The lack of acute beds available to mental health patients has left the system at breaking point, the Royal College of Psychiatrists has said.
Illustrating the scale of the problem, the college said it understood that on one occasion last year there were no beds available for adults in England. It called for action to tackle the problem.
The college president, Simon Wessely, said: “There is mounting evidence – such as the doubling of the number of patients having to be sent out-of-area for care between 2011/12-2013/14 – that there are simply not enough mental health beds available in some areas.
Norfolk and Suffolk mental health Skype ‘outsourcing’ causes concern
A health trust’s proposal to help treat patients with depression by using “staff from lower wage countries” via Skype showed a lack of understanding of mental health care, say campaigners.
The idea was put forward in a report to the government by the mental health trust for Norfolk and Suffolk.
Unison, which represents mental health staff, said the plan failed to show an understanding of mental health care.
An innovative mental health street triage service for Dorset is reducing the number of times police have to detain mental health sufferers in custody.
Nearly half the number of people detained under Section 136 in Dorset have ended up in custody in 2014, compared with the previous year. Figures show 44% less people were placed in custody during 2014 as there were in 2013 as a result of displaying a mental health condition.
A young woman who was honoured by Princess Anne for her dedication to charity work was found hanged on a hospital ward after she complained of being intimidated by noisy neighbours.
Kimberley Lindfield, 27, a former youth volunteer for St John Ambulance, had filed a report to housing officials about loud music being played next to her rented flat.
The NHS faces unrealistic expectations, says; Michele Moran
Michele Moran, chief executive of Manchester mental health and social care trust, says adapting resources to deliver services for vulnerable people is her biggest challenge
Most people with ‘depression’ are not medically ill and are actually just unhappy, according to a Manchester mental health boss.
Mancunians Google the search term ‘depression’ every two minutes, however a number of mental health professionals MM spoke to claimed this doesn’t necessarily mean they are depressed.
The findings, released by leading mental health rehabilation service The Priory Group, show that people in the city are searching for information on the topic more than 26,000 times a month.
But mental health experts in Manchester warn of the dangers of confusing unhappiness with depression, revealing that that 9
Over 100 people a day with mental health problems are having their benefits sanctioned, according to Freedom of Information requests by the Methodist Church in Britain.
The data, obtained from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), showed that in March 2014 alone – the last month for which data is available – around 4,500 people with mental health problems who receive the sickness and disability benefit Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) because of mental health problems had their benefits sanctioned.
What can transform someone from being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and chronic fatigue syndrome to a state of total mental and physical wellbeing? As James Boschman discovered, omega-3 fatty acids can work those wonders and more. Within three weeks of incorporating flax seed — the highest known vegetable source of omega-3s — into his diet, he was sleeping normally and, in his words, “not crazy anymore,” as the omega-3 fatty acids leveled out the wild fluctuations in his brain.
The Commission assessed all 69 NHS trusts providing acute inpatient mental health services in England. This covered 554 wards providing almost 10,000 beds for patients between the ages of 18 and 65.
