Mental health help at police stations

MENTAL health professionals are on hand in police stations across south Essex to ease pressure on police and help prevent vulnerable people reoffending.

The Department of Health announced £25 million of funding for mental health nurses to work in police stations in January.

A pilot scheme began in ten areas across the country in April, with nurses and other mental health professionals placed in Basildon, Southend and Thurrock police stations during office hours.

The scheme has now been expanded so that specialist support is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Better mental health: new approach shows benefit of positive thinking

A new way of assessing a person’s recovery from mental health problems is helping people learn to live fulfilling lives again, health experts say.

The Individual Recovery Outcomes Counter (I.ROC) measures recovery rather than symptoms and level of illness – the focus of most existing questionnaires.
I.ROC measures a person’s recovery – the ability to live a meaningful and fulfilling life in spite of mental illness – by asking 12 questions which focus on areas of people’s lives that are known to have an impact on mental health and wellbeing.

Divorced tycoon Scot Young left mental health clinic hours before death

Scot Young, the tycoon who died falling from his fourth storey London flat, had walked out of an NHS mental health unit shortly before his death, it has emerged.
The 52-year-old left the Gordon Hospital in central London hours before he fell from the apartment on Dec 8.

Mental health campaigner who launched ‘Find Mike’ search set to spend Christmas in hospital

A mental health campaigner who launched a viral search for the Good Samaritan who talked him out of suicide is set to spend Christmas in hospital.

Jonny Benjamin, 27, has revealed he will be undergoing treatment for schizoaffective disorder over the festive period after his health deteriorated.

Speaking in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel, Mr Benjamin said he had been experiencing recurring suicidal thoughts

Samaritans offers listening ear over Christmas

More than 45% of men who responded to a survey* by Samaritans said they felt more worried at Christmas than other times of the year.

The findings come with a reminder that volunteers from the charity’s 201 branches will be available round the clock over the festive period, for anyone who needs to talk.

The online survey found that of the male respondents:

Almost half (48%) feel sad or depressed at Christmas time
45% of men feel that others expect them to be happy at Christmas when they are not
More than a third (37%) of men admitted to feeling lonely at Christmas
30% of men felt stressed or anxious at Christmas time

Mentally-ill teenagers no longer to be held in cells

Teenagers experiencing mental health problems will no longer be detained in police cells as a “place of safety”.

Home Secretary Theresa May will announce later an overhaul of mental health laws in England and Wales.

The government review is also set to recommend adults should only be kept in a police cell as a place of safety in exceptional circumstances.

‘Can Openers’ By: Mel Jones a Manchester Social Worker working in Mental Health

Those of us who have been campaigning over the last few years to save public services from government cuts and austerity have been known to say, only half jokingly, that when the Tories are done, there will be “nothing left”. But this isn’t true. Tory austerity measures are a full on ideological assault. Their economic policy masks a concerted attempt to demonise the poorest and encourage people to think that the unemployed, the ill, the disabled, immigrants, asylum seekers and the old aren’t “deserving”. Thus the future is not one without public services. It is one where minimal services are delivered, by privatised corporations, to those who are deemed worthy.

Manchester’s mental health trust is among the five most likely to be putting patients at risk, according to a watchdog.

Manchester’s mental health trust is among the five most likely to be putting patients at risk, according to a watchdog.

Bosses at the Care Quality Commission have launched an ‘intelligent monitoring’ database that allows patients to see which trusts are highest on its priority list for inspections under a new regime.

The Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust, which provides mental health services across the city, has fallen in the highest priority banding.

It is one of only five trusts in the country to be placed in the top band.

The watchdog’s intelligent monitoring report highlights six ‘risks’ and one ‘elevated risk’ at the trust.