Are you making the most of your National Elf Service?

The Lifestyle Elf

It’s not all about the Mental Elf you know. There are lots of other elves who spend every waking hour scurrying around to find reliable evidence to help you. There are now seven magnificent elf websites and one more due to launch very soon.  Here’s a quick run down of my brothers and sisters in [read the full story…]

Teaching GPs about depression and suicide can help reduce the risk of suicide in depressed older adults, says new RCT

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A great deal of time and money has been spent on improving the diagnosis and management of depression and self-harm in primary care. The evidence tells us that collaborative care and case management can be effective approaches, which is all well and good, but these complex interventions are not always feasible. This new cluster randomised [read the full story…]

Cognitive deficits, depression and education level all predict worklessness in bipolar disorder, says systematic review

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People with bipolar disorder have high levels of post 16 years education, but it’s estimated that only half of those living in Europe with the condition are in paid employment. This is a real concern because the illness typically affects young and middle-aged people who would normally be active in the workforce. Of course, living [read the full story…]

Launch of new free 'musculoskeletal help' app

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This week sees the launch of a free app specifically designed to provide the public with key advice and information to help them manage their musculoskeletal problem themselves in the palm of their hand. It has been developed to compliment the web resources published last year by Scotland’s ‘NHS24’  and ‘daughter’ organisation ‘NHS inform’, the [read the full story…]

Are school teachers at a high risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders?

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As teachers across the UK have been recharging their batteries over the summer break are they also taking the opportunity to rest their weary bodies? Musculoskeletal disorders have a huge impact on work related absences. For example in the UK, in 2007/2008, on average, each person suffering from an upper-limb disorder took an estimated 13.3 [read the full story…]

Seven principles of better adoption of evidence in practice, from new MeReC bulletin

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The most recent MeReC Bulletin (December 2011) considers the problem of the implementation gap: the best evidence often does not get adopted quickly into practice. It highlights relevant evidence and ideas from educational theory, decision-making theory, information management and implementation science and brings them together in one place. It is intended to encourage a fresh [read the full story…]

Scottish study finds need for better knowledge of positive behaviour strategies for children with learning disabilities

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How staff supporting children with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour is clearly of major importance. This Scottish study set out to look at the knowledge that teaching staff had regarding definitions of and management of challenging behaviour displayed by children with learning disability. They found that the levels of knowledge amongst staff levels were relatively [read the full story…]

Impact on families caring for people with learning disabilities and mental health problems poorly understood review suggests

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Estimates of the numbers of people with learning disabilities who have co-morbid mental health problems vary considerably between studies, from 14 to 39%. This review of literature focused on families of individuals diagnosed with both learning disability and co-morbid mental health problems. The author looked at the impact of caring such individuals on things like [read the full story…]

Are people with low levels of education at greater risk of dementia?

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The purpose of this systematic review was to explore the relationship between education and dementia. The authors from the University of Southern California searched PubMed and PsycInfo for published studies examining the relationship between education and dementia listed from January 1985 to July 2010. The inclusion criteria were a measure of education and a dementia [read the full story…]

Training support staff improves sleep efficiency in people with learning disabilities

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Sleep problems are commonly found in people with learning disabilities who live in residential settings, but the authors of this study were concerned that insufficient attention was being is paid to them in the literature and consequently in practice. They set out to improve the knowledge and understanding of sleep quality and sleep problems among [read the full story…]