Andre Tomlin

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André Tomlin is an Information Scientist with 20 years experience working in evidence-based healthcare. He's worked in the NHS, for Oxford University and since 2002 as Managing Director of Minervation Ltd, a consultancy company who do clever digital stuff for charities, universities and the public sector. Most recently André has been the driving force behind the Mental Elf and the National Elf Service; an innovative digital platform that helps professionals keep up to date with simple, clear and engaging summaries of evidence-based research. André is a Trustee at the Centre for Mental Health and an Honorary Research Fellow at University College London Division of Psychiatry. He lives in Bristol, surrounded by dogs, elflings and lots of woodland!

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No clear benefit for using ICT as psychoeducation and support for schizophrenia, according to new Cochrane review

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There is a great deal of interest in using information and communication technology (ICT) to support and treat people with mental health conditions. In the broadest sense, ICT includes not just computers, but also telephones, TV and radio; essentially any medium that can communicate information in a multimedia format. ICT interventions can be delivered at [read the full story…]

Can joint personal budgets help bridge the gap between health and social care provision?

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This new briefing from the NHS Confederation introduces joint personal budgets for health and social care. It gives the context behind their development, explains how they might work and lists some of the issues that need to be considered before they could be used at scale. Delivering integrated care is obviously hugely beneficial to the [read the full story…]

Collaborative care is effective for adults with depression and anxiety: new Cochrane systematic review

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The new batch of Cochrane systematic reviews are published today and there are a couple of important new mental health reviews that I’ll be blogging about over the next few days. First comes a piece of research looking at the effectiveness of collaborative care for patients with depression or anxiety. Collaborative care involves a range [read the full story…]

Do you live or work in Oxford/London? Help us make the Mental Elf bigger and better…

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Do you live or work in the Oxford or London area? We are at an exciting stage in the development of the Mental Elf and would like to meet some of our users and get feedback on what we’ve done so far and share some of our new ideas with you. We only need about [read the full story…]

Many children taking ADHD drugs say that it helps them control their behaviour and make better decisions, according to new survey

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The ADHD Voices (Voices On Identity, Childhood, Ethics and Stimulants) report was published yesterday and received a significant amount of press coverage. The outcomes of this work are a 46-page report and 18-minute video, that aim to inspire a fresh public conversation about the ethics of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnosis and stimulant drug treatments [read the full story…]

Understanding the mental health marketplace in England: new briefing from the NHS Confederation

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This new briefing paper from the NHS Confederation provides a clear overview of the mental health marketplace in England. Over £7 billion was invested in adult and older people mental health services in 2010/11. Most providers of services are statutory organisations, but there are also many charities, companies and social enterprises who make up the market. [read the full story…]

NICE publish evidence update on generalised anxiety disorder in adults

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NHS Evidence have published an evidence update on generalised anxiety disorder in adults. Evidence updates are summaries of selected high quality evidence that has appeared since the relevant guideline was published, in this case NICE clinical guideline 113 ‘Generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder (with or without agoraphobia) in adults: management in primary, secondary and community care’ [read the full story…]

New briefings to help develop better local mental health services

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A partnership of leading mental health charities has launched a series of briefings to help develop better local mental health services. Following the publication of the implementation framework for the Government’s mental health strategy, these briefings set out the steps that local authorities and NHS commissioning groups can take to improve mental health care, treatment [read the full story…]

Cognitive deficits, depression and education level all predict worklessness in bipolar disorder, says systematic review

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People with bipolar disorder have high levels of post 16 years education, but it’s estimated that only half of those living in Europe with the condition are in paid employment. This is a real concern because the illness typically affects young and middle-aged people who would normally be active in the workforce. Of course, living [read the full story…]

New BMJ RCT finds that preventing depression in adolescents, with classroom-based CBT, may do more harm than good

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The prevalence of depression goes up sharply in mid-adolescence and it’s estimated that by age 19 up to 20% of people will have suffered from at least one episode of clinical depression. So it makes sense that prevention programmes should be targeted at young people in schools, and indeed, published research has shown that classroom-based [read the full story…]