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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DH publish new NHS performance framework for mental health trusts

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The Department of Health have today published the framework that informs mental health trusts, PCTs and SHAs of the criteria against which mental health performance will be assessed. This supercedes the guidance published in Nov 2009 and builds on the NHS Performance Framework published last month. Documents and spreadsheets can be found on the DH [read the full story…]

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New briefing to help commissioners and providers deliver services for early intervention in psychosis

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The NHS Confederation Mental Health Network have published another excellent briefing paper aimed at commissioners and providers.  This time they are tackling how best to plan and deliver early intervention in psychosis services. Here’s the summary: In the current challenging financial climate, mental health organisations are looking at how they can do things differently to [read the full story…]

Poverty and ethnicity: a review of the evidence

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The findings indicated deteriorated mental health for Black Caribbeans born outside of the UK after the Immigration Act 2014, while for those born in the UK, the deterioration was significant after the 2017 media coverage.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation are about to embark upon a major plan of work on ethnicity and poverty.  This review of the evidence summarises the current picture by focusing on: the three main areas affecting experiences of poverty –education, work and unpaid caring; how social networks and place shape experiences and opportunities; inequality within ethnic [read the full story…]

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DH publish the ‘You’re Welcome self review tool’ to help commissioners and providers assess their services for young people

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Are your services ‘young people friendly’? Do you involve young people in service improvement? Do you give young people the opportunity to share in decisions about their care and the services available to them? Originally published in 2007, but now updated for 2011: ‘You’re Welcome’: Quality criteria for young people friendly health services (PDF) aims to [read the full story…]

SCIE review of the evidence on mental health service transitions for young people

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This briefing looks at recent research literature (since 2000) on the move from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) to adults’ services for young people with psychological, emotional or behavioural problems, referred to as ‘mental health service transitions’. Young people may move to adult mental health services (AMHS) or need alternative support in young [read the full story…]

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People with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have a much lower life expectancy

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A recently published study conducted at the Maudsley Hospital has reported that people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have a life expectancy of 10-15 years lower than the UK average. Researchers looked at the electronic medical records of more than 30,000 patients suffering from severe mental health problems. They found that many patients were dying [read the full story…]

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Psychosocial and developmental alcohol misuse prevention in schools can be effective

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School prevention programs aimed at reducing alcohol misuse are good enough to consider widespread use, according to a new systematic review from the Cochrane Library. The review found 53 studies that explored a range of interventions.  Some studies concluded that the prevention program had no effect, but others showed more positive results.  The authors could [read the full story…]

Long term dependence on benzodiazepines is addressed by two new reports

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A Department of Health press release published today highlights two new reports on addiction to prescription and over-the-counter drugs. People can become dependent on tranquilisers, sleeping pills and opiate based painkillers, such as codeine, particularly if taken at high doses for prolonged periods. Long-term dependence on substances such as benzodiazepines has been identified as a particular [read the full story…]

Fight! The ethics of antidepressant use.

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The age old debate over antidepressant use rolls on this week with the publication of a new provisional review by Davis et al in the Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine journal.  They are responding to the Ioannidis paper from 2008: Effectiveness of antidepressants; an evidence based myth constructed from a thousand controlled trials, which [read the full story…]

Systematic review of home and community care models for the elderly

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Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Sydney Australia have published a new systematic review that explores three different home and community care models for the elderly. The evidence in this field is patchy.  Studies are heterogeneous (i.e. too different from one another to be pooled in a meta-analysis) and results are inconsistent. [read the full story…]

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