Lessons to be learned from Caribbean treatment of mental health

With Caribbean people in the UK nine times more likely than white British counterparts to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, a University of Manchester mental health researcher has visited Jamaica and Barbados to find out what lessons can be learned.

Children suffering from mental health conditions put in prison cells for want of suitable hospital beds

Police in England and Wales detained 202 vulnerable under-18s under the Mental Health Act, some for more than two days, despite widespread condemnation of the practice. Hampshire police held a 17-year-old girl for 63 hours and 40 minutes, while Nottinghamshire police held a 16-year-old girl for 52 hours.

Responding to the figures, Marjorie Wallace, the chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, said: “It is quite unacceptable that anyone suffering from a mental health condition, especially a young person, should treated as a criminal.

Question Time Special organised by Manchester User’s Network Conservative Party Reports Event

Manchester Conservatives Deputy Chairman and local candidate for Didsbury West David Semple took part in Question Time Special organised by Manchester User’s Network. The panel, consisting of parliamentary and local candidates representing the whole political spectrum, was chaired by BBC health correspondent Elaine Dunkley.

Information watchdog to probe DWP’s secret reviews on benefit deaths

Information watchdog to probe DWP’s secret reviews on benefit deaths
The information watchdog is to investigate the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) over its refusal to publish secret reviews into 49 benefit-related deaths.

Austerity and a malign benefits regime are profoundly damaging mental health

Austerity and a malign benefits regime are profoundly damaging mental health
442 psychotherapists, counsellors and academics condemn government plans and call on Labour and other parties to denounce anti-therapeutic practices

Austerity is having a ‘profoundly disturbing’ effect on Britain’s mental health, say experts

Austerity is having a ‘profoundly disturbing’ effect on Britain’s mental health, say experts

Austerity and cuts to benefits designed to drive people to work is having a “profoundly disturbing” effect on the people’s mental health, according to a letter signed by hundreds of psychotherapists, councillors and other experts in the field.

The letter, sent to The Guardian newspaper, warned that poverty and increasing inequality was causing a new wave of distress in Britain.

It said that what they described as the Government’s “get to work therapy” was “manifestly not therapy at all”.

ID call to aid mental health communication issues

ID call to aid mental health communication issues
People with health or other issues that make communication difficult should wear wristbands or carry ID, a parliamentary candidate has said.

Cambridge Conservative Chamali Fernando said the choice of carrying a card or wearing a more visible indicator should be a matter of choice.

Barrister Ms Fernando said she had defended people with autism or other conditions who had faced problems.

Mental health and the death of the “headclutcher” picture

Mental health and the death of the “headclutcher” picture
A campaign backed by Stephen Fry has been launched to try to change the type of images used by the media for stories about mental health. But what is wrong with the ones currently used?

A solitary figure, with their head in their hands, more often than not cast in dark, sombre lighting. These stock images, often termed the “headclutcher”, have become a familiar sight in media portrayals of mental illness.

Norman Lamb accuses mental health campaigners of trolling him

Norman Lamb accuses mental health campaigners of trolling him

Liberal Democrat care minister, Norman Lamb, has accused mental health campaigners in his North Norfolk constituency of trolling him on Twitter.

Lamb, who promotes himself as a champion for mental health awareness, was responding to tweets from the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk & Suffolk which called him duplicitous and said it had encountered many people who were adversely affected by cuts to mental health services under the Liberal-Conservative coalition.

The MP for Norfolk North tweeted: “I am pursued by vicious, sometimes defamatory and totally cynical trolling by Norfolk/Suffolk Crisis campaigners!”