This October, as we mark Black History Month and 77 years of the NHS, we take time to honour the contributions made by black and racially diverse communities to our mental health services, and to face, with honesty, the inequalities that persist within them. The fight against racial inequality and inequity in mental health services […]

The many faces of sickle cell A sickle cell crisis does not introduce itself politely. Sometimes it shows up as excruciating pain. Sometimes as yellowing eyes from jaundice. Sometimes as an unexpected mass in the left side of the abdomen, the spleen swollen and struggling. Diagnosis: splenic sequestration crisis. At other times, sickle cell slips […]

Ellen Duke – Deputy Director of Children and Young People’s Nursing at NHS England – and McKenzie – Youth Advisor to the Play Taskforce – explain how the newly launched Play well – Toolkit for health play services for England can support services to make a huge difference for children. Play for children in healthcare matters […]

Cicely Ryder-Belson, Senior Policy and Programme Manager for the National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Programme, shares key insights from her visit to Great Yarmouth’s Apollo Project. She illustrates how the NHS, by acting as an anchor employer, can help reduce health inequalities in coastal communities whilst also tackling economic inactivity. Context Over 4 in 10 (45.9%) […]

This October marks 5 years since the NHS became the world’s first health system to commit to reaching net zero emissions – recognising the urgent threat that climate change poses to public health, and NHS service delivery. For the NHS, these 5 years represent less than 7% of its history. Yet the progress toward net […]

In England, around 17,000 adults and children – predominantly of African or African-Caribbean background – live with sickle cell disorder (SCD). SCD is a gene mutation which causes red blood cells to become irreversibly curved, or sickle shaped. One serious complication, a vaso-occlusive crisis (VOC) occurs when damaged red blood cells block blood vessels. Causing […]