Royal College of Psychiatrists podcast. Mieko talks to Dr Michael Yousif about the challenges of caring for someone suffering with mental health problems.

Listen here.

Heroes in Psychiatry: a series of occasional interviews with people (not all of them psychiatrists), who have made a distinguished contribution to  the understanding and care of people with mental health problems. In this interview Professor Sir David Goldberg talks to Dr Mark Salter about classification in psychiatry.

Listen here.

This consultation is the first step towards developing a new public health workforce strategy that will help shape the public health workforce of the future. It will be a living document, regularly reviewed and updated. The consultation is aimed at a broad audience, reflecting the Government’s view that public health is everyone’s business. Each chapter of this document includes key messages, proposals and consultation questions. Case studies are included where appropriate.…

This is a report on work that the College of Social Work and the GSCC commissioned SWEP to do, to look at how involvement is happening  across the HE sector - using GSCC monitoring information and some interviews with user involvement leads.  See here.

'Make a difference, improve lives: a career in psychiatry'.  New publication from the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

http://tinyurl.com/7evr577

Intelligent Kindness is a powerful new approach to healthcare reform. Ballatt and Campling argue that the NHS is a system that invites society to value and attend to its deepest common interests; it is a vital expression of community and one that can improve if society, patients and staff can reconnect to these deeper values. To do so will improve quality and patient experience, as well as morale, effectiveness, efficiency and value for money. Relentless regulatory and structural NHS reforms…

The Deputy Prime Minister,  Nick Clegg, and Health Minister Paul Burstow announced today that the ambitious Children and Young People's Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (CYP IAPT) programme will receive an extra investment of up to £22 million over the next three years. This is in addition to the £8 million per year for four years that had previously been secured.  The new resources will be used to

• extend the…

Charity Rethink Mental Illness has launched a range of tools to help mental health professionals tackle the physical health needs of the people they work with.

The tools have been developed as part of the ‘20 Years Too Soon’ campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the fact that people affected by severe mental illness die on average 20 years younger than the general population, mostly as a result of preventable physical conditions.

Developed…

Martin Webber has compiled an extremely useful reading list of research of relevance for AMHPs.  Download here.

A reminder that the Call for Papers for the 2^nd International Health Humanities Conference 2012 is live and accepting submissions, following the huge success of the 1^st IHHC in 2010 in Nottingham. Please do take a look and consider submitting a paper or attending.

Further details.

NICE has produced a new quality standard and clinical guidance on service user experience in adult mental health. See:

http://www.nice.org.uk/cg136

Young people convicted of serious acts of violence during their childhoods talk about their experiences of trauma and violence in a new report from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. Based on in-depth conversations with the young people in prison and presented in their own words, the report - My Story: Young people talk about trauma and violence in their lives - offers a unique insight into the kind of severe, multiple and prolonged trauma experienced by many who while still…

This briefing summarises evidence on what prevents people with mental health problems from working or retaining work in social care and what can be done to enable them to work. It provides a summary of a range of policy and programmes designed to enable people with mental health problems to gain, retain and regain work, with specific focus on employment in social care. Download here.

This guide is for all staff working with young people with mental health problems who need to move from one service to another that is, to make a 'transition'. In the guide you will find underlying principles, information about making services accessible and easy to use, transition planning and practice, working together, and performance management and monitoring: all key areas where improvements will make a real difference to the lives of young people, their families and carers. The guide…

Crisis and acute mental health services provide for people when they are at their most unwell and vulnerable. Between Autumn 2010 and Summer 2011, Mind’s independent inquiry heard evidence from 400 service users and professionals in relation to acute mental healthcare in England and Wales.

Download report.

This Centre for Social Justice report warns that Britain is hampered by an "unfinished revolution in mental health care" and that further reforms are urgently needed to achieve the goals set by the policy-makers of the 1970s and 1980s who championed the cause of care in the community. Download here.