Work and Pensions Secretary John Hutton has indicated that under the proposed reform of the Incapacity Benefit system, GPs could get financial incentives to help people off Incapacity Benefit. Employment advisers could be stationed in surgeries to work with GPs, offering people who have a sick note advice on working in another kind of job, and local councils may be offered financial rewards for back-to-work schemes…
Possible diet link to mental health
New reports published by the Mental Health Foundation and Sustain suggest that modern diets may be playing an important role in the rise of mental illness.
Psychiatric inpatient services failing patients
In Place of Fear?, the eleventh biennial report of the Mental Health Act Commission (MHAC) that will be laid before Parliament today, has heavily criticised psychiatric inpatient services in England and Wales as having unacceptable levels of care and security and fostering a climate of fear…
New Chair for Health and Social Services Committee
Rhodri Glyn Thomas, Plaid Cymru AM for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr, has become the new Chair of the Health and Social Services Committee at the National Assembly…
Patients have fewer rights than they think
A survey of 1000 adults conducted by The Patients Association – an independent research organisation based in Wales – suggests that the majority of NHS patients believe they have more rights than they actually do.
Report suggests abuse threat to women in mixed-sex wards
A study published in the December issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry suggests that women in mixed-sex psychiatric wards are at high risk of being assaulted…
Black people are three times more likely to be admitted to a mental health hospital
The first Wales- and England-wide study of the ethnicity of people using inpatient mental health services has shown that Black African and Caribbean people are three times more likely to be admitted to hospital and up to 44% more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act…
Report says prison inappropriate for people with mental health problems
Troubled Inside, a new report by the Prison Reform Trust, has found that up to three-quarters of men in prison suffer from two or more mental disorders and about one in ten have a functional psychosis…
Prison Mental Health Services in Focus at Hafal AGM 2005
The lack of adequate mental health services for mentally disordered offenders (MDOs) will be one of the discussion points at Welsh mental health charity Hafal’s 2005 Annual General Meeting to be held at Llandrindod Wells on 17th November…
Proposed Bill Targets Prison Mental Health Services
A private members’ bill proposed in parliament this week by Conservative MP Charles Hendry aims to make it law for prisons to provide appropriate treatment to mentally ill inmates. Speaking in Parliament, Hendry stated that a constituent of his who suffered from mental illness and who eventually committed suicide in part inspired the bill.