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Found 1,157 results
  1. News Article
    The NHS is losing more than 3.5 million days of work because of staff sickness linked to mental health problems, it has emerged. New data from NHS England shows the problem is getting worse with an increasing number of days and proportion of staff off sick for mental health reasons. The data runs from March 2019 to February 2020, before the coronavirus crisis. It is feared the pandemic could lead to lasting mental health issues for some NHS workers. Layla Moran, a Liberal Democrat MP who obtained the data through a parliamentary question, said: “These incredibly worrying figures show the mental health of NHS workers was already at a tipping point before the pandemic struck." Read full story Source: The Independent, 14 July 2020
  2. News Article
    Five NHS trusts in the South West have been ordered to make immediate improvements after the death of a 20-year-old prisoner who needed healthcare. Lewis Francis was arrested in Wells, Somerset, in 2017 after stabbing his mother while “acutely psychotic” and taken into custody. Although his condition mandated a transfer to a medium secure mental health hospital, there was “no mechanism” in place to move Mr Francis and he was taken to prison, where he died by suicide two days later, according to a coroner. Contributory factors to his death included “insufficient collaboration, communication and ownership between and within organisations… together with insufficient knowledge of… the Mental Health Act,” according to Nicholas Rheinberg, the assistant coroner for Exeter and Greater Devon. In a Prevention of Future Deaths report, Mr Rheinberg said a memorandum of understanding was in place for the transfer of “mentally ill prisoners direct from police custody” in the West Midlands, and he called on the South West Provider Collaborative to agree a similar deal with “relevant organisations and agencies”. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 14 July 2020
  3. News Article
    Relatives of care home residents with dementia should be treated as key workers, leading charities say. In a letter to the health secretary, they write that the care given by family members is "essential" to residents' mental and physical health. They argue the current limits on visitors have had "damaging consequences" and they want visits to resume safely, with relatives given the same access to care homes and coronavirus testing as staff. Signed by the bosses of leading charities including Dementia UK and the Alzheimer's Society, the letter calls on the government to "urgently" address what it calls the "hidden catastrophe" happening in care homes. The charities say that this "enforced separation" has caused a "deterioration" in residents' mental and physical health, particularly for those living with dementia - who make up more than 70% of the population of care homes. Read full story Source: BBC News, 9 July 2020
  4. News Article
    A quarter of people who sought help for mental health problems during lockdown were unable to access NHS services, a new survey shows. A survey by the mental health charity Mind found that 25% of respondents who contacted primary care services could not get support. More than a fifth (22%) of adults with no previous experience of poor mental health now say that their mental health has deteriorated, according to the survey. Many people who were previously well will develop mental health problems as a “direct consequence of the pandemic and all that follows”, according to Mind. Two out of three (65%) adults aged 25 and over and three-quarters of young people aged 13-24 with an existing mental health problem reported worse mental health during the lockdown. Mind predicts that prolonged worsening of wellbeing and “continued inadequate access” to NHS mental health services will lead to a marked increase in people experiencing longer-term mental health problems. Read full story Source: The Independent, 30 June 2020
  5. News Article
    People who were seriously ill in hospital with coronavirus need to be urgently screened for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), leading doctors say. The Covid Trauma Response Working Group, led by University College London and involving experts from south-east England, said those who had been in intensive care were most at risk. The experts said regular check ups should last at least a year. More than 100,000 people have been treated in hospital for the virus. The experts say tens of thousands of these would have been seriously ill enough to be at risk of PTSD. The working group highlighted research which showed 30% of patients who had suffered severe illnesses in infectious disease outbreaks in the past had gone on to develop PTSD, while depression and anxiety problems were also common. Tracy is just one of many people who has been left with psychological scars from her coronavirus experience. She was admitted to Whittington Hospital in north London in March and spent more than three weeks there - one of which was in intensive care. "It was like being in hell. I saw people dying, people with the life being sucked from them. The staff all have masks on and all you saw was eyes - it was so lonely and frightening." Since being discharged in April the 59-year-old has been struggling to sleep because of the thought she will die and she has constantly suffered flashbacks. She is now receiving counselling. Read full story Source: BBC News, 29 June 2020
  6. News Article
    The COVID-19 pandemic could entrench and exacerbate inequalities in mental health for a generation unless action is taken, the Centre for Mental Health has warned. In a report published on Thursday, the charity warned that the lockdown would put greater pressure on groups whose mental health was already poor beforeCOVID-19 hit, such as women and children experiencing violence and abuse, and ethnic minority communities. The pandemic will leave an “unequal legacy of complicated bereavement, trauma, and economic repercussions which will push more people towards financial insecurity and poverty, significant risk factors for poor mental health,” the report said. “Unequal experiences of grief, loss, trauma, injustice, and abandonment all add to the psychological damage caused by COVID-19.” The report, backed by 12 mental health charities and the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said that the government must prioritise race equality and support “trauma informed” approaches for all people whose lives had been affected by COVID-19. Read full story Source: BMJ, 19 June 2020
  7. News Article
    Frontline staff and volunteers at the forefront of the national coronavirus response across England will be able to access a new Psychological First Aid (PFA) training course, the Minister for Mental Health Nadine Dorries has announced. The course, which has been developed by Public Health England, will be available to frontline workers and volunteers dealing with the public during the coronavirus pandemic. The free online course enables responders to develop their skills and confidence in providing key psychological support to people affected by coronavirus, including on issues such as job worries, bereavement or isolation as they carry out their vital work as part of the ongoing coronavirus response. It will also help to develop understanding of how emergencies like the coronavirus pandemic can affect us all, how to recognise people who may be at increased risk of distress, and how to offer practical and emotional support. Minister for Mental Health Nadine Dorries said: “Supporting each other’s mental health and wellbeing is more important than ever during these challenging and uncertain times. Staff and volunteers in many different roles are working tirelessly to provide crucial support at this time and are often a critical touchpoint in identifying those who may be affected. “This new training course will help to support the incredible work of frontline workers to support those most in need both through the coronavirus outbreak and beyond, equipping them with vital tools to deliver psychological first aid.” Read press release Source: GOV.UK, 15 June 2020
  8. News Article
    Ambulance services have been urged to look at how suspected overdose and poisoning cases are prioritised after paramedics took 45 minutes to reach a woman with known mental health problems. Helen Sheath, 33, had been discharged from a mental health unit in early July last year and was still waiting for an outpatient appointment with a psychological assessment and treatment service when she took a fatal dose of sodium nitrate on 20 August. Her father called an ambulance at 6.20pm when she had locked herself in a bathroom and was threatening to take the sodium nitrate. But Bedfordshire and Luton senior coroner Emma Whitting said her father could not tell whether or not she had taken it, and that in view of her history of suicidal ideation, the call should have been treated as a category two – with an 18 minutes response target – rather than a category three incident. The first ambulance which was sent to her was diverted on route and it was only after a second call to the East of England Ambulance Service at 6.48pm, that the call was upgraded to category two – when the call handler selected a different set of questions, after being told she had ingested the chemical. A rapid response vehicle arrived at 7.05pm and the mental health street triage team attended six minutes later. Shortly afterwards she became acutely unwell and was taken to Bedford Hospital, where she received treatment but died shortly afterwards. In a prevention of future deaths report Ms Whitting said: “If the first call had been coded as a category two, it seems likely that the rapid response vehicle, mental health street triage team (and even possibly the double staffed ambulance) would have arrived on scene much earlier (potentially just before or just after Helen had ingested the sodium nitrate) which could potentially have altered the outcome.” The case comes just months after two other ambulance trusts were criticised in cases involving suspected or threatened overdoses. The prevention of future deaths report was sent to the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives and the emergency call prioritisation advisory group, which is run by NHS England. Neither would comment other than saying they would respond to the coroner. Read full story Source: HSJ, 15 June 2020
  9. News Article
    Young people with learning disabilities are being driven to self-harm after being prevented from seeing their families during the coronavirus lockdown in breach of their human rights, a new report finds. The Joint Committee on Human Rights warned that the situation for children and young people in mental health hospitals had reached the point of “severe crisis” during the pandemic due to unlawful blanket bans on visits, the suspension of routine inspections and the increased use of restraint and solitary confinement. The report concluded that while young inpatients' human rights were already being breached before the pandemic, the coronavirus lockdown has put them at greater risk – and called on the NHS to instruct mental health hospitals to resume visits. It highlighted cases in which young people had been driven to self-harm, including Eddie, a young man with a learning disability whose mother, Adele Green, had not been able to visit him since 14 March. “When the lockdown came, it was quite quick in the sense that the hospital placed a blanket ban on anybody going in and anybody going out,” said Ms Green. “Within a week, with the fear and anxiety, he tried to take his own life, which really blew us away. We were mortified.” The Committee is urging NHS England to write to all hospitals, including private ones, stating they must allow visits unless there is a specific reason relating to an individual case why it would not be safe, and said the Care Quality Commission (CQC) should be responsible for ensuring national guidance is followed. Read full story Source: The Independent, 12 June 2020
  10. News Article
    Senior doctors repeatedly raised concerns over safety and staffing problems at a mental health trust before a cluster of 12 deaths, an HSJ investigation has found. The deaths all happened over the course of a year, starting in June 2018, involving patients under the care of the crisis home treatment services at Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Trust. The causes of the deaths included suicides, drug overdoses, and hanging. Coroners found several common failings surrounding the deaths and have previously warned of a lack of resources for mental health services in the city. HSJ has now seen internal documents which reveal senior clinicians had raised repeated internal concerns about the trust’s crisis home treatment teams during 2017 and early 2018. The clinicians warned of inadequate staffing levels, long waiting lists, and a lack of inpatient bed capacity. In the minutes of one meeting in February 2018, just two months before the first of the 12 deaths, a consultant is recorded as saying he had “grave concerns over safety in [the home treatment teams]”. Read full story Source: HSJ, 9 June 2020
  11. News Article
    Several mental health trusts have reported spikes in incidents of physical restraint or seclusion on patients, driven by COVID-19 restrictions, HSJ has learned. Concerns have been raised nationally about the potential for incidents to increase during the pandemic, due to temporary measures which have had to be introduced such as visiting restrictions and communication difficulties due to personal protective equipment. Read full story Source: HSJ, 5 June 2020
  12. News Article
    The use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to treat depression should be immediately suspended, a study says. ECT involves passing electric currents through a patient's brain to cause seizures or fits. Dr John Read, of the University of East London said there was "no place" for ECT in evidence-based medicine due to risks of brain damage, but the Royal College of Psychiatrists said ECT offers "life-saving treatment" and should continue in severe cases. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) currently recommends the use of ECT for some cases of moderate or severe depression as well as catatonia and mania. However, peer-reviewed research published in the journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry concludes "the high risk of permanent memory loss and the small mortality risk means that its use should be immediately suspended". In response to the study, the Royal College of Psychiatrists said ECT should not be suspended for "some forms of severe mental illness". Dr Rupert McShane, chair of the college's Committee on ECT and Related Treatments, said there was evidence showing "most people who receive ECT see an improvement in their condition". "For many, it can be a life-saving treatment," he said. "As with all treatments for serious medical conditions - from cancer to heart disease - there can be side-effects of differing severity, including memory loss." Read full story Source: BBC News, 3 June 2020
  13. News Article
    More than half a million people have accessed online training that aims to prevent suicide in the last three weeks alone, a charity has said. The Zero Suicide Alliance said 503,000 users completed its online course during lockdown. It aims to help spot the signs that a person may need help. It comes as health leaders warned front-line workers tackling coronavirus could suffer from mental ill health. NHS England launched a mental health hotline to support staff last month. The alliance's Joe Rafferty said the true impact of the coronavirus on mental health will not be known until the pandemic ends, but he said "the stress and worry of the coronavirus is bound to have impacted people's mental health". Read full story Source: BBC News, 18 May 2020
  14. News Article
    NHS staff are at risk of high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) if they don't get the right support as the coronavirus outbreak subsides, health service adviser Prof Neil Greenberg has said. For now there's a national focus on health and care workers. Public billboards praise them, millions turn out on the street for a weekly round of applause and volunteers have been rushing to help in any way they can. But the height of the crisis is when many staff will be in coping mode. It's when things slow down - and the clapping stops - that, psychologists believe, the real risk of difficulties will arise. People may need months or even years of "active monitoring" of their mental health after things return to some semblance of normality, according to Prof Greenberg, a world-leading expert in trauma at King's College London. The NHS in England is providing crisis support to its staff. But it hasn't produced a formal long-term plan to offer extra psychological services in the aftermath of the pandemic. It's what happens after the trauma that is "most predictive of what people will be like in terms of their mental health", according to Prof Greenberg. How well people are supported and how much stress they're put under as they try to recover can make or break whether someone manages well or develops far more serious difficulties including PTSD. "If we muck it up then that's going to make the trauma they've already had much more difficult to deal with," he says. Read full story Source: BBC News, 15 May 2020
  15. News Article
    The NHS will this week begin to publish the numbers of people who are dying from coronavirus in mental health and learning disability units, the government has announced. England's national medical director Stephen Powis told the Downing Street daily press briefing that the figures would be published on an "ongoing basis" after calls to paint a clearer picture of the problem. It comes as figures from the Care Quality Commission showed a sharp increase in deaths among mental health patients compared to last year. Asked by The Independent whether the numbers could be made public, he replied: "Yes, I can commit that we will publish that data. "We've been looking at how we can do that; we publish deaths daily, we're looking at how we can report on those groups and I can commit that from next week we'll be publishing data on learning disabilities, autism, and mental health patients who have died in acute hospitals and we will do that on an ongoing basis." Read full story Source: The Independent, 9 May 2020
  16. News Article
    Deaths in mental health hospitals have doubled compared to last year after 54 deaths linked to coronavirus in just three months, it has emerged. The care watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), has issued a warning to mental health hospitals that they must take action to protect vulnerable patients. New data published by the regulator showed there was a total of 106 deaths of people in mental health hospitals between 1 March and 1 May compared to 51 in the same period in 2019. In total 54 of these deaths are from confirmed or suspected coronavirus infections. The CQC has now written to all mental health hospital providers highlighting its fears over the spread of the virus within secure hospitals and units. Read full story Source: The Independent, 8 May 2020
  17. News Article
    Isolation during lockdown is exacerbating psychosis in some patients, a consultant psychiatrist at a leading mental-health trust warns. Steve Church said the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust had now had to shift its focus to crisis management. He leads the psychosis recovery team, one of the trust's five teams helping patients struggling with their mental health during the coronavirus pandemic. Some have had to move homes to isolate and many no longer visit the clinic. Dr Church, who has been working in the field for almost three decades, said: "In normal times, and we're not in normal times, the whole treatment is about trying to help people not self-isolate, trying to help people to re-engage with society. "Self-isolation is one of the red flag-hallmarks of somebody becoming unwell in the first place, where they take themselves into a psychosis-induced lockdown." One of his patients, Tracey, told Dr Church, in a phone consultation, staying at home had increased her hallucinations. "It's been quite daunting," she said. "I do hear the voices a little bit more now. They're domineering - they tell me to run across the road and they're following me and they say horrible and nasty things." Read full story Source: BBC News, 5 May 2020
  18. News Article
    Many people in Britain are likely to suffer from physical and mental problems for several years after the COVID-19 epidemic has subsided. That is the grim message from doctors and psychologists who last week warned that even after lockdown measures had been lifted thousands of individuals would still be suffering. Some of these problems will be due directly to the impact that the virus has had on those it has infected, especially those who went through life-saving interventions in intensive care units (ICUs) in hospital. In addition there will be a considerable impact on vulnerable people affected by the lockdown and isolation. Read full Source: The Observer, 2 May 2020
  19. News Article
    Half of health workers are suffering mental health problems such as stress and trauma as a result of dealing with COVID-19, new research reveals. The pandemic is having a “severe impact” on the mental wellbeing of NHS personnel as well as agency staff, GPs and dentists, with rates of anxiety and burnout also running far higher than usual. New YouGov polling for the IPPR thinktank found that 50% of 996 healthcare workers questioned across the UK said their mental health had deteriorated since the virus began taking its toll. That emerged as the biggest impact on staff, just ahead of worries about their family’s safety because of a lack of testing and protective equipment for NHS workers (49%) and concern about their ability to ensure that patients receive high-quality care when the NHS is so busy (43%). As many as 71% of younger health professionals, who are likely to be inexperienced and early in their careers, said their mental health had deteriorated. More women were affected than men. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 23 April 2020
  20. News Article
    An “unprecedented” national suicide prevention plan has been launched by a government advisory group amid concerns suicides could increase during the covid-19 pandemic, HSJ can reveal. The government’s national suicide prevention advisory group has developed the plan to address risks covid-19 could present to vulnerable people. Chair of the group and the national adviser to the government on suicide prevention, Louis Appleby, told HSJ the plan was centred on getting far quicker access to data on suicides and self-harm episodes, which is the strongest indicator of suicide risk. He said: “We are in unprecedented times, we haven’t got a lot of evidence on what happens to suicides rates during pandemics, so we’re having to infer from what we know generally to see where the risk might lie. “This is a serious attempt, in some senses an unprecedented attempt to prevent a [physical health] crisis turning into a mental health crisis." Read full story Source: HSJ, 17 April 2020
  21. News Article
    The world is likely to face a global crisis in poor mental health after the coronavirus pandemic has passed, experts have warned. Two dozen mental health scientists including neuroscientists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and public health experts have warned of the long-term impact of the virus on people’s mental health and demanded governments prioritise research to come up with evidence-based treatments. They also called for real-time monitoring of mental health in the UK and across the world in order to gauge the severity of the expected increase in poor mental wellbeing. Their warning, in the journal Lancet Psychiatry, comes as a new Ipsos Mori survey carried out at the end of March revealed people’s mental health was already being affected by the UK lockdown and self-isolation policy. Read full story Source: The Independent, 16 April 2020
  22. News Article
    The NHS is launching a hotline to support and advise healthcare staff during the coronavirus pandemic. Volunteers from charities including Hospice UK, the Samaritans and Shout, will listen to concerns and offer psychological support. The phone line will be open between 07:00 and 23:00 every day, while the text service will be available around the clock. The phone number is 0300 131 7000 or staff can text FRONTLINE to 85258. It comes as staff face increasing pressure to care for rising numbers of patients who are seriously ill with the virus. Read full story Source: BBC News, 8 April 2020
  23. News Article
    Doctors and nurses will need treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder after working in harrowing conditions on wards during the coronavirus crisis, health leaders warn. The strain on their mental and physical health is already unprecedented and the virus has not yet reached its expected peak, they say. NHS staffing is at levels that were previously unthinkable as workers – forced to spend hours in hot conditions while wearing full protective gear – try to keep up with demand amid a lack of equipment. It comes as the head of intensive care at London’s Royal Free Hospital described in a memo how most units had already shifted from the usual one nurse to one patient ratio to one to six and were running out of key machines and equipment. Dr Alison Pittard, dean of the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine, told The Independent: “I am really concerned about the toll this is taking and will continue to take on staff." “We are used to dealing with emergencies, but we have never been exposed to this sort of demand. We know staff are already struggling physically and mentally and that this will only continue." Read full story Source: The Independent, 6 April 2020
  24. News Article
    City and Hackney Clinical Commissioning Group might have the fifth highest prevalence of serious mental illness in England, but last year it achieved the highest physical health check coverage in the country. This was down to a collaborative approach by the CCG, local trust, GPs, heath informatics, a voluntary sector exercise and diet specialist organisation, and service users themselves. This alliance model for primary care SMI physical health was named mental health innovation of the year at the HSJ awards. Find out more Source: HSJ, 20 March 2020
  25. News Article
    More than 80% of young people with a history of mental ill health have found their conditions have worsened since the coronavirus crisis began in the UK, a survey has found. In a study by the mental health charity YoungMinds, 2,111 people aged under 25, who had a history of mental health needs, were asked how the pandemic had affected them. Of the 83% who said the pandemic had made their mental health worse, 32% said it had made it “much worse” and 51% said it had made it “a bit worse”. Among the respondents who were accessing mental health support leading up to the crisis – including from the NHS, school and university counsellors, charities, helplines and private providers – 74% said they were still receiving support and 26% said they were unable to access support. Emma Thomas, the chief executive of YoungMinds, said the pandemic was a “human tragedy that will continue to alter the lives of everyone in our society. The results of this survey show just how big an impact this has had, and will continue to have, on the mental health of young people.” Read full story Source: Guardian, 31 March 2020
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