Homeless – Lancashire & South Cumbria Library Blog

Public Health

Current Awareness Updates

COVID-19 vaccines for autumn 2022: JCVI advice, 15 August 2022.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2022.
(Statement setting out the latest advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) on COVID-19 vaccines for autumn 2022.)

NHS prescription charges in England.
House of Commons Library; 2022.
(The cost of an NHS prescription, who is entitled to free prescriptions and how to get help with prescription costs.)

Homeless hostel residents and staff struggle to access health and social care services.
The Mental Elf; 2022.
(In her debut blog, Ava Phillips summarises a paper that finds both people living in homeless hostels, and staff working there, feel marginalised and struggle to access the health and social care they need.)

As waiting lists grow for anxiety disorders, should we be turning to digital interventions?
The Mental Elf; 2022.
(Theo Kyriacou and Andie Ashdown explore a recent systematic review that brings together two decades of research, which suggests that digital health interventions for anxiety disorders may be a more effective alternative to inactive controls, such as waiting-list groups.)

No place for cheap alcohol: the potential value of minimum pricing for protecting lives.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2022.
(Pricing policies and taxation are among the most effective measures that policy-makers can use to address these harms, but they remain underutilized across the Region. This report reviews the status of implementation of minimum pricing globally, provides an overview of the most recent evidence behind the policy, addresses its main strengths and limitations and offers practical considerations for countries.)

Covid 19

Current awareness updates

Contingency framework: education and childcare settings.
Department for Education (DfE); 2021.
[The updated framework describes the principles of managing local outbreaks of Coronavirus (COVID-19) (including responding to variants of concern) in education and childcare settings, covering: the types of measures that settings should be prepared for; who can recommend these measures and where; when measures should be lifted; how decisions are made.]

Use of telecritical care for family visitation to ICU during the COVID-19 pandemic: an interview study and sentiment analysis.[Abstract]
Sasangohar F. BMJ Quality & Safety 2021;30(9):715-721.
[Conclusions: Use of virtual intensive care unit (vICU) for remote family visitations evoked happiness, joy, gratitude and relief and a sense of closure for those who lost loved ones. Identified areas for concern and improvement should be addressed in future implementations of telecritical care for this purpose.]

Impact of COVID-19 on migrants’ access to primary care and implications for vaccine roll-out: a national qualitative study.
British journal of general practice; 2021.
[COVID-19 has led to big changes in UK primary care, including rapid digitalisation, with unknown impact on migrant groups. The aim of this study is to understand the pandemic’s impact on recently-arrived migrants and their access to primary health care, and implications for vaccine roll-out.]

A rapid needs assessment of excluded people in England during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
Doctors of the World UK; 2020.
[The aim of this rapid needs assessment was to identify and describe the needs of routinely excluded groups, arising from the COVID-19 pandemic in England, to raise awareness, inform advocacy and form recommendations for action. Groups included refugees, migrants, people affected by modern slavery, homeless, Roma and traveller communities, sex workers and people recently released form prison.]

Volunteering and wellbeing during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Wales Centre for Public Policy; 2021.
[Volunteering has played a crucial role in supporting communities during the pandemic. Interest in volunteering saw a dramatic spike early in the pandemic, and volunteers have helped meet people’s emotional and physical needs during the crisis. To inform this recovery planning, WCPP conducted 2 studies on the contribution of volunteering to individual and community wellbeing during the pandemic: a synthesis of 50 practice-based case studies using a synthesis method and a rapid evidence review.]

Public Health

Current awareness updates

Statistics on alcohol: England.
House of Commons Library; 2021.
[Research briefing. This note provides a summary of statistics on alcohol consumption among adults and children in England. Data on alcohol-related hospital admissions in England and alcohol-related deaths in
England, the UK and worldwide is also shown.]

Towards a dementia-inclusive society: WHO toolkit for dementia-friendly initiatives.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2021.
[This toolkit supports individuals, communities and countries in raising awareness of, and empowering people living with, dementia to remain in, and be a significant part of, their community. The toolkit provides practical guidance and tools that can support efforts, including planning and implementation activities, to create dementia-inclusive societies.]

Social isolation and loneliness among older people: advocacy brief.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2021.
[This brief highlights the growing public health and policy concern on these issues, made more salient by the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief summarises the scale, impact, and harms of social isolation and loneliness among older people and outlines what can be done to reduce them. It also describes several policy windows that offer opportunities for addressing social isolation and loneliness among older people and proposes a three-point global strategy for tackling these issues.]

WHO guideline on school health services.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2021.
[School health services are services provided by a health worker to students aged 5–19 in primary or secondary education, either within school premises or in a health service situated outside the school. Schools offer a unique opportunity to implement effective health services at scale for children and adolescents. Web Annexes found at the end of this summary link to intervention and implementation tools.]

WHO Guideline on the prevention of drowning through provision of day-care and basic swimming and water safety skills.
World Health Organization (WHO); 2021.
[This guideline addresses: provision of day-care for children under the age of 6 years and provision of basic swimming skills and water safety training to children aged 6 years and older. Developed following GRADE methodology, approved by the WHO Guideline Review Committee and intended for use by policy-makers and practitioners, the guideline issues strong recommendations in favour of both interventions for drowning prevention.]

Alcohol and drug misuse prevention and treatment guidance.
Public Health England (PHE); 2021.
[Information and other resources to support commissioners, service providers and others providing alcohol and drug interventions. 11 August 2021: Added new group: Opioid substitution treatment good practice resources.]

Supporting mental healthcare in a maternity and neonatal setting: good practice guide and case studies.
NHS England; 2021.
[This guide is for commissioners and staff involved in maternity and neonatal care. It describes the underpinning principles of and good practice for supporting good mental health and psychological wellbeing in maternity and neonatal settings. It also considers the role of specialist maternal mental health services (MMHS) in supporting this function.]

Improving non-emergency patient transport services.
NHS England; 2021.
[This report sets out a new national framework for non-emergency patient transport services to support them in becoming consistently more responsive, fair and sustainable.]

PCN winter planning tool.
Primary Care Commissioning (PCC); 2021.
[PCC has published a winter planning tool to support PCNs in preparing for the winter pressures that are anticipated. The tool is free to download and contains an introductory sheet with instructions for completion. We have also recorded a short video guide to using the tool.]

Responding to pandemics and other disease outbreaks in homeless populations: a review of the literature and content analysis.
Babando J. Health & Social Care in the Community 2021;-(6 April):13380.
[This review illustrates that the current breadth of academic literature on homeless populations has focused on tuberculosis rather than diseases that are more recent and closely related to COVID-19. Thematic content analysis revealed six themes that offer recommendations which include (1) education and outreach, (2) adapting structure of services, (3) screening and contract tracing, (4) transmission and prevention strategies, (5) shelter protocols and (6) treatment, adherence and vaccination.]

Government response to the independent review of drugs by Dame Carol Black.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC); 2021.
[Part 2 of Dame Carol Black’s review set out 32 recommendations for a whole system approach to tackling drug misuse. As a result, the government is developing a long-term strategy which will present a whole-of-government response to drive down drug supply and demand to be published by the end of the year. Immediate actions include a new cross government joint combating drugs unit and development of a national outcomes framework to set out measurable goals for the combating drugs programme.]

Restrictive eating disorders in higher weight persons: A systematic review of atypical anorexia nervosa prevalence and consecutive admission literature.[Abstract]
Harrop EN. International Journal of Eating Disorders 2021;54(8):1328-1357.
[Although atypical anorexia (AAN) appears to occur more frequently than AN in communities, fewer patients with AAN are being referred and admitted to eating disorder specific care, particularly in the United States. Given the significant medical and psychosocial consequences of AAN, and the importance of early intervention, this represents a crucial treatment gap.]

Attentional bias in eating disorders: A meta-review.[Abstract]
Stott N. International Journal of Eating Disorders 2021;54(8):1377-1399.
[There is evidence for attentional avoidance and vigilance in eating disorders depending on stimulus properties (low vs. high-calorie food; high-body mass vs. low-body mass index photos of others) and attentional avoidance of food stimuli in those with anorexia nervosa. Sad mood induction may generate attentional bias for food in those with binge-eating disorder. There may also be attentional bias to general threat in eating disorder samples.]

Homelessness

Case study of ‘My Right to Healthcare’ cards which explain the rights of homeless people to accessing GPs

The cards were given to people experiencing homelessness for them to show when registering at a GP surgery. They emphasise that no identification or proof of address or immigration status is needed to register with a GP.