Mental Health & Social Care Bulletin No. 418

Although there as been much discussion on how Mental Health needs to be on an equal footing with physical illness, it would appear that in reality  Health and Wellbeing Boards are choosing, if not to ignore it completely, to give it a low priority. This is highlighted in the report from the Centre for Mental Health: A Place for Parity: Health and Wellbeing Boards and Mental Health. You can read much more than this in Bulletin 418

Mental Health & Social Care Bulletin No. 417

The 2012 report from Time to Change  shows that attitudes in this country to mental illness are gradually changing. A survey of over 1700 people also showed that the greater change was among women rather than men. Furthermore it seemed that tolerance came with increased age. This article and research all available in Bulletin 417

DSM-5 causes controversy

With the publication of the DSM-5, the psychiatrists' "bible", imminent, controversy is raging amongst UK mental health professionals. The new edition of the American diagnostic manual has introduced categories of illness that were not listed in the previous edition. Psychiatrists and Psychologists here feel it will be giving labels of mental health illness to conditions that were considered to be normal before.

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Mental health and abortion

Having an abortion does not increase the chances of becoming depressed when a woman is experiencing an unwanted pregnancy. Giving birth in these circumstances produced the same numbers of depressed women according to figures published by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) on behalf of the Department of Health. NCCMH analysed 44 studies but commented that it was unclear whether all the women included in the studies became depressed as a result of unwanted pregnancy or whether some had mental health problems to begin with.

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Flawed care in the community

A report from the Centre for Social Justice has condemned community services for mental health as unfinished and flawed and failing the people for whom they were designed for. The lack of sufficient community care services is resulting in patients being sent inappropriately to hospitals that are not providing the required treatments.

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Double boost to fight stigma

The long running campaign that aims to stamp out the stigma attached to mental illness, Time to Change, has received a £20 million injection. The Department of Health has pledged £16 million and Comic Relief has also donated £4 million. The care services minister made the announcement on Monday 10th October, World Mental Health Day.

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Mental Health Bulletin No. 319

The 319th edition of the mental health and social care bulletin is published today. Crammed with up todate information and research. 8 new publications included

Family support includes brothers and sisters

Statistics gathered by the mental health charity Rethink have found that support for the siblings of people with mental illness is an area that needs addressing. In the case of 20% of the participants of the survey, there was no support at all. This had a detrimental effect on the mental health of the siblings themselves

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Appealing against detention under the Mental Health Act

The personal experiences of patients appearing before the First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health), formerly the Mental Health Review Tribunal have been collated into an innovatative report commissioned by the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council (AJTC) and the Care Quality Commission (CQC). 150 interviews were conducted with patients who had appealed against being detained under the Mental Health Act. It is the first time that such information has been available Read the full article Read the report

New campaign to combat stigma

Time to Change is launching a new campaign to tackle the stigma surrounding mental illness. The campaign "It's time to talk, it's time to change" comes in the wake of the results of an online survey which revealed the reluctance of people who had had mental health problems to discuss this openly.

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The family & future mental health

A report published by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ)has criticised the government's new mental health strategy. It states that no provision has been made to tackle family breakdown which is a major cause of mental health problems in children and in adulthood. The report findings are in conclusion to a poll carried out on 1000 people affected by mental health problems of which 50% cited family breakdown as a causal.

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Mental Health detention rises

There has been a large rise in the number of people being detained under the Mental Health Act in England. An increase of 30% on the 2008-9 period was recorded in 2009-10. For the first time in five years there was a rise in inpatient cases, data from the Information Centre showed.

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Nicknames may hurt me, not sticks & stones

A YoungMinds survey studying the classroom experiences of 2629 young people between the ages of 9 and 25 has reported the distress caused to mentally ill pupils by verbal abuse. The report also stated that witnesses to the abuse were often distressed by this behaviour. The stigma involved made it very difficult for mentally ill children to report feeling unwell compared with children who were feeling physically unwell. The charity has called for intensified health promotion to reduce the stigma involved.

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Thousand of child carers of the mentally ill

The Mental Health Foundation has published a report My Care that states there are an estimated 50,000 to 200,00 child and adolescent carers of severely mentally ill adults. Many suffer from bullying as a result of the stigma surrounding their parents' conditions. Anxiety and frustration are leading to the carers themselves becoming mentally ill and also disruption of their education. Professionals who have contributed to this report are calling for more support for this vulnerable group.

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The Stigma Lingers on

A study in the American Journal of Psychiatry journal maintains that despite decades of strategies aimed at reducing the stigma attached to various mental illnesses, success has been minimal. The opinions of a sample of the American public were gathered and compared with opinions from ten years ago.

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Not Minding the Gap

A study in the British Journal of Psychiatry maintains that young people are falling into a black hole when they become adults and leave child and adult mental health services (CAMHS). Researchers from the University of Warwick followed 154 service users who made the transition for a year and concluded that provision was in the main poor.

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No jail for mentally ill minor offenders

A poll of the general public has shown that 64% of those polled believe that mentally ill people who commit minor offences that do not pose a threat to others should not be given custodial sentences. Instead treatment should be combined with community service. The poll comes in the wake of the Justice Minister's call for reform in this area.

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Mental illness hits the pocket

A new report from the World Health Organization (WHO), following a survey, shows that seriously ill people earn up to a third less than their healthy counterparts. The research discussed in the British Journal of Psychiatry explains that unlike previous surveys that targeted high income countries, the data included in this one was also from low and middle income countries

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What's normal?

The new draft of the fifth edition of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) has numerous new conditions which begs the question what makes a person normal. In the wake of this eagerly awaited publication the latest edition of the Journal of Mental Health concentrates on diagnosis in mental health with articles written by celebrities and experts. One contributer is Sir Terry Pratchett who gives his personal view of Alzheimer's

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New report on criminal justice & mental health

The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health has published a new report which confirms that mental health services and the criminal justice system have had more collaboration. However those who experience both services have had differing perceptions on the results

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