Women react more to stress than men after reading negative news stories, according to new PLoS ONE study

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You won’t be surprised to hear that Mrs Elf and I have stopped watching the Oak Tree TV News and we’ve also stopped listening to the Woodland Wire on the wireless. Goodness me, the news is always so depressing! “Blah blah blah, chalara ash dieback, blah blah blah, badger cull”. To be honest, we’d rather [read the full story…]

Is there a balance between appreciation and challenge for teachers?

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National and international research consistently shows that the most significant factor in raising educational achievement is the employment and retention of good quality teachers. Teacher recruitment and retention; an historical context In recent history, the UK Government has introduced many initiatives to tackle the problems of teacher recruitment and retention (Menter, 2002), including bursaries for [read the full story…]

Mindfulness-based stress reduction programmes help reduce anxiety, depression and stress

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Mindfulness has become a popular self-management technique to relieve stress and cope with busy day-to-day lifestyles. This review defines mindfulness as the ability to “non-judgementally observe sensations, thoughts, emotions and the environment, while encouraging openness, curiosity and acceptance”. It looks specifically at a technique called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programmes, which is a training programme [read the full story…]

Rubber dam use for children's dental treatment reduced patient and operator stress

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Rubber dam is recommended for isolating the working field during adhesive dentistry procedures. However, dentists often omit rubber dam, particularly in paediatric dentistry, supposing that it would stress the patient. The aim of this study was to evaluate subjective and objective stress parameters in children and adolescents during dental treatment when using rubber dam compared [read the full story…]

Stress associated with onset of recurrent mouth ulcers

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Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) is a common and painful oral disease. It is characterised by recurring mucosal ulceration in an otherwise healthy individual.  Its prevalence is commonly estimated to be between 5% and 25%  with a peak age of onset between 10 and 19 years although they may continue throughout the patient’s life span.  An [read the full story…]

Actively involving students with learning disabilities provides an effective check on policy implementation and quality

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Given the emphasis in education on inclusion in mainstream schools and colleges for young people with additional needs, this project set out to enable young people with learning difficulties in three localities to bring about changes in their schools and colleges. The young people themselves chose the areas they wanted to focus on, which were: [read the full story…]

Life events linked to likelihood of hospital emergency department visits in people with learning disabilities

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Life stress and in particular key stressful events have long been linked with mental ill health. These researchers in Canada set out to look at the link between life events and psychopathology in people with learning disabilities and in particular, the link with hospital use. The researchers asked key informants to complete a checklist of [read the full story…]

A practical guide for line managers who support staff with mental health conditions

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Stress, anxiety and depression cause more working days lost than any other health problem. The financial cost to British business of mental ill health is an estimated £26 billion per year – that’s equivalent to £1,035 for every employee – and some place it as high as £40 billion. This new guide published by Devon [read the full story…]