In 2000, the Scottish Executive published ‘The same as you?’ a ten year programme to meet the needs of people with learning disabilities in Scotland. Following a two year review, last year they published a new ten year strategy, known as ‘The keys to life – Improving Quality of Life for People with Learning Disabilities’, [read the full story…]
A short while ago, we posted about the reflections of mentors in a programme in Australia aimed at helping older people get connected to and take part in community groups. The paper we are posting about today draws on data from that project. The researchers developed the project in the context of increasing numbers of [read the full story…]
The publication of Valuing People Now in 2009 signalled a renewed focus on delivery of the key objectives of the 2001 White Paper. To reinforce this focus, the Government introduced two self-assessment frameworks for health and local authorities to complete. We have posted previously about the progress of partnership boards using this framework Method The [read the full story…]
Mental health in the workplace is an area that we’ve blogged about a few times before. This blog features a recent review by Tan et al on workplace interventions for depression. Mental disorders are the leading cause of sickness absence (Harvey, 2009 and Henderson, 2011), and depression in particular is predicted to be the leading [read the full story…]
The effects of the global stock market crash of 2008 have not just been economic. The health and social consequences of the financial crisis are becoming clearer over time and were anticipated by public health academics early on. Based on a 30 year review of EU data on how economic changes affect mortality, in 2009 [read the full story…]
In the UK it is a shocking statistic that around 80-90% of people with severe mental illness are not in work. Unemployment impacts negatively not only on the individual, but is also costly to the government. Employment is now embedded in key mental health policy as a central part of recovery. However, despite this, and [read the full story…]
The economic, social and psychological benefits of being work have been well documented in the literature, but in 2010/11 in England, only 6.6% of adults with learning disabilities were reported to be in paid employment and the majority of these people were working part-time. A number of people however, will say they are working, when [read the full story…]
As the British Heart Foundation National Heart Month draws to a close Lifestyle Elf and I were discussing their blog on heart attacks not being reduced in people taking vitamins and antioxidants which led to us to thinking about the relationship between stress and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Our colleagues in the Pittsburgh Health Heart Project [read the full story…]
Back in October I blogged about the factors (cognitive deficits, depression and education level) that predict worklessness in people with bipolar disorder. A new systematic review by Steven Marwaha and colleagues has recently been published in the Acta Psychiatric Scandinavica journal, which adds to our understanding of this field. The review looks at the long-term [read the full story…]
Back in November 2012, the Schizophrenia Commission reported that people with schizophrenia are being badly let down by the health and social care system and by the employment market. The final report of the commission (I blogged about it here) concluded that people with schizophrenia face a lifespan 15-20 years shorter than the general population and [read the full story…]
