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Showing results for tags 'Mental health'.
Found 1,158 results
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Content ArticleThis health seminar, from Wellbeing of Women, focuses on one of the most taboo issues in women’s health, incontinence. An estimated 7 million women suffer urinary incontinence which can affect all areas of life, yet it is rarely spoken about and regarded as an issue that only affects older women. In this video, we hear from Luce Brett, author of PMSL: Or How I Literally Pissed Myself Laughing and Survived the Last Taboo to Tell the Tale and Elaine Miller a women’s health physiotherapist, for what is an open but also vital conversation about living with incontinence and what we can do.
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Content ArticleThe State of Care is the Care Quality Commission (CQC) annual assessment of health care and social care in England. The report looks at the trends, shares examples of good and outstanding care, and highlights where care needs to improve. The care that people received in 2019/20 was mostly of good quality. But while the quality of care was largely maintained compared with the previous year, there was generally no improvement overall. And in the space of a few short months since then, the pandemic has placed the severest of challenges on the whole health and care system in England.
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Content ArticleThis report from the Samaritans finds that there is no consistently effective support available to people who self-harm. The research identified four key support needs for people who self-harm, which are seen as essential to providing effective care: distraction from immediate self-harm urges emotional relief in times of stress developing alternative coping strategies addressing the underlying reasons for self-harm.
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Content ArticlePublished by the Older People's Commissioner for Wales, Care Home Voices: A snapshot of life in care homes in Wales during Covid-19, gives a voice to people living and working in Welsh care homes and provides a snapshot of their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. The responses from older people and their families and friends highlight just how difficult lockdown has been for many people. Many older people had not seen their family and friends at all for prolonged periods and had concerns about the impact that lockdown could be having on their wellbeing.
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Content ArticleLoneliness and social networks may influence onset of Alzheimer's disease, but little is known about this relationship in people with Alzheimer's disease. This study, published in Geriatric Psychology, aimed to explore the relationship between loneliness and social networks (social measures) and cognitive and psychopathology decline in people with Alzheimer's disease. The authors concluded that maintaining or developing a close friendship network could be beneficial for cognition in people with Alzheimer's disease.
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Content ArticleStress, depression and anxiety account for a significant portion of work related ill-health cases. With many of those still employed now working remotely as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, this trend seems set to continue, with an always-on-culture that has now entered our homes.In this paper, published with Autonomy and 4 Day Week, Nic Murray looks at the clear overlap between over work and mental ill-health, how this disproportionately affects women and the potential options for reducing our working time and preventing work practices that harm mental health, including a 4 day week.
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Content ArticleIn this blog for the Guardian, a well respected surgeon tells of the time they were admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital where they worked following a suicide attempt. The surgeon explains how depression is a lot more common in medicine than realised but how it is still stigmatised, even within the medical profession. Many medical staff often display signs of depression differently to others and keep working right up until they break; work brings comfort from the feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness. Very few have the opportunity to attend counselling, since this would require taking time off work. "I would be smiling and laughing on the outside, but on the inside was a continuous mantra of self-loathing that kept getting louder. I pushed myself harder, took extra shifts, tried to put my head down and just get through it. One day, I had had enough. The pain had become physical as well as mental, and the idea of having to live any longer was unbearable."
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Content Article"The night shift in A&E started off as normal: routine heart attacks, head injuries, road traffic accidents, an array of minor injuries. It was what happened next that has stayed with me for 25 years, long after I left my job as a doctor in the NHS." In this blog for the Guardian, a doctor reflects on the impact a traumatic night in A&E has had on them and their concerns for the mental health and wellbeing of all frontline staff during this global pandemic. Their hope is that immediate funding for a national framework of in-house support and counselling will stem the tsunami of mental ill health among frontline workers that is coming, and shed light on the ultimate medical taboo that is the mental health of our healthcare staff.
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Content ArticleThe Health and Social Care Committee is calling for urgent action to assess and tackle a backlog of appointments and an unknown patient demand for all health services, specifically across cancer treatments, mental health services, dentistry services, GP services and elective surgery. MPs say a compelling case has been made for the nationwide routine testing of all NHS staff and they are yet to understand why it cannot be introduced.
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Content Article
First, Do No Harm — But in a Pandemic, How? (25 September 2020)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Blogs
As hospitals in the US braced for the onslaught of coronavirus cases this past spring, they radically restructured and reorganised to help ease the burden on staff and minimise transmission within the hospital. Along with ceasing elective surgeries and transforming floors to allow for care of intubated patients, visitors were forbidden from entering hospitals with few exceptions. Now, several months removed from the peak of the pandemic, a limited number of visitors are allowed at a time. While limiting visitors allows some additional element of physical distancing, how much does a ban actually help our patients, and how much does it hurt them — especially mothers-to-be in the vulnerable perinatal period? Is it possible to limit visitor-spread virus while allowing our patients the dignity and the peace of companionship during one of the most stressful periods of their lives? In this blog, Byrne and Goldfarb look at the consequences of limiting visitors during the pandemic and considers the negative effect this may have on the health of the patient. -
Content ArticleLockdown has been a seismic shock for every family and community. Sadly, the voices of the hardest hit have been heard the least. This report sets about to change this by exploring pandemic and lockdown reflections from a diverse group of expectant and new parents during the critical first months and years of their babies’ development. Charities Best Beginnings, Home-Start UK and Parent-Infant Foundation were alarmed that the voices of parents with new babies have been absent from key pandemic responses. As a result, they worked with Critical Research to survey 5,000 new and expectant parents on their lockdown experiences and found a mixed picture, shining a light on huge disparities between different families and communities.
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Content ArticleRight now, healthcare workers are facing an extremely challenging situation, doing important and difficult work. Taking care of your mental health and managing feelings might be taking a back seat. 'Our Frontline' offers round-the-clock one-to-one support, along with a collection of resources, tips and ideas chosen to support your mental health as you do your work to protect us all and keep the country going. To talk by text, text FRONTLINE to 85258 any time. To talk by phone for free, call 0800 069 6222 from 7am to 11pm if you’re in England, or call 116 123 any time if you’re elsewhere in the UK. It’s all in confidence, with trained volunteers. The link below gives some more details about the help that’s available, and some other things that Our Frontline think you’ll find useful.
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Content ArticlePresentation from Dr Andrew Hider, Clinical Director, Consultant Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, Ludlow Street Healthcare, on mental health during the pandemic.
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Content ArticlePresentation from Dr Dan Dalton, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist and National Specialty Advisor for Mental Health, on the legal complexity regarding the use of the Mental Health Act for ensuring compliance with infection control measures.
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Content ArticleWe all want passionate employees. We want them to care about their jobs and go that extra mile for our company. We also want them to have the confidence to speak up if they think it’s necessary — whether it’s to question a given workplace process or ask a question about the nature of their SMART objectives. Of course, not all employees will stand up and make themselves be heard. So what makes some employees suffer in silence while others are emboldened to stand out from the crowd? The answer is psychological safety. A psychologically safe workplace cultivates a work environment where team members have the freedom to speak out. This environment thrives on mutual respect and encourages co-workers to share their ideas and thoughts without the fear of being shot down or ignored. The obvious effects of psychological safety are better employee wellbeing and mental health. . Stuart Hearn, a performance management specialist, gives his three examples of change that can improve the level of psychological safety in the workplace.
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Content ArticleThe scale of the emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been extraordinary, but what comes next? The King's Fund spoke with people involved in response efforts for disasters from around the world, from the Christchurch earthquakes in New Zealand to the Grenfell Tower fire in London, to understand what the health and care system can learn from the experience of recovery from other disasters as it responds to the pandemic.
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Content ArticleA study from Chamberlain et al. examined post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in 13 049 survivors of suspected or confirmed COVID-19, from the UK general population, as a function of severity and hospital admission status. Compared with mild COVID-19, significantly elevated rates of PTSD symptoms were identified in those requiring medical support at home, those requiring hospital admission without ventilation and those requiring hospital admission with ventilator support. Intrusive images were the most prominent elevated symptom. Adequate psychiatric provision for such individuals will be of paramount importance.
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Content ArticleThis handbook from the Samaritans provides a set of principles upon which wellbeing initiatives for men should be based, drawn from what men have said is important to them. By following these principles, wellbeing initiatives are more likely to be effective for, and appeal to, men going through tough times before reaching crisis point. This handbook is for anyone commissioning, designing, evaluating or delivering initiatives, services or activities aimed at improving the wellbeing of men.
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Content Article
Keep your light shining bright – three tips from Sally Howard
Sally Howard posted an article in Blogs
One of the many Covid challenges is that there hasn’t been an opportunity for frontline staff to pause for breath and pay even a small amount of attention to looking after themselves. And when times are really tricky we only have so much energy. So this is just about you and three things that may help you keep going and keep your brilliant light shining. -
Content Article
Moral injury occurs following a morally injurious event, this can lead to negative thoughts about oneself or others developing, alongside feelings of shame, guilt or disgust. This is one of a series of films to help healthcare workers think through some of the emotional and psychological challenges that may arise especially, but not limited, to a pandemic. Moral Injury chapters: 0:00 Start 0:52 What does Moral Injury actually mean? 4:03 What might it look like to me & my colleagues? 6:18 Will everyone eventually become injured? 8:09 What can I do to help myself & others? -
Content ArticleDespite it being 20 years since the Institute of Medicine reported poor quality and high variability in healthcare delivery, there are still significant opportunities for clinical quality improvement (QI). As frontline clinicians and future healthcare leaders tasked with driving these changes, resident physicians are an important cohort to equip with knowledge, skills, and experience in QI and patient safety. In this article, Mitchel and Li review the barriers to resident engagement, leadership and success with QI initiatives and propose potential solutions. Several barriers are unique to psychiatric training. The barriers described are broadly categorised as either structural or process-related, a distinction derived from Donabedian who described a framework for understanding the causal relationship between structures, processes, and outcomes in QI. In addition, the authors provide an example of a resident-led QI initiative to illustrate the proposed solutions.
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Content ArticleThe global coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has taken a dramatic toll on virtually all aspects of life, from the economy, to employment, relationships, public health, and personal health. In the United States, more than 200,000 individuals have died of the coronavirus. As of October, hundreds of thousands of Americans are filing unemployment claims each week. For all of us, the pandemic has become a time marked by uncertainty, fear, and grief. According to a survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 40 percent of US adults reported struggling with mental health or substance use issues. Although much of the general population has admitted to feeling more anxious and depressed during the pandemic, those with substance use and mental health issues face unique challenges.
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Content ArticleHow are we ensuring that patient and staff safety is being prioritised during the pandemic? Watch the recording of the 'Leadership for patient safety during COVID-19' webinar that took place on 7 December 2020.
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Content ArticleThe Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) Doctors' Health in Practice Programme aims to promote and support the good physical health, occupational health, psychological health and wellbeing of GPs. It encourages primary health care for doctors' healthcare in the first instance and supports the aim that every GP and GP Trainee should have a GP. You can find a list of directories, contacts and supports for doctors and your families, and resources that can be used for personal self-reflection, education, research or to help colleagues.
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Content ArticleThe COVID-19 pandemic is a traumatic event for many, particularly those in the caring professions. Experts are predicting a significant “second curve” of mental health problems among both healthcare workers and the public related to prolonged social isolation, loss of economic opportunity, grief from losing loved ones, among other causes. While there has been no shortage of resources and recommendations designed to help healthcare workers manage stress during the pandemic, there’s a tendency to place the burden on the individual. At a minimum, it is important that remedies acknowledge the shared responsibility of the healthcare system for creating the conditions for fear, anxiety, and burnout in the first place. In an effort to streamline, provide sensemaking, and support care teams during this critical time, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) synthesised themes from several key publications, expert interviews, and five years of experience gained by partnering with health systems around the world to address staff well-being and joy in work. Three key areas to focus on have emerged, along with specific actions healthcare leaders can take to support their workforce and address the more immediate and longer-term effects of the pandemic.
