Category: Age Concern

Public Health

Current Awareness

Source: KnowledgeShare

The role that alcohol or drug use can play in increasing the risk of suicide.
Carried out by Frankie Marcelline from Sussex Health on 27/9/2024
https://www.knowledgeshare.nhs.uk/index.php?PageID=literature_search_request_downloader&RequestID=52844
[This evidence search report aims to support a conference on suicide. This search focusses on the role that dependent or problematic patterns of alcohol and drug use, can play in increasing the risk of suicide. Results include a good number of very recent high-level studies on the risks of alcohol and drug use on suicide.]

Teens, screens and mental health.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2024.
https://www.who.int/europe/news/item/25-09-2024-teens–screens-and-mental-health
[New data from the WHO Regional Office for Europe reveals a sharp rise in problematic social media use among adolescents, with rates increasing from 7% in 2018 to 11% in 2022. This, coupled with findings that 12% of adolescents are at risk of problematic gaming, raises urgent concerns about the impact of digital technology on the mental health and well-being of young people.]

Digital health and equitable access to care.
Shaw J. PLOS Digital Health 2024;:10.1371/journal.pdig.0000573.
[This research uses a framework by Levesque et al on patient-centered access to care and the World Health Organization’s framework on digitally enabled health systems to generate insights into the ways that digital solutions can support access to needed health care for structurally marginalized communities.]

Keeping children and young people with mental health needs safe: the design of the paediatric ward.
Health Services Safety Investigations Body; 2024.
https://www.hssib.org.uk/patient-safety-investigations/keeping-children-and-young-people-with-mental-health-needs-safe-the-design-of-the-paediatric-ward/investigation-report/
[This investigation looks at the care of children and young people with mental health issues who are admitted to a paediatric ward in an acute hospital – that is, a ward for children and young people in a hospital that typically treats physical health conditions. Specifically, it focuses on the risk factors associated with the design of paediatric wards in acute hospitals caring for children and young people with mental health needs.]

Falls Prevention Horizon Scanning Bulletin September 2024

A new edition of the Falls Prevention Horizon Scanning Bulletin has been released. Please click the link below for more details. If you are unable to access any of the included items please contact academic.library@lscft.nhs.uk.

Falls Prevention Horizon Scanning | from North West Health Libraries (wordpress.com)

Centre for Mental Health

Recent reports

More than the sum of our parts: an evaluation of local mental health alliances.


The voluntary sector plays a vital role in supporting people with mental health difficulties. Yet, insecure funding and a lack of meaningful collaboration can inhibit voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations from providing the mental health support that people depend on. This report explores how bringing together local stakeholders – including VCSE organisations, NHS commissioners and providers of health and social care, and experts by experience – can lead to more effective and equitable support for people living with a mental illness.

CentreforMH_MoreThanTheSumOfOurParts.pdf (centreformentalhealth.org.uk)

A dual crisis: the hidden link between poverty and children’s mental health


This report explores the impact of poverty and benefit conditionality on families’ mental health. Based on research with parents and children, and a review of the evidence, it finds that money and mental health are inextricably linked; not having enough money leads to parental stress and guilt, which has a knock-on impact on children over the course of their lives. And with rates of poverty twice as high among Asian and Black families than white families, some children are ‘overexposed’ to the dual risks of poverty and poor mental health.

CentreforMH_ADualCrisis.pdf (centreformentalhealth.org.uk)

Healthy Ageing

Applying all our health

Source: The King’s Fund Health and Wellbeing Bulletin

This guide is part of All Our Health, a resource that helps health and care professionals prevent ill health and promote wellbeing as part of their everyday practice. The information will help frontline health and care staff use their trusted relationships with patients, families and communities to promote the benefits of healthy ageing. It also recommends important actions that managers and staff holding strategic roles can take.

Prevention in an ageing world

A window of opportunity

International Longevity Centre UK (ILC UK), April 7 2022

This report brings together ILC UK’s two-year global engagement programme on how to deliver prevention in an ageing world. It argues that while Covid has increased and exacerbated inequalities, it has also shown us how fast governments can act. There is a window of opportunity to build on the learnings from the pandemic. But governments need to act now.