their problems by suggesting alterations to their thought process and behaviour. The therapies have been conditionally recommended by NICE - meaning early assessments have taken place to identify promising medical technology but more evidence needs to be gathered. However, Professor Dame Til Wykes, of the School of Mental Health and Psychological Sciences at London's King's College, cautioned "we don't know enough" about the effectiveness of online therapies and whether the therapies will offer sufficient support for mental health patients. Her view was echoed by mental health charity Mind, with content manager Jessica D'Cruz asserting "the majority" of people needing support "will struggle to benefit from this". Read full story Source: BBC News, 1 March 2023
  14. News Article
    Mental health trusts are exploring wider use of CCTV to review incidents of seclusion or restraint in response to high-profile abuse scandals, HSJ has learned. All providers of mental health, learning disability and autism services were ordered to review safety and asked to feed back to NHS England’s national team. The request was made in a letter from national director Claire Murdoch sent in response to abuse allegations aired by BBC Panorama and Channel 4’s Dispatches. The review is taking place alongside NHSE’s launch of a £36m three-year quality programme. This aims to identify providers and systems needing support, commission a culture and leadership development programme for all trusts, and produce a new model for safe inpatient care. Results of trust-level reviews, seen by HSJ, show at least five providers aim to use CCTV more “pro-actively”, as a tool for boosting safety. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 27 February 2023
  15. News Article
    The health safety watchdog has said that doctors, ambulance dispatchers and other NHS staff in England have faced "significant distress" and harm over the past year as a result of long delays in urgent and emergency care. The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB), which monitors safety in the health service in England, said many staff it interviewed for a national investigation "cried or displayed other extreme emotions" when asked about their working environment. "The bad sides [of my job] give me nightmares, flashbacks and fear, but they can also make me hyperactive, sleepless and sometimes not care about the danger I put myself in," one paramedic told the BBC. Sarah, not her real name, has worked in the ambulance service for more than a decade, but describes the last 12 months as the most difficult she can remember. "Over the winter I have witnessed and helped with cardiac arrests in the corridors of hospitals and in the back of ambulances," she said. "I spent four hours with an end-of-life patient. There was no hospice or district nurse available, so I had to make the choice to give them meds for a peaceful, expected death and prepare the family. "I felt ashamed that I could not stay till the end, but I had to move on to the next job as I had done all I could." The HSIB found NHS staff were reporting increased levels of stress, worry and exhaustion because they were not always able to help the sickest patients. HSIB has now urged trusts to do more to protect workers’ mental health, saying there is an “intrinsic link” between patient safety and staff wellbeing. Read full story Source: BBC News, 27 February 2023
  16. News Article
    A mental health trust is to be prosecuted after three patients died in its care. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is bringing charges against the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys (TEWV) NHS Trust. It is thought they relate to the deaths of Christie Harnett, 17, Emily Moore, 18, and a third person. The trust is said to have failed "to provide safe care and treatment" which exposed patients to "significant risk of avoidable harm". Both Christie Harnett and Emily Moore had complex mental health issues and took their own lives. The CQC said the trust "breached" the Health and Social Care Act, which relates to healthcare providers' responsibility to "ensure people receive safe care and treatment". In response, a spokesperson for the trust said: "We have fully cooperated with the Care Quality Commission's investigation and continue to work closely with them. "We remain focused on delivering safe and kind care to our patients and have made significant progress in the last couple of years." Read full story Source: BBC News, 25 February 2023
  17. News Article
    An ‘outstanding’ rated acute trust has been served with a warning notice by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and told to make ‘significant and immediate improvements’ to its mental health and learning disabilities services. The CQC said staff at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust had not always carried out mental capacity assessments when people presented with mental health needs. And this included when decisions were made to restrain patients in the emergency department. A CQC warning notice, published alongside a report of an inspection between 30 November and 1 December last year, says the trust must make “significant and immediate improvements in the quality of care being provided” to people with mental health issues, learning disabilities or autism. The warning notice also says the trust must ensure people with a learning disability and autistic people “receive care which meets the full range of their needs”. The trust’s records “did not show evidence that staff had considered patients’ additional needs,” the regulator said. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 24 February 2023
  18. News Article
    Record levels of NHS staff are seeking mental health help as clinicians warn the “crisis” facing workers is “worse than the pandemic”. Hundreds of staff are being referred to the specialist mental health service, NHS Practitioner Health, with 842 workers referred in October 2022 – up from 534 in the same month the year before and 371 in 2020. Around 40% of the staff seeking the service are GPs and 50% are hospital doctors. The news comes as The Independent reported that the NHS and government are set to axe funding for 40 mental health hubs set up for health and social care workers following the pandemic. Amandip Sidhu, of Doctors in Distress, which offers workers mental health support, said: “Health workers believe that the crisis they are currently dealing with is worse than during the pandemic and exacerbated by the fact there is no end in sight, with little evidence that decision-makers are taking steps to improve the situation. “The fact that the public, their patients, lack sympathy or understanding is making many medics feel isolated and completely unappreciated.” Read full story Source: The Independent, 23 February 2023
  19. News Article
    Suicidal NHS staff will be left in “dangerous” situations without support when national funding for mental health hubs ends next month, health leaders have warned. The hubs, set up with £15 million of government funding for NHS workers following Covid, are being forced to close or reduce services as neither the Department for Health and Social Care nor the NHS has confirmed ongoing funding for 2023-24. This will leave thousands of NHS staff, some of whom are described as “suicidal” in “complete limbo”, The Independent has been told. The British Psychological Society (BPS) and the Association of Clinical Psychologists (ACP) said the failure to continue the funding was an “irresponsible” way to treat vulnerable health and care workers. Professor Mike Wang, chair of ACP, said: “There is a clinical responsibility, not to remove a service from individuals who are vulnerable, and in difficulty … the problem with that is that the funding ceases at the end of March and that’s absolutely no time at all to make any [future] provision. So, it’s clinically irresponsible to simply halt a service. Some of these individuals are, you know, carrying suicide risk.” He said it was “dangerous” and “astonishing” that funding for the hubs was ending “given the present circumstances of continuing effects of the pandemic, clear evidence of underfunding of health care in this country”. Read full story Source: The Independent, 22 February 2023
  20. News Article
    A high court judge has expressed her “deep frustration” at NHS delays and bureaucracy that mean a suicidal 12-year-old girl has been held on her own, in a locked, windowless room with no access to the outdoors for three weeks. In a hearing on Thursday, Mrs Justice Lieven told North Staffordshire combined healthcare NHS trust “you are testing my patience”, after she heard that a proposal to move Becky (not her real name), could not progress until a planning meeting that would not be held until next week, and that a move was not anticipated until 2 March. Three sets of doctors at the hospital trust have disagreed as to Becky’s diagnosis; at her most recent assessment doctors said she was not eligible to be sectioned, which would trigger the protections provided by the Mental Health Act, because her mental disorder was not of the “nature and degree” as to warrant her detention. In a robust exchange, the judge demanded: “Where’s the urgency in this … I cannot believe that the life and health of a 12-year-old girl is hanging on an issue of NHS procurement, when you cannot tell me what it is you’re trying to procure. “If the delay is procurement, I’m not having it,” Lieven continued. “I will use the inherent jurisdiction to make an order. We have a 12-year-old child in a completely inappropriate NHS unit for about three weeks, and it’s suddenly dawned on your client that ‘actually we’ll put her in a Tier 4 unit and we might have to do some [building] work.’” Sometimes, the judge said, “public bodies have to move faster”. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 17 February 2023
  21. News Article
    One in three prisoners in Europe suffer from mental health disorders, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said in a new report. While European prisons managed adequate COVID-19 pandemic responses for inmates, concerns remain about poor mental health services, overcrowding and suicide rates, the report stated. “Prisons are embedded in communities and investments made in the health of people in prison becomes a community dividend,” said Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, regional director of the WHO regional office for Europe. “Incarceration should never become a sentence to poorer health. All citizens are entitled to good-quality health care regardless of their legal status.” The second status report on prison health in the WHO European region provides an overview of the performance of prisons in the region based on survey data from 36 countries, where more than 600,000 people are incarcerated. Findings showed that the most prevalent condition among people in prison was mental health disorders, affecting 32.8% of the prison population. The report drew attention to several areas of concern, including overcrowding and a lack of services for mental health, which represents the greatest health need among people in prison across the region. The most common cause of death in prisons was suicide, with a much higher rate than in the wider community, the report found. Read full story Source: United Nations, 14 February 2023
  22. News Article
    A government review into mental health hospitals will fail to prevent the “appalling” treatment of patients, campaigners have warned. The urgent inquiry into inpatient mental health services will focus solely on data, the government said on Tuesday. The “rapid review”, launched following investigations by The Independent into “systemic abuse” across a group of children’s mental health hospitals, will last 12 weeks and is being led by a former national NHS mental health director Dr Geraldine Strathdee. In an outline of what it will cover, the Department for Health and Social Care said it would look at what data is collected by the NHS on inpatient mental health services and whether it is used effectively to identify patient safety problems. It will also look at the quality of data and identify good examples of care but it won’t look at individual cases of abuse or community services. Major mental health charity Mind has warned the review “is not enough” and will not provide any learnings on how to prevent poor care. The charity is instead calling for a national statutory public inquiry into inpatient mental health services. Read full story Source: The Independent, 15 February 2023
  23. News Article
    A damning report last year from Dr Hilary Cass into the Tavistock Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) found that it was putting children at “considerable risk”. Her full report is due to be published later this year. Whistleblower Dr Anna Hutchinson, a senior clinical psychologist at GIDS, describes when she realised something was very wrong. “I just couldn’t comfortably keep being part of a process that was, I felt, putting children — but also my colleagues — at risk,” Hutchinson explains. Faced with no discernible action from the executive, staff began to look for other ways to raise their concerns, to other people who might listen — and act. Hutchinson approached the Tavistock’s Freedom to Speak Up guardian. At least four other colleagues did the same in 2017. That same year, another four clinicians took their concerns outside GIDS to the children’s safeguarding lead for the Tavistock trust." Read full story (paywalled) Source: The Times, 13 February 2023
  24. News Article
    Children suffering mental health crises spent more than 900,000 hours in A&E in England last year seeking urgent and potentially life-saving help, NHS figures reveal. Experts said the huge amount of time under-18s with mental health issues were spending in A&E was “simply astounding” and showed that NHS services for that vulnerable age group were inadequate. Children as young as three and four years old are among those ending up in emergency departments because of mental health problems, according to data obtained by Labour. Dr Rosena Allin-Khan, the shadow mental health minister, who is also an A&E doctor, said: “With nowhere to turn, children with a mental illness are left to deteriorate and reach crisis point – at which time A&E is the only place left for them to go. Emergency departments are incredibly unsuitable settings for children in crisis, yet we’re witnessing increasingly younger children having to present to A&E in desperation.” Young people who endured long A&E waits included those with depression, psychosis and eating disorders as well as some who had self-harmed or tried to kill themselves, doctors said. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 February 2023
  25. News Article
    Mental health sick days cost the NHS almost half a million pounds as staff anxiety and stress levels haved skyrocketed. Costs have almost doubled compared to before the pandemic from £279 million to £468 million. The sickness data shared with The Independent by GoodShape, an employee well-being and performance analysis company, shows the number of staff sick days increased in 2022 to 12 million from 7.21 million in 2019. That is despite the overall number of people working in the NHS increasing from 1.2 to 1.3 million. The overall cost to the NHS of absences for the five most common reasons – which includes mental health – increased to a “staggering” £1.85 billion from £1.01 billion between 2019 to 2022, according to figures from GoodShape. Covid was still the most common reason for staff sickness last year, according to the analysis, accounting for 4.4 million lost days, while mental health was a close second driving 3 million days off due to illness. Pat Cullen, chief executive and general secretary for the Royal College of Nursing said in response: “These figures are shocking but not surprising. With 47,000 vacant nurse posts in England alone, the pressures on staff are unrelenting. Read full story Source: The Independent, 8 February 2023
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