Psychotherapy for people with learning disabilities: the views and experiences of IAPT practitioners

Psychological therapists and occupational therapists were not included in this qualitative study of 27 mental health staff, which is a shame.

Reed Cappleman critiques a recent study of IAPT (Improving Access to Psychological Treatments) practitioners’ experiences of providing therapy to people with intellectual disabilities.

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Tackling mental-health-related stigma: a narrative review of anti-stigma interventions

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Suzanne Dash considers the findings of a recent narrative review in The Lancet, which brought together the evidence for effective interventions to reduce mental-health-related stigma and discrimination.

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Stigma increases psychological distress in people with intellectual disabilities

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David Steele reports on a recent cross-sectional study, which found that stigma was linked with increased psychological distress and poorer quality of life in people with intellectual disabilities.

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How can we reduce mental health stigma and discrimination?

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David Steele summarises a recent systematic review that found small to medium long-term effects from anti-stigma interventions with very little research coming from low income countries.

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Employment opportunities for all? Social enterprises and mental health

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Martin Webber considers a Canadian study about social enterprises and employment opportunities for people with mental health problems such as psychosis.

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‘Beat the cheat’: disability welfare benefits and newspaper reporting

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Gerry Bennison offers food for thought in his blog on research into how disability welfare has been characterised in popular UK tabloid articles.

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Shirkers and scroungers: Is there a link between mental health discrimination and welfare reform?

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In her first Social Care Elf blog, Sarah Carr looks at an evaluation of the Time to Change anti-stigma campaign and discovers some new findings on discrimination against those living with mental health problems.

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NICE multimorbidity guidance almost excluded people with learning disabilities

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The NICE scoping guidelines on multimorbidity now thankfully include people with learning disabilities. However, the original scoping draft specifically excluded them, despite NHS England and the Department of Health commenting on the first draft.

Here, Pauline Heslop, one of the authors of the Confidential Inquiry report and a key campaigner to get people with learning disabilities included in the scope, talks about some the issues this raises.

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Stigma in bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder: time for a cultural shift.

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Andrew Shepherd summarises a critical realist analysis that looks at experiences of stigma in people with bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder. He concludes that a profound social change in public and professional attitudes is necessary before mental health stigma can be effectively eradicated.

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People with mental illness are more likely to be victims of homicide than perpetrators of homicide

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Dave Steele reports on a recent observational case series published in the Lancet Psychiatry, which concludes that patients with mental illness are two and a half times more likely to be victims of homicide than the general population.

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