News round-up (18 October 2024)

Early findings of a major new research study appear to confirm that, as many policymakers fear, there is a strong link between heavy social media use and mental illness in teenagers. Figures from NHS England show that more and more people are seeking help from mental health and learning disability services, with 16-year-old girls the group most likely to be in contact with these services. Figures released in Wales, meanwhile, reveal long waiting lists for access to mental health support. In an effort to tackle the rising cost of disability benefits, the government is considering extending a scheme in which job coaches visit mental health patients to help them get back into work.

 

Main stories this week

Warning lights are flashing on attitudes to mental health, charity says

Mind, the mental health charity, says that ‘warning lights are flashing’ as its latest report shows a decline in people’s willingness to live with or near someone with mental health problems.

 

Charity calls for mental health investment to boost economy

The chancellor of the exchequer should take the opportunity of the budget and spending review on 30 October to announce greater investment in mental health, a charity has said.

 

Health regulator told to pause some work amid internal failings

Some work carried out by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will remain paused after a review highlighted significant internal failings at the health regulator. It comes as Health Secretary Wes Streeting suggested the public has lost confidence in the CQC’s ratings system.

 

Poor mental health support having negative effect on learning

Nearly three-quarters of teachers believe poor mental health support is having a negative impact on learning, according to new research from the charity YoungMinds.

 

Other stories this week

Mental health patients to receive job coach visits

Job coaches could visit mentally ill people in hospital to help them get back into work, the work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall has said.

A pilot in which employment advisers went into hospital to give CV and interview advice has produced “dramatic results,” Kendall told the BBC.

She said the scheme could be rolled out more widely as a way to get more people back into work and reduce the cost to the government of paying out disability and incapacity benefits.

The successful pilots were carried out in Leicester and at the Maudsley Hospital in Camberwell. They offered employment support such as training on CV writing and interviews to people with serious mental health conditions, some of whom were on hospital wards.

In 2023-24, disability benefits cost the Department of Work and Pensions £48bn. “I want to see those costs coming down, because I want to have people able to work, to get on in their work, which is good for them,” Kendall told the BBC.

Social media usage linked to anxiety in teenagers, study finds

Teenagers who spend a lot of time on social media are more likely to experience anxiety and depression, research has found.

University of Oxford and Swansea University researchers, in collaboration with The Day newspaper, are launching BrainWaves, a 10-year study into the mental health of teenagers, which will look at data from 50,000 adolescents to investigate the possible link between social media and mental health.

Early findings from 7,200 students suggest that the more time young people spend on social media the more likely they are to suffer anxiety and depression. It also found that some teenagers are spending eight hours a day on their smartphones.

John Gallacher, a professor of cognitive health at Oxford and study lead, said that initial results “found a linear relationship between higher rates of anxiety and depression and time spent networking on social media sites.”

AI tool gives blind person ‘picture of the real world’ 

A new AI tool is able to help blind people have a better awareness of the world around them.

The tool, WorldScribe, was designed by researchers at the University of Michigan. It uses generative AI language models to interpret images from a camera, producing instant text and audio descriptions so that users are more aware of their surroundings.

It can adjust the level of detail based on the user’s commands or the length of time that an object is in the camera frame, and the volume automatically adapts to noisy environments such as crowded rooms, busy streets and loud music.

In a trial of the AI tool, users wore a headset equipped with a smartphone and walked around a research lab. The phone camera wirelessly transferred the images to a server, which almost instantly generated text and audio descriptions of objects in the camera frame: a laptop on a desk, a pile of papers, a TV and paintings mounted on the wall nearby. The descriptions constantly changed to match whatever was in view of the camera, prioritising objects that were closest to the user.

Thousands of people in Wales waiting six months or more for specialist psychological support 

About 2,000 adults with severe and enduring mental health problems are waiting six months or more to access specialist psychological therapies in Wales, according to new figures from health boards in Wales.

Statistics collated by the charity Mind Cymru through freedom of information requests show that up to 7,500 people currently remain on waiting lists each month for talking therapies in Wales. They also reveal that 750 people have waited for a year or longer.

Sue O’Leary, director of Mind Cymru, said: “People on these waiting lists are living with serious and enduring mental health conditions. Nobody should be waiting more than a year for specialist psychological therapies. In 2015, the Welsh government earmarked £2 million for improving access to psychological therapies as part of its Together for Mental Health strategy and nearly 10 years on, we’re no closer to knowing if that strategy is working or not.”

England’s NHS mental health services treat record 3.8 million people last year 

Approximately 3.8m people in England were in contact with NHS mental health, learning disability and autism services over the last year, up almost 40% compared to the period before the Covid-19 pandemic.

In 2018-19, the equivalent figure was 2.7m.

The new figures include more than one million children, with 16-year-olds most likely to be seeking NHS support. They also show that one in five 16-year-old girls are in contact with these services (70,963).

The health service is working hard to close the treatment gap that still exists within mental health care to ensure that everyone gets the support they need, NHS England said. It is currently rolling out hundreds of teams in schools which will mean that more than one in every two pupils in England will have access to NHS support in the classroom by spring 2025.

The NHS has also asked all local health systems to review how they interact with patients with serious mental health issues to ensure they are receiving the support they need.

WHO/Europe launches survey of mental health professionals

The World Health Organisation/Europe is launching a survey on the mental health and wellbeing of health care professionals in the 27 European Union member countries, as well as Iceland and Norway.

This survey, the largest of its kind to be undertaken in Europe, aims to gather data that will provide better understanding of the challenges doctors and nurses face in their work environments. The survey is part of a project funded by the European Commission.

The reason for launching the project is that health systems are experiencing increasing pressures, with many doctors and nurses reporting poor mental health and working conditions. These challenges are contributing to burnout, absenteeism and professionals leaving the workforce. By surveying health professionals, WHO/Europe hopes to understand the main factors affecting mental health and wellbeing, providing a strong evidence base to guide strategies for improving working conditions.