Category: Mental Health

Social Workers and a new Mental Health Act

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Work, July 2019

Report in response to the Independent Review of the Mental health Act 1983, that calls on the Government and NHS Trusts to recognise the social factors of mental health distress and promote the social model of health within new mental health legislation. It also looks at the integration of health and social care, and how social workers’ role can be enhanced in new legislation, in order to uphold the human rights of children and adults suffering ill mental health. The report setsout four principles that should underpin new legislation:

  •  Choice and autonomy – ensuring service users’ views and choices are respected
  • Least restriction – ensuring the Act’s powers are used in the least restrictive way
  • Therapeutic benefit – ensuring patients are supported to get better, so they can be discharged from the Act
  • People as individuals – ensuring patients are viewed and treated as rounded individuals

Click here to view the full report.

Left to their own devices: Young people, social media and mental health

Barnardo’s, July 2019

Using the internet and social media is an important part of life for children and young people. It can be a positive opportunity to learn, to connect with friends and family and to have fun. However, internet use can also expose children to dangers, such as cyberbullying, online grooming and sexual abuse. At the same time, mental health conditions are on the rise with recent data showing that 1 in 8 children and young people between ages 5-19 in England have a mental health problem.

This report gained insight from 80 practitioners across more than 30 Barnardo’s services in the UK. It found:

• Half of these practitioners responding said they had worked with children aged five to 10 who had been exposed to unsuitable or harmful materials online, and more than one third said children in that age group had been victims of cyberbullying.

• When it comes to 11-15 year olds, 79% of practitioners responding said children they work with have experienced cyberbullying. Some practitioners highlighted that cyberbullying had led to self-harm and suicide.

• 78% of practitioners responding also said they had worked with children in this age group who had been groomed online and 78% also said they’d worked with children in this age group who had accessed unsuitable/harmful content.

Click here to view the full report.

Making the right choices: using data-driven technology to transform mental healthcare

Reform, July 2019

This report from the thinktank Reform examines the current landscape of data-driven technologies and their applications in mental health care, highlighting areas where these tools offer the most potential for the NHS and its patients. It discusses what makes mental health different from other areas of health, and the implications this has for the application of data-driven tools. It also examines barriers to implementation, and proposes ways to move forward.

Click here to view the full report.

Missed opportunities: What lessons can be learned from failings at the North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, June 2019

A report on the Ombudsman’s investigations into the deaths of two vulnerable young men. It finds significant failings in their mental health care and treatment.

Click here to view the full report.

Working well together: evidence and tools to enable co-production in mental health commissioning

Royal College of Psychiatrists, May 2019
This resource was commissioned by NHS England to support delivery of the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health and the NHS Long Term Plan and the resource provides the evidence and tools to enable coproduction in mental health commissioning.  The document aims to improve local strategic decisions about, and the provision of, current and future mental health services for children, young people, adults and older adults.   The recommendations from this document are aimed at commissioners of mental health services, as well as people who need mental health services, their families, friends and carers, and those who work in mental health care and support.
Click here to access the resource.

Independent evaluation of the Think Ahead programme

Think Ahead, May 2019
The Think Ahead programme is a fast-track graduate scheme, offering graduates and career-changers a new route into mental health social work. This independent report contains an evaluation of the Think Ahead programme.  The findings of the report are mainly positive and the authors call for the programme to continue to be developed and supported.
Click here to view the full report.

Caring for the mental health of the medical workforce

British Medical Association, April 2019
This report provides a summary of findings from a large-scale survey into the mental health of doctors and medical students. The survey, which was open to BMA members and non-members across the UK received over 4,300 responses. Four in ten respondents to our survey reported currently experiencing symptoms of depression, anxiety, burnout, stress, emotional distress or a mental health condition that is impacting on their work, training or study.
Click here to view the full report.