People with learning disabilities have an increased prevalence of mental health problems compared to the general population, however, in the absence of an agreed model there is currently a wide variety of provision, including community and bed-based services. The Joint commissioning panel for mental health have produced a guide for commissioners to describe the current [read the full story…]
The NICE guideline for depression in children and young people was published way back in September 2005. Any elf worth his salt will tell you that a whole heap of evidence has been published since then, so it’s good to see an evidence update appear this week from NICE, which brings together research published from 17th [read the full story…]
In recent years, there has been a shift in clinical practice in relation to breaking bad news in favour of openness and the provision of information to patients. However, there is a small body of evidence that suggests that this shift in attitude has not impacted on people with learning disabilities, who appear still mainly [read the full story…]
Introduction This guidance has been prepared for commissioners and all staff providing lifestyle advice in primary care, including community health and allied health professionals, such as physiotherapists. It aims to raise awareness of the issues caused by inactivity, not just for individuals, but for the health service and economy as a whole, and provides a [read the full story…]
I wonder if the timing of this publication was planned to be so close to the release of DSM-5, but this debut guidance on social phobia (now known as social anxiety disorder) is certainly going to ruffle some feathers. It fuels the discussion about the medicalisation of human personality traits and some will see it [read the full story…]
Bipolar disorder features as one of the top ten disabling disorders for working age adults. There are numerous risks including suicide, increased mortality and reduced social functioning associated with the disorder. Key to enabling recovery is preventing acute episodes from occurring, with each episode increasing the risk of future ones. Therefore ensuring long-term maintenance treatment [read the full story…]
NICE have published a new guide to help commissioners provide evidence-based care for people with dementia. Providing care for our ageing population seems not to have been out of the news in recent years and rightly so, especially as the headline stories are frequently not positive. A recent Care Quality Commission report found that people [read the full story…]
The NICE guideline on the longer-term care and treatment of self-harm was published in November 2011 and contains research published up until January 2011. A group of experts including psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers has compiled an evidence update looking at the high quality research that has been published in the last two years (from [read the full story…]
The Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme (SDCEP) has recently launched guidance for the management of patients with acute dental problems. The scope of the guidance is to:- Encourage a consistent approach to the management of acute dental problems to reduce avoidable variation in practice Improve the quality of unscheduled clinical care for patients with acute [read the full story…]
Conduct disorders are the most common reason why children are referred to mental health services and it’s estimated that around 5% of all UK children aged 5-16 have a diagnosis of the condition. Around half of the young people affected by conduct disorders go on to have a serious mental health problem as an adult. [read the full story…]
