Richard Vautrey, from the BMA, said: "I'm a bit concerned if the clinical commissioning group does not believe that patients should be fully involved and fully informed about what is happening for their care.
Tyne & Wear The move is aimed at reducing hospital admissions There is concern that patients in County Durham have not been notified that GPs must now ask a private company to decide on referrals to specialists. North Durham Clinical Commissioning Group has awarded a contract to About Health, which will advise on the […]
Welfare cuts will push Britain’s mental health services towards crisis
Secretary of State for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Iain Duncan Smith, recently proposed a further £12 billion of cuts to benefits. Making such cuts is likely to disproportionately affect the most vulnerable, including those with mental health problems and other disabilities. After all, approximately half of people who need support from the disability benefit Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) do so because of their mental health.
A training scheme to fast-track graduates into mental health social work will be backed by £1.6m of government funding next year, care minister Norman Lamb is expected to announce tonight.
The Think Ahead programme will use the money to fund its operational costs in 2015-16. Costs include recruiting students, designing the academic curriculum, and developing a leadership training element for the scheme.
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.”
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.
Sick and disabled claimants are experiencing severe distress and some are even close to suicide due to botched disability benefit reform, an insider has revealed.
Personal Independence Payments (PIP) are replacing Disability Living Allowance (DLA) for Britain’s sick and disabled, but the assessment process which should take no longer than 26 weeks is sometimes taking twice as long.
A coroner has criticised mental health services for “failing” to provide proper care to a concert violinist who died just a week after giving evidence against her predatory former choirmaster.
And he demanded that new rules are put in place to ensure that vulnerable witnesses are given better support when they face often traumatic trials.
Mother-of-four Frances Andrade was “extremely traumatised” after testifying about abuse she suffered as a teenager at the hands of ex-Chetham’s School of Music choirmaster Michael Brewer and his wife Kay.
