Public Health

Current awareness updates

Opioid substitution treatment: service self-assessment tool.
Public Health England (PHE); 2021.
[Self-assessment tool, good-practice examples and resources for community drug treatment services to help them deliver OST in line with clinical guidance.]

Opioid substitution treatment: guide for keyworkers.
Public Health England (PHE); 2021.
[This guide provides drug treatment and recovery workers with the information they need to deliver good quality opioid substitution treatment (OST) to service users. It will also help them have more effective conversations about OST with service users and the local multidisciplinary team, including prescribers.]

Diagnostic test accuracy of telehealth assessment for dementia and mild cognitive impairment. [Abstract]
McCleery J. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2021;7:CD013786.
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[OBJECTIVES: Primary objective: to assess the diagnostic accuracy of telehealth assessment for dementia and mild cognitive impairment. Secondary objectives: to identify the quality and quantity of the relevant research evidence; to identify sources of heterogeneity in the test accuracy data; to identify and synthesise any data on patient or clinician satisfaction, resource use, costs or feasibility of the telehealth assessment models in the included studies.]

A systematic review and meta-analysis of school-based interventions with health education to reduce body mass index in adolescents aged 10 to 19 years.
Jacob CM. The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 2021;18(1):doi: 10.1186/s12966-020-01065-9.
[CONCLUSIONS: Findings from our review suggest that school-based health education interventions have the public health potential to lower BMI towards a healthier range in adolescents. Multi-component interventions involving key stakeholders such as teachers and parents and digital components are a promising strategy.]

Inter-individual differences in body mass index were not observed as a result of aerobic exercise in children and adolescents with overweight and obesity.
Kelley GA. Pediatric Obesity 2021;16(1):e12692.
[Exercise has been recommended as an important intervention for reducing adiposity in children and adolescents with overweight and obesity. However, inter-individual differences for BMI in kg/m2 were not observed as a result of aerobic exercise in children and adolescents with overweight and obesity.]

Drowning prevention and awareness.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2021.
[Resources relating to drowning awareness and prevention can be found at the end of this WHO report.]

Public Health

Current Awareness

Suicide awareness materials: do they help people with suicidal ideation?
The Mental Elf; 2020.

(Hanzla Amir and Derek Tracy summarise a recent online randomised controlled trial on the effects of suicide awareness materials on people who feel suicidal, which finds that the Papageno effect is real and that stories of hope and recovery can help.)

Whole systems approach to obesity.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.

(A guide and set of resources to support local authorities with implementing a whole systems approach to address obesity and promote a healthy weight.
7 December 2020: Added ‘Engaging NHS system leaders in whole systems approaches to physical activity’.)

Supporting public health: children, young people and families.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.

(Documents to support local authorities and providers in commissioning and delivering maternal and child public health services from preconception up to 24 years. 8 December 2020: Updated to include the 6 maternity high impact area guides.)

How England will end new cases of HIV: final report and recommendations.
HIV Commission; 2020.

(The HIV Commission is an ambitious, independent process to find the path to ending new HIV transmissions and HIV-attributed deaths in England by 2030. Its report sets out 20 achievable and evidence-based actions that need to be taken if this goal is to be met.)

Obesity Profile: December 2020 update.
Public Health England (PHE); 2020.

(Obesity Profile online data tool: update with new data from the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) for academic year 2019 to 2020.)

What people are telling us: a summary, July – September 2020 Healthwatch, 2020

(Between July and September 2020, more than 38,082 people shared their experiences of using health and social care with Healthwatch. This briefing is a summary of the key issues that the public are telling us about, including access to NHS dental care; the support provided in care homes; and accessing Covid-19 tests.)

Interventions to prevent intimate partner and sexual violence Public Health England (PHE), 2020

(A guidance resource from PHE to help tackle the root causes of violence and
change behaviours that lead to violence. It includes a summary of research and good practice in bystander interventions.)

Public Health

Keeping up to date with current awareness

Childhood during coronavirus: protecting children from the effects of poverty

Action for Children

This report presents findings from an analysis of applications submitted to Action for Children’s Emergency Fund. It reflects on the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic for children and families and in doing so, the report also considers the recovery measures needed to ensure that children are supported to thrive – both now, and in the months and years ahead. More detail.

It’s everywhere’: alcohol’s public face private harm

Independent Commission on Alcohol Harm

This Commission was set up by alcohol health experts and parliamentarians to examine the full extent of alcohol harm across the UK. In this, its final report, the Commission outlines recommendations for reducing harm and calls for a national strategy for alcohol. More detail.

The broken plate 2020: the state of the nation’s food system

The Food Foundation

This report presents 10 vital signs that document the health of our food system, how it impacts on our lives, and why we must change the food environment. It highlights the struggle for lower-income families to afford a healthy diet, arguing that 20 per cent of households with the lowest levels of disposable income would have to spend 39 per cent of their disposable income in order to eat a healthy diet, as defined by the government’s recommended Eatwell Guide. More detail.

NHS Covid App – over 10 million downloads

Department of Health and Social Care, September 2020

More than 10 million people downloaded the new NHS Covid-19 app between its launch on Thursday 24 September and Sunday 27 September.Six million of those downloads were on the first day.

Surge in people checking their risk of type 2 diabetes

NHE, September 2020

Almost 300,000 people have accessed the tool to check their risk of type 2 diabetes online less than two months after the NHS fast tracked access to its world leading Healthier You Diabetes Prevention Programme. Latest figures show that 291,325 people used the Diabetes UK Know Your Risk tool since the end of July – a 637% increase compared to two months previously.

World Book Day

Thursday 5th March

World Book Day is a registered charity on a mission to give every child and young person a book of their own. It’s also a celebration of authors, illustrators, books and (most importantly) it’s a celebration of reading. In fact, it’s the biggest celebration of its kind, designated by UNESCO as a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and marked in over 100 countries all over the world.

Read more here

To celebrate World Book Day here in the library we have put together a fine collection of fiction books to take you on a trip around the world. Through these books we can travel from the country lanes of Britain to the silk roads of the east, reading short stories, historical novels, a travel memoir and a Pulitzer Prize winner. We can read of cocktails being sipped in 1930’s Paris, murder in Tuscany and even the travels of a cat…. if you love reading there is a book here waiting for you!

Children’s Commissioner Report

The state of children’s mental health services

This report gives an overview of the provision of Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services (CYPMHS) in England. The briefing also looks ahead to assess whether current government plans go far enough to meet demand. It finds that while the NHS has made tangible progress in the provision of mental health services for children, the current system is still far away from adequately meeting the needs of all of the estimated 12.8 per cent of children in England with mental health problems – or the many more children who fall just below the threshold for clinical diagnosis.

Read the report