Category: Health Care

Enhancing Lives Through Knowledge: Our New Dementia Collection

We are thrilled to announce the addition of a comprehensive Dementia Collection to our library! This new resource is designed to support individuals, families, and caregivers who are navigating the challenges of dementia.

What You Can Find in Our Dementia Collection:

Educational Books and Guides: Learn about the latest research, treatment options, and caregiving strategies from leading experts in the field.

Personal Stories and Memoirs: Gain insight and empathy through the experiences of those living with dementia and their loved ones.

Activity Resources: Discover activities and programs tailored to engage and support cognitive function for individuals with dementia.

Support Resources for Caregivers: Find practical advice and emotional support to help caregivers manage their responsibilities and well-being.

Visit our library today and start discovering these vital resources. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of those touched by dementia.

The King’s Fund Bulletin

The King’s Fund has released their latest Health and Wellbeing bulletin, packed with essential updates on healthcare trends, policies, and research. This bulletin is a must-read for anyone interested in staying informed about the latest in health and wellbeing.

Make sure you subscribe to the blog to stay up-to-date with current awareness.

Health and Wellbeing Bulletin (kingsfundmail.org.uk)

Public Health

Current Awareness

Are UK health systems dementia ready?: Comparing dementia policy across the four nations of the UK.
Future Health; 2024.

(A dementia diagnosis remains one of the most feared by the public. The potential arrival of new treatments creates an opportunity to improve patient outcomes. But to do so will require health systems to be dementia ready quickly. Urgent action is now needed to make them so.)
Freely available online

When I’m 64: A strategy to tackle poverty before state pension age: summary report.
Fabian Society; 2024.

(The UK is facing a hidden poverty crisis among 60 to 65-year-olds. Since 2010, no significant measures to ameliorate the impact of the rising pension age have been introduced. This report looks at the roots of the problem and presents a strategy for solving it.)
Freely available online

The future for health after Brexit.
Nuffield Trust; 2024.

(This report tracks issues that are important for the delivery of health and care in the UK to understand how our changing relationship with Europe is changing the picture for the NHS and health more generally, and what the prospects are for the future. This latest report shows that global medicine shortages are being felt particularly acutely in the UK, and the country’s reliance on migration as a source of health and social care staff is intensifying.)
Freely available online


Internet Watch Foundation Annual Report 2023: #BehindTheScreens.
Internet Watch Foundation (IWF); 2024.

(IWF works to end child sexual abuse imagery online. The annual report contains 2023 trends and data, and case studies and provides some analysis on the distribution of child sexual abuse images and videos on the internet. The new data reveals thousands of images and videos of three to six year old children who have been groomed, coerced and tricked into sexually abusive acts, are now being found on the open internet.)

On the path to ending smoking: using new funding.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH); 2024.

(With a major opportunity to reset our local strategies and make rapid progress towards ending smoking for all populations this paper has been developed by ASH in partnership with DsPH and Humber and North Yorkshire’s Centre for Tobacco Control Excellence to support local decision making in spending new funding to address smoking. It has been reviewed and endorsed by the Association of Directors of Public Health.)

To receive personalised research directly to your inbox, sign up to KnowledgeShare:

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The Lancashire Health Hub

Helping patients find trusted information

We have been lucky enough to work with some local NHS Foundation Trusts and the public libraries to develop an online website focusing on good quality health care information.

Home

The Lancashire Health Hub is designed to signpost patients to trusted and reliable medical support- explaining who and what services are available to them, links to local services and trusted resources including apps and guides.

You can also download an easy read version of the information to share alongside the virtual content.

Please take a look and share with friends, families and colleagues.

Current Awareness Bulletin

With thanks to our colleagues from Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust please find the latest bulletin attached. Some articles are freely accessible, others require an Open Athens account. For support accessing any of the articles, please contact academic.library@lscft.nhs.uk

CB – 23/04/2024Download

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Source: KnowledgeShare

All you need to know about Households Below Average Income (HBAI).
Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG); 2024.

(There are several different measures of poverty in the statistics as there is no perfect way to measure poverty. This briefing explains what poverty is, how it can be measured, the different measures in HBAI, recent trends in poverty and additional statistics that can further our understanding of poverty.)

‘Always at the bottom of the pile’: the Homeless and Inclusion Health Barometer 2024.
Pathway and Crisis; 2024.

(This report reveals how the national crisis facing both the UK’s health and housing systems leads to worsening health for people in inclusion health groups. Drawing on 85 pieces of published literature from the past two years, and a survey of frontline medical and health care professionals, the findings reveal how those who are most excluded in our society struggle to access health services due to inflexibility, discrimination and stigma.)

Autism and Homelessness Toolkit.
Homeless Link; 2024.

(The toolkit is designed for homelessness service providers who engage with and support autistic individuals experiencing homelessness. It is particularly valuable for those seeking to enhance their understanding and effectiveness in working with autistic individuals and it provides essential information and practical guidance to improve support within homelessness services.)

Drug and alcohol treatment for victims and suspects of homicide.
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID); 2024.

(A Better Outcomes through Linked Data (BOLD) report looking at the use of substance misuse treatment services by victims and suspects of homicide in England. The report includes information and findings on treatment characteristics of victims and suspects, such as their sociodemographic, accommodation and employment status; and characteristics of the homicide and the relationships between victims and suspects and whether the homicide was drug-related.)

For personalised research sent straight to your inbox, join KnowledgeShare. Simply compelte the form and send it back to: academic.library@lscft.nhs.uk

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Reducing Health Inequalities

A guide for NHS Trust Board Members

Source: NHS Providers

Reducing health inequalities: A guide for NHS trust board members (nhsproviders.org)

This is a guide to support NHS trust board members to address health inequalities as part of their core business. It outlines why trusts should act on health inequalities, includes a vision for what good looks like, a self-assessment tool for trusts to use to determine where they are in their journey and a list of suggested objectives. It covers a wide range of trust work, from operational and clinical delivery of services, to the trust’s role as an anchor institution.

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

Age-Friendly Health Systems: Guide to Care of Older Adults in Nursing Homes.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI); 2022.
(This updated [US] guide helps care teams prepare for, test, and implement age-friendly care practices. Designed to be used with an accompanying workbook for nursing home teams, the guide outlines the 4Ms – What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility – for nursing home care of older adults.)

Cold weather plan for England.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA); 2022.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/cold-weather-plan-for-england
(01 November 2022: Updated Cold weather health risks slide set.)

WHO: At least 17 million people in the WHO European Region experienced long COVID in the first two years of the pandemic; millions may have to live with it for years to come.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2022.
(To help address the gaps in our knowledge of long COVID and advocate for people living with the condition, WHO/Europe today announced an official partnership with Long COVID Europe, a network organization that to date comprises 19 patient associations, based in Member States across the European Region.)

Poverty and the health and care system: the role of data and partnership in bringing change .
The King’s Fund; 2022.
(Poverty causes ill health, drives inequality in health outcomes and increases use of health services. This King’s Fund long read considers how successful sharing and acting on data can support health and care systems in mitigating, reducing and preventing poverty’s effects on health.)

Developing learning health systems in the UK: priorities for action.
The Health Foundation; 2022.
(Learning health systems are able to learn from the routine care they deliver and improve it as a result. In this report, we explore in detail what makes a learning health system, and look at how they can be developed. We explore four important areas especially relevant to LHSs: learning from data, harnessing technology, nurturing learning communities and implementing improvements to services.)

Sensory-friendly resource pack: resources to improve the sensory environment for autistic people.
NHS England; 2022.
(During 2021/22 NHS England has funded a variety of projects to support Integrated Care Systems in developing sensory friendly environments for autistic people. This document outlines the projects commissioned and draws them together into a cohesive resource pack for local health systems to use to support their autistic citizens.)

Introducing integrated care systems

Joining up local services to improve health outcomes

Source: The King’s Fund

This report examines the setup of integrated care systems (ICSs) by the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, and their partners and the risks they must manage. The report is not an assessment of whether the programme has secured good value for money to date because ICSs have only recently taken statutory form. Instead, it is an assessment of where they are starting from and the challenges and opportunities ahead. It makes recommendations intended to help manage those risks and realise those opportunities.

RCP view on the NHS workforce

Short- and medium-term solutions

Source: The King’s Fund

This policy paper outlines how staffing shortages are the biggest barrier to meeting demand for care and delivering health care sustainably in the long term. It describes how a long-term plan for increasing staffing numbers, including expanding medical school places, is needed to put the NHS workforce back on a sustainable footing, restore timely access to care and protect patient safety. But given the urgency of the situation, the RCP has set out a range of short- and medium-term solutions that will make a difference now, from affordable childcare and flexible working to overseas recruitment and a new ‘retire and return’ deal for consultants.