A trial scheme testing a new model of Liaison and Diversion (L&D) is launched this week in ten locations across England.  The scheme will fund mental health professionals in police stations and courts, to ensure people with mental health conditions and learning disabilities are recognised and get the right treatment promptly. As announced in January […]

We need to increase the diagnosis rate for patients with dementia, Professor Alistair Burns said today. Speaking today on the Community Stage at Camp Expo in Manchester, NHS England’s National Clinical Director for Dementia said the current rate of less than 50 per cent was not high enough. Professor Burns, also Professor of Old Age […]

Doctors and patients have called for fundamental change in the way people think about mental health, and the way psychological issues are managed as part of the wider NHS. In a session at the NHS Health and Care Innovation Expo titled “Is the term ‘mental  health’ doing more harm than good and what can we […]

NHS England has welcomed the mental health crisis care concordat as an important step forward in improving care and standards for people in a mental health crisis. The Concordat, launched today by the Department of Health, is a joint agreement which describes how police, mental health services, social work services and ambulance professionals should work […]

Patients with schizophrenia will on average die 14.6 years earlier, bipolar 10.1 and patients with schizoaffective disorder eight years earlier than the general population. They are dying of the same conditions as the general population but have the life expectancy of people living in the 1950s. As the Department of Health launches its Mental Health […]

The Department of Health announced on 4 January 2014 that an extra £25 million of funding for mental health nurses and other mental health professionals to work with police stations and courts so that people with mental health conditions and substance misuse problems get the right treatment as quickly as possible with the aim to […]

Seven new sites have been set up to look at rolling out personal health budgets to people who use mental health services. Devon Partnership NHS Trust and Positive Opportunities for Wellbeing CIC Dorset CCG South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Addictions Clinical Academic Group Stockport CCG and Stockport Local Authority Southwark CCG and Southwark […]

The Department of Health has today published a new interactive online map, bringing together existing information on dementia services in England. Alistair Burns, National Clinical Director for Dementia at NHS England, said: “The publication of this interactive map, using existing available information, builds a clear transparent picture of dementia services across the country. “We know […]

A workshop drawing together clinicians and experts in suicide prevention across Thames Valley and Wessex will be hosted by NHS England and NHS Mental Health Service providers* on World Suicide Day on Tuesday 10 September. During the workshop, attendees will hear from family members who will talk about the loss of a loved one who […]

Findings were published today of an independent investigation into the healthcare and treatment of Ronald Dixon. On 19 May 2006, Ronald Dixon killed Ashleigh Ewing when she attended his home in Heaton, Newcastle for a support visit, in the course of her work for the charity Mental Health Matters. On 22 October 2007 at Newcastle […]