Nick Clegg holds first Mental Health Taskforce meeting
Members of the Deputy Prime Minister's Mental Health Taskforce met for the first time to look at 3 priority mental health areas. Welfare and employment, the criminal justice system and services for children and young people were the focus of the first meeting of the taskforce with ministers from across the coalition. Chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, the meeting was attended by senior ministers including Jeremy Hunt, Iain Duncan Smith and Danny Alexander, to examine urgently how to improve mental health services. (Gov.uk)
• Time to Talk Day: breaking the silence. On Thursday 5 February 2015, Time to Change will hold the second edition of Time to Talk Day, an event that hopes to reduce the stigma around mental health problems and encourage people to talk openly about it. (The Guardian)
Mental health professionals weigh in on possible American police reforms
While thousands march and demonstrate to protest police brutality and killings of unarmed black men in American cities, therapists and researchers are looking to improve relationships between “the force” and those they serve. Writes Maiken Scott: “Stress, violence, and traumatic experiences are often part of life in urban communities where tensions between citizens and police officers tend to flare. Some mental health experts want officers to be more aware of the effects of trauma—and how it affects behavior.” (Newsworks.org)
Homeless Veterans campaign: calls for better military mental health services
The UK should introduce a “quality mark” for services offering mental health support for veterans, one of the country’s leading experts on military health has said.
Professor Sir Simon Wessely, who heads the country’s main military health research unit at King’s College London, said veterans could encounter a “bewildering” range of charities, NHS and social care organisations and that it was crucial they knew which could offer an effective service.
Describing the veterans’ mental health “arena” as “a mess”, Professor Wessely said that good services would have to meet a range of criteria and show that they were “veteran-informed” – providing mental health assessments carried out by professionals who understood the issues that can affect former military personnel. (The Independent)
Irish counselling service sees dramatic rise in abuse victims
An Irish counselling service for abuse victims has reported a 22% increase in the number of people making contact. A total of 470 individuals have been supported by Connect so far this year. The service said that over half of the callers (54%) described an experience of sexual abuse committed in 2014. (Belfast Telegraph)
• Rise in calls to counselling service over abuse (RTE.ie)
• More sexual abuse victims are calling this counselling service (thejournal.ie)
• More abuse victims contacting counselling service (Irish Examiner)
Vulnerable mothers-to-be need more support
Women at risk of mental health problems or with existing conditions should receive more support at every stage of pregnancy and after childbirth, according to new guidelines issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice). They spell out how doctors, nurses, health visitors and midwives should help pregnant women, new mothers and those who lose babies deal with mental health issues. (The Guardian)
• Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists statement on revised guidelines on antenatal and postnatal mental health
Doctors in Massachusetts required to offer end-of-life counseling
Doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and other health providers in Massachusetts are now required to offer end-of-life counseling to terminally ill patients. The requirement, part of a 2012 law, takes effect Friday with the posting of rules about how it will work. It’s believed to be the first such rule in the country. A similar proposal in 2009 for Medicare patients triggered claims that the government was trying to create death panels. (WBUR)
What is “Coyote Psychotherapy”?
Coyote Psychotherapy is Native American, indigenous inspired, body-oriented, narrative and social psychotherapy, and still a little more, because Coyote can never be completely contained . . . The concepts are powerful and important. All healing is spiritual. To thrive we need the help of the spirits. Community is everything. Healing is energetic. Faith and the power of belief matter enormously. Relationship is everything. These are the core concepts of our work. (OpEdNews)
Which Jung archetype best describes you?
Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychologist and philosopher, believed that we all channel unconscious archetypes that deeply effect our behavior. We find these archetypes in myths, fairy tales, and even within ourselves! Are you the explorer or the hero? Maybe even the rebel? (Playbuzz)
Members of the Deputy Prime Minister's Mental Health Taskforce met for the first time to look at 3 priority mental health areas. Welfare and employment, the criminal justice system and services for children and young people were the focus of the first meeting of the taskforce with ministers from across the coalition. Chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister, the meeting was attended by senior ministers including Jeremy Hunt, Iain Duncan Smith and Danny Alexander, to examine urgently how to improve mental health services. (Gov.uk)
• Time to Talk Day: breaking the silence. On Thursday 5 February 2015, Time to Change will hold the second edition of Time to Talk Day, an event that hopes to reduce the stigma around mental health problems and encourage people to talk openly about it. (The Guardian)
Mental health professionals weigh in on possible American police reforms
While thousands march and demonstrate to protest police brutality and killings of unarmed black men in American cities, therapists and researchers are looking to improve relationships between “the force” and those they serve. Writes Maiken Scott: “Stress, violence, and traumatic experiences are often part of life in urban communities where tensions between citizens and police officers tend to flare. Some mental health experts want officers to be more aware of the effects of trauma—and how it affects behavior.” (Newsworks.org)
Homeless Veterans campaign: calls for better military mental health services
The UK should introduce a “quality mark” for services offering mental health support for veterans, one of the country’s leading experts on military health has said.
Professor Sir Simon Wessely, who heads the country’s main military health research unit at King’s College London, said veterans could encounter a “bewildering” range of charities, NHS and social care organisations and that it was crucial they knew which could offer an effective service.
Describing the veterans’ mental health “arena” as “a mess”, Professor Wessely said that good services would have to meet a range of criteria and show that they were “veteran-informed” – providing mental health assessments carried out by professionals who understood the issues that can affect former military personnel. (The Independent)
Irish counselling service sees dramatic rise in abuse victims
An Irish counselling service for abuse victims has reported a 22% increase in the number of people making contact. A total of 470 individuals have been supported by Connect so far this year. The service said that over half of the callers (54%) described an experience of sexual abuse committed in 2014. (Belfast Telegraph)
• Rise in calls to counselling service over abuse (RTE.ie)
• More sexual abuse victims are calling this counselling service (thejournal.ie)
• More abuse victims contacting counselling service (Irish Examiner)
Vulnerable mothers-to-be need more support
Women at risk of mental health problems or with existing conditions should receive more support at every stage of pregnancy and after childbirth, according to new guidelines issued by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice). They spell out how doctors, nurses, health visitors and midwives should help pregnant women, new mothers and those who lose babies deal with mental health issues. (The Guardian)
• Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists statement on revised guidelines on antenatal and postnatal mental health
Doctors in Massachusetts required to offer end-of-life counseling
Doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and other health providers in Massachusetts are now required to offer end-of-life counseling to terminally ill patients. The requirement, part of a 2012 law, takes effect Friday with the posting of rules about how it will work. It’s believed to be the first such rule in the country. A similar proposal in 2009 for Medicare patients triggered claims that the government was trying to create death panels. (WBUR)
What is “Coyote Psychotherapy”?
Coyote Psychotherapy is Native American, indigenous inspired, body-oriented, narrative and social psychotherapy, and still a little more, because Coyote can never be completely contained . . . The concepts are powerful and important. All healing is spiritual. To thrive we need the help of the spirits. Community is everything. Healing is energetic. Faith and the power of belief matter enormously. Relationship is everything. These are the core concepts of our work. (OpEdNews)
Which Jung archetype best describes you?
Carl Jung, the famous Swiss psychologist and philosopher, believed that we all channel unconscious archetypes that deeply effect our behavior. We find these archetypes in myths, fairy tales, and even within ourselves! Are you the explorer or the hero? Maybe even the rebel? (Playbuzz)
