22nd August 2024
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News round-up (23 August 2024)
Many people who work in mental health have witnessed the beneficial effect of engaging in creative activities – and now a study has come along to confirm it. The finding dovetails with another study we highlight this week which found that people who lack purpose in life are more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment, an early sign of dementia. There is also good news of a police-NHS partnership that has helped reduce the amount of time police in Scotland spend attending A&E in response to mental health call-outs, freeing them to focus on fighting crime.
Main stories from the week
Health care students to benefit from virtual reality room
Health care students at Coventry University will be able to use a new virtual reality health suite to help them learn more effectively.
Government to slow down reform of Mental Health Act
The government has said that it will slow down the implementation of reforms to the Mental Health Act in response to the publication of a report into the treatment received by Valdo Calocane before he killed three people in Nottingham.
There has been a “dangerous” and “alarming” global surge in mental ill health among young people, a new report has found.
Other stories from the week
Creative activities give a boost to mental health
Taking part in creative activities can improve mental health as much as being employed, a new study has found.
Researchers analysed a sample of 7,182 participants from the annual Taking Part survey conducted by the UK’s Department for Culture, Media, and Sport, which evaluates public engagement with cultural, digital and sporting activities.
Participants in the survey were asked to rate their sensations of happiness, anxiety and life satisfaction, and to give their impression of whether life is worthwhile. They were also asked how often they felt lonely.
The response showed that those who took part in arts and crafts reported higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction, as well as a stronger sense that life is worthwhile. Dr Helen Keyes of Anglia Ruskin University, lead author, said: “Crafting and other artistic activities showed a meaningful effect in predicting people’s sense that their life is worthwhile. Indeed, the impact of crafting was bigger than the impact of being in employment. Not only does crafting give us a sense of achievement, it is also a meaningful route to self-expression. This is not always the case with employment.”
Police partner with NHS to deal with mental health calls
A project in Lanarkshire, in which police and the NHS have collaborated to provide “optimum care” to mental health patients, has freed up 20,000 officer hours in a year.
The project, known as the Community Triage Service (CTS), is focused on supporting the most vulnerable people. Whereas previously, two police officers would accompany a mentally unwell person in distress to A&E, and could spend up to 16 hours there, the patient is now referred instead to a psychiatric liaison nurse.
The patient is then given a mental health appointment within the hour, as long as they were aged over 16, not significantly intoxicated or suffering from another illness or injury and have not been sectioned.
Scotland’s chief constable has said that the demands of mental health call-outs are consuming time equivalent to 600 police officers each year. Under CTS, officers are now able to focus on crime rather than waiting for hours in A&E.
A lack of purpose in life can increase risk of dementia, study finds
A lack of purpose in life with few opportunities for personal growth may increase the risk of developing mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a frequent precursor of dementia, according to a new study.
The study, carried out by researchers in the US, China and Sweden, tracked 910 people in Illinois for an average of 14 years to assess whether they developed MCI or dementia. Each year, the researchers carried out a psychological wellbeing assessment of participants.
The final analysis was based on 229 participants with complete before and after data, including 73 who developed dementia.
During the follow-up, 29% were diagnosed with MCI. Among this group, 34% were diagnosed with dementia. Compared with participants who remained “cognitively intact”, those who developed MCI were more likely to have lower levels of psychological wellbeing.
Blair Institute report calls for introduction of digital health record
A report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has called for the introduction of a digital health record (DHR) for every citizen by 2029.
The report, entitled Preparing the NHS for the AI era, a digital health record for every citizen, argues that person-centred health records help improve health care, and help shift the focus of health services from treatment to prevention.
The institute calls on the government to commit to a DHR for every citizen within one term of parliament. The project should build existing initiatives rather than start from scratch.
The proposed DHRs would focus on safely collecting and storing the personal health data of every citizen, with citizens able to share that data with chosen third parties. The report notes that individuals’ health data currently sit in silos across hospitals, GP practices, pharmacies and phones and argues the proposed citizen health record would provide a fundamental building block for modernising the health system.
The new records would be a “single source of truth” for individuals’ health data, the report argues, with data being separated from applications.
Half a million patients with ADHD or mental illness face drug shortage
More than half a million patients in the UK are facing shortages of vital medication, the Independent has reported.
The NHS has issued shortage warnings for nine key medications, including for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
Nine government “serious shortage protocols” are in place for the antipsychotic drug quetiapine, used by 250,000 people in the UK. The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) has warned pharmacists and doctors there will be shortages of quetiapine until at least September.
ADHD patients also face shortages, with NHS doctors in the South West being told to no longer prescribe methylphenidate, sold under the brand names Ritalin or Concerta. The drug is taken by more than 275,000 NHS patients.
Steven Kitchen, chief executive for Bipolar UK, said that patients with bipolar disorder need their medication to stay well: “They can do a lot of damage to themselves and those around them before they get to the point where they are in the awful scenario of having to be sectioned because they’re so unwell. The suicide risk for bipolar is really high. People rely on this medication to stay alive.”
Trust’s AI data-sharing deal raises privacy concerns
A privacy campaign group, MedConfidential, has raised concerns about a data-sharing agreement between the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital (RNOH) and artificial intelligence (AI) startup Naitive Technologies.
RNOH entered into a collaboration agreement with Naitive in 2018, covering the development of AI software for data analysis in the field of orthopaedic surgery and musculoskeletal medicine.
In response to a freedom of information (FOI) request from MedConfidential, RNOH has provided redacted versions of a collaboration agreement and investment agreement with Naitive.
MedConfidential has said that it believes the deal contravenes guidance from NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care on NHS data-sharing with researchers. Sam Smith, coordinator at MedConfidential, said: “This agreement is so murky and so contradictory it’s impossible to know what actually happened – which is a clear breach of the national data guardian’s ‘no surprises rule’ which NHSE says that its guidelines deliver.”