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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The care of young people with substance misuse problems: new practice standards from the Royal College of Psychiatrists

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Here’s one final substance misuse blog before the weekend, this time highlighting a new standard that’s been put together by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in partnership with DrugScope, Alcohol Concern and the Royal College of General Practitioners. Drug and alcohol misuse among young people is a major problem, although overall use is starting to decline. [read the full story…]

Adults with serious mental illness have a mortality rate three times as high as the general population, according to new NHS statistics

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People aged 18-74 with serious mental illness have a mortality rate three times as high as the general population, new data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) show. Though previous research has looked at this area, this is the first time such figures have been calculated by linking mortality data to the [read the full story…]

Early interventions for substance-using adolescents show promise

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Substance misuse has been a bit of a theme on the Mental Elf this week and I’m continuing with that today, firstly with this piece from the Lifestyle Elf.  Don’t forget, if you’re interested in healthy lifestyle issues (exercise, obesity, quitting smoking, alcohol, substance misuse), you should be following the excellent Lifestyle Elf blog. Earlier [read the full story…]

NICE launch new guideline and pathway on the referral, diagnosis and management of autism in adults

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Half a million people in England and Wales have autism and most of them were diagnosed in childhood or adolescence. Healthcare professionals sometimes overlook the condition in adults and this can lead to serious problems for the individual, including isolation, confusion and social exclusion. The National Autistic Society have estimated that only 15% of adults [read the full story…]

Preventing children of substance-affected parents from becoming users

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Prevention is better than cure, right? When it comes to preventing drug- and alcohol-misuse, children of substance-abusing parents are a really important group to work with, as they are at higher risk of developing their own subtance-related problems, or other mental health problems, than their peers from non-substance-using families. My cousin the Lifestyle Elf has highlighted a [read the full story…]

WELD Blog becomes the Learning Disabilities Elf

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The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that we’ve changed the name of this website and added a new logo: the Learning Disabilities Elf. What you may not know, is that this site is part of a broader website called the National Elf Service, which contains a number of other blogs that help health and [read the full story…]

Over 40% of US teenagers experience a mental health disorder in any 12 month period

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This new cross sectional study from researchers at Harvard Medical School looks at the prevalence of DSM-IV disorders in over 10,000 teenagers living in the community. The study looked at a representative sample of young people. Homeless adolescents, school drop-outs and non-English speakers were excluded from the research, even though those who speak a different [read the full story…]

Suicide and self-harm: series of articles in The Lancet

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Suicide is the second most common cause of death in young people worldwide (after accidental death). A wide range of factors contribute to self-harm and suicide, including mental health, poverty, living in a rural setting and being single. There is scant evidence for the treatment of self-harm or suicide with talking treatments or drugs and [read the full story…]

New research to guide commissioning of Independent Mental Health Advocacy

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Independent Mental Health Advocates (IMHAs) help patients who are under the Mental Health Act to understanding the position they are in, look after their rights and make the right decisions about their care and treatment. Independent advocacy has been around for many years, but there have been very few evaluations of mental health advocacy to [read the full story…]

New atlas highlights the variations in social care spending on mental health services across England

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Following on from the publication of the NHS Atlas of Variation in Healthcare and the NHS Atlas for Children and Young People, there is now an atlas which looks at the variations in social care services across England. The report, put together by Health Mandate, focuses on four main outcomes: Enhancing quality of life for [read the full story…]