The UK Government’s Welfare Reform Bill that presents the UK Government’s plans for getting a million people on benefits back to work is published this week. John Hutton, Work and Pensions Secretary, has promised that the new system will have a fairer test for mental health, and will offer more therapy to those who have left work due to depression or stress…

Carers in Wales get new Assembly ‘Champion’

John Griffiths AM will become Wales’s first Carers’ Champion – the first such figure in central government in the UK…

Report released on health of carers in Wales

Findings relating the health of carers in Wales from the ‘Welsh Health Survey 2003/04’ have just been issued by the National Assembly for Wales…

Carers will have right to flexible working

Last week the Work and Families Bill received Royal Assent, giving carers the right to request flexible working arrangements with their employer when it comes into effect next April…

During Hafal Week 2006 (June 26th-28th) Hafal’s ‘Loneliness Bus’ will be travelling through every part of Wales to hear from people with severe mental illness and their carers about their experiences of loneliness and mental health services in their area. The Bus will set out from Wrexham on Monday 26th and work its way via Colwyn Bay, Porthmadog, Aberystwyth, Tenby, Ammanford, Swansea and the Valleys before delivering its message at the Senedd on Wednesday 28th…

The Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics has today published a report urging that psychological therapy should be made more available to people with depression and chronic anxiety…

Mental health was the focus of this year’s Men’s Health Week organised by the Men’s Health Forum with events taking place all over the country.

Official figures suggest that 14% of men in England have some form of mental illness and one survey found that 11% of men had a neurotic disorder such as anxiety, depression, phobias and panic attacks.

Dr Paul Walker, chair of PHA Cymru, the Welsh public health association, drew attention to current inequity in health funding with his recent comments on a report into medical research funding published last week by the UK Clinical Research Collaboration.

Carers have welcomed the ‘Carers’ Credit’ proposals in the UK Government’s Pensions White Paper launched yesterday (25th May).

The White Paper puts forward Carers’ Credit measures will that will allow carers to build up an entitlement to a state pension without having to make a minimum level of national insurance contributions. This will apply to people caring for the sick and severely disabled for 20 hours or more a week…

A major research project at Cardiff University into adolescent depression has been given £1million funding by medical charity the Sir John Thorn Trust…

On Thursday (11th May) Health and Social Services Minister Dr Brian Gibbons launched Hafal’s new Timetable that summarises the Assembly Government’s Raising the Standard: The Revised Adult Mental Health National Service Framework and an Action Plan for Wales…