Month: August 2023

Dementia awareness bulletin available

The latest Dementia Awareness bulletin, produced by the Evidently Better team at Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust, is now available. If you are unable to access any of the articles included please contact academic.library@lscft.nhs.uk.

https://www.evidentlybetter.org/dementia/2023/08/23-august-2023/

How can people with mental health difficulties best have their social needs supported?http://www.lihnnhs.info/lancashirecarelibraryblog/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/CentreforMH_Briefing61SocialNeeds.pdf

A briefing by the NIHR Mental Health Policy Research Unit (MHPRU) at University College London (UCL) and King’s College London (KCL) finds that Individual Placement and Support employment services and Housing First support for homeless people both have robust evidence of their effectiveness in supporting people with mental health difficulties into work and homes respectively. There is also clear evidence that social security policies have a major impact on people with mental health difficulties: policies that restrict access to benefits or reduce entitlements worsen people’s mental health and vice versa.

Perinatal mental health roadmap published

The Royal College of Midwives has published a roadmap to ensure women receive the support they need and to improve perinatal mental health care in the UK.

Among the key changes the RCM is calling for to improve perinatal mental health care in the UK are:

  • All professionals working with women in the perinatal period have the necessary knowledge and understanding of perinatal mental health.
  • Every maternity service has a minimum whole-time equivalent Band 7 perinatal specialist midwife.
  • All maternity professionals should be equally concerned with mental as well as physical health in pregnancy, childbirth, and postnatal period.

Workforce plan analysis suggests number of students training to be clinicians needs to increase by 50 per cent

Health Foundation analysis of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan commitments suggests the proportion of first-year higher education students training to be NHS clinical professionals would need to increase by 50 per cent. Based on current trends, this would mean that students training to be NHS clinical professionals would make up around 1 in 6 of all first-year students in 2031/32, up from 1 in 9 in 2022/23.  

How feasible are the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan commitments on training? – The Health Foundation

Public spending breakdown available

This report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies estimates the level of funding for five key public services (the NHS, schools, local government, the police and public health) in each local authority area in England in 2022-23 and compares the relative levels of funding different areas receive to estimates of their relative spending needs. It finds substantial differences between the share of funding areas receive and the share they would receive if funding was allocated in line with their different levels of need.

How much public spending does each area receive? Local authority level estimates of health, police, school and local government spending | Institute for Fiscal Studies (ifs.org.uk)

Case for major conditions strategy publishedma

This report sets out the government’s case for change and strategic framework for the final strategy, following the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care’s commitment to publish a major conditions strategy.

Major conditions strategy: case for change and our strategic framework – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)