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.
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.
Suicidal patients who are under observation may be put at risk by relying on inexperienced staff and agency nurses, according to a new report issued today.
A mental health campaigner who convinced supermarkets to withdraw offensive Halloween ‘mental patient’ costumes from their stores killed herself at a psychiatric unit, an inquest has found.
Work by Rebecca Luscombe, known as Becki, went national in 2013 when she successfully started a Twitter campaign which resulted in the outfits being taken off supermarket shelves.
Karen Reissmann, a local nurse who is standing against Labour MP Gerald Kauffman, said, “People in Gorton are looking for change. There is a deep sense of betrayal at Labour’s failure to represent ordinary people. It cuts through every conversation, even with Labour loyalists.”
Meeting Wednesday 4Th March with Ilsa Finigan Adult Community & Social Inclusion of the Trust
*What is this new team when you are stepped down?
*What support will I receive when I am discharged?
*If my circumstances and needs have not changed and I am stepped down, will you notify the DWP?
Are you stepping down patients, because of lack of financial resources?
The message is clear and members of the public, Unison members and members of MUN turned out on Valentines Day asking those who Love Manchester to tell Manchester City Councillors not to implement cuts to Manchester Mental Health Services already cut to the marrow as Manchester City Councillor Paul Andrews (Bagley) recently said: “These cuts are already down to the marrow.” MUN’s Chair Paul Reed in response said: ” This mean further killer cuts will mean the loss of lives and that’s something Manchester User’s Network is not prepared to allow, if this Council implements these killer cuts MUN would seek legal action against Manchester City Council.”
Manchester celebrities Shaun Ryder, Terry Christian, Rowetta and Claire Mooney are to lead hundreds of protesters in a rally against ‘appalling’ coalition cuts that have affected the city.
The Mancunian icons will lead crowds in what they are calling a ‘smart rally’— an emulation of the pro democracy demonstrations that took place in Hong Kong back in September 2014.
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.
All the self-care in the world won’t prevent burnout unless mental health workers stop trying to be superhuman and accept their vulnerabilities, an Australian researcher told Community Care.
Marieke Ledingham, a lecturer in counselling at the University of Notre-Dame, Australia, conducted research with 55 mental health workers to find out why they were suffering burnout in such large numbers, despite understanding its causes.
