Showing posts tagged with: Mental Health

Mental Health Medication Concern

Many people with severe mental health problems miss out on the care they should
receive for physical illnesses, researchers say.

A British Journal of Psychiatry paper found those with severe mental illness were less likely to get drugs for conditions such as high blood pressure.

The University of Leicester team reviewed 61 existing studies to reach their conclusions.

Campaigners said patients' physical health was "often overlooked".

The studies analysed by the team covered almost two million people, mainly living in the US.

They looked at treatment of conditions including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis and HIV.

It was found that patients with severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia, received lower than expected prescriptions for essential drugs to treat high blood pressure, including ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers and statins.

Overall, it was estimated that the rate of undertreatment for medical conditions was 10% for those with severe mental illness.

To read the full article, click here.

'Excessive' use of face-down restraint in mental health hospitals

The government is considering a ban on the use of face-down restraint in English mental health hospitals.

The move follows figures which show the controversial technique being used hundreds of times a year in some trusts - a level described by a health minister as "shocking" and apparently "excessive".

Research by the mental health charity Mind finds that some mental health trusts no longer use face-down restraint because it is considered too dangerous and traumatic.

But figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that two mental health trusts employ the procedure two or three times a day.

The Northumberland, Tyne and Wear trust used face-down restraint 923 times in 2011-12. Southern Health trust, based in Southampton, used it 810 times. Between them, the two institutions account for almost half of all the face-down restraint revealed in the figures.

To read the full article click here.

Grumpy? Eat a steak. Puffy ankles? Have a banana. Eat the right vitamin for your ailment

Could that niggling health problem actually mean you're deficient in something? Learn what your body might be trying to tell you about the vitamins and minerals you could lack.

FEELING GRUMPY - COULD MEAN YOU LACK: Iron.

(RDA): 8.7mg men, 14.8mg women.

Pale skin, light-headedness and spoon-shaped nails are oft-quoted signs of iron deficiency. But feeling cranky (along with tiredness and poor concentration) is a more common early symptom due to reduced levels of oxygen going to the brain, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. 

Iron is a key component of red blood cells, and allows them to pick up oxygen and transport it around the body. 

Up to 30 per cent of teenage girls and 17 per cent of women are affected by a low iron status, with risk being higher in women who have heavy periods. 

FOOD SOLUTION: Red meat, nuts and greens - animal sources of iron such as beef, eggs and sardines are absorbed best, but nuts, pulses, green veg and fortified breakfast cereals are also good if taken with a source of vitamin C, e.g. orange juice, to boost absorption. Supplements may be the only solution in more severe deficiency.

To read more click here.

Whistleblowing!

Nursing continues to produce courageous whistleblowers, such as Terry Bryan, who helped expose the Winterbourne View scandal and Helene Donnelly, who tried to sound the alarm about care standards at Stafford hospital. But the most famous was, and remains, Graham Pink.

It was in 1990 that Pink – "Mr Pink" to friend and foe alike – touched a national nerve with his principled stand over staffing levels on the elderly care wards where he worked at Stepping Hill hospital, Stockport. His letters to everyone from his immediate managers to the prime minister, setting out in meticulous detail the harsh realities of life on the wards, made compelling, if deeply uncomfortable, reading.

To read the full story click here. 

I was born in Stepping Hill hospital, the original one on the A6 in Stockport. The twin of a brother with a learning disability, my mother was advised to leave my twin at the hospital, forget he existed and take me home as he would be too hard to look after. I shudder to think what would have become of him had he been left there in 1966. He would probably have spent his whole life living in an institution.

My mother ignored their advice and brought us both home!

Suffice to say we are both thriving and able to tell the tale, this is part of the reason I am passionate about the provision of care and ensure that I always promote best practice and have no qualms about reporting poor practice.

Things change when people speak out and we are dealing with people’s lives at the end of the day.

I am proud to say that Routes Healthcare has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to any kind of abuse and I share their ethical stance.

I believe that abusers are in the minority and often don’t realize that what they are doing is abuse. We train people to heighten their awareness and provide avenues for them to report poor practice, please use them if you witness abuse.

Reg Storey

Routes Healthcare Training Team.

Clegg attacks NHS Mental Health Care

Nick Clegg has launched a strong attack on how the NHS treats mental health patients.

In a BBC interview, the deputy prime minister said it was "just plain wrong" to treat the illness as the "poor cousin" of physical health in the NHS.

There remains, he says, "too much prejudice, too much discrimination" around the issue.

Mr Clegg was speaking ahead of a major conference at which the government will unveil its mental health strategy.

A poll from the charity, Time To Change, highlights some of the problems faced by patients.

Its survey of almost 5,000 people with mental health problems found:

• More than half said that stigma and discrimination associated with mental health was as bad or worse than the illness itself
• More than a quarter waited for over a year to tell their family about their problem
• Nearly a quarter of young people said discrimination and stigma stopped them going to school

Mr Clegg said: "There is too much ignorance, too much prejudice, too much discrimination.

"We've got to take this out of the shadows."

To read the full article click here.