Early Intervention helps 700 mental health sufferers. (Assignment 2 - Article 2)

Across the UK every year, 7500 people will develop some form of first-episode psychosis.

Lancashire Early Intervention for Psychosis (EIP) team, based in Blackburn, has helped in diagnosing and aiding more than 700 of these in three years.

Examples of psychosis include delusion, hallucinations and thought insertion, as well as several other confusion-enhancing states.

As a result, about one in ten sufferers will commit suicide. The rest are likely to suffer severe long-term psychological damage.

80% of those who suffer from psychosis develop it in their late teens to late twenties and it can be socially, economically and physically crippling to themselves and to the people around them.

Prior to the introduction of Early Intervention in 2005 it wouldn’t be uncommon for an individual to have to wait up to two years before any effective action was taken, it wouldn’t be uncommon for this to be too late to prevent further damage either.

The aim of Early Intervention is to confront the first-time psychosis within an individual early enough so that it causes them minimal damage in the long run.

Early Intervention Deputy Network Director, Jeff Warburton, spoke of how his Lancashire team had managed to successfully diagnose over 700 people in the three years since the setting up of the project out of 1500 who had been referred to the service.

“There are some people that haven’t necessarily met the criteria for the referral because they’ve been too old or for other reasons and we’ve put them into contact with appropriate
services, we don’t want them to just be left.”


Jeff Warburton talks about the Early Intervention service in Lanchashire.

Because of the lack of awareness of mental health issues many people are diverted into more appropriate services because they don’t know where they can go – they may be suffering from depression or some form of anxiety as oppose to psychosis.

Mr Warburton said “I think there’s still a great degree of stigma that’s attached to mental illness; I also think there’s an increased awareness of how the use of substances such as cannabis or alcohol can affect mental health.”

Another part of EIP’s remit is to raise the awareness of mental health, particularly in young people.

If you want to read a report which could tell you more about Early Intervention and mental illness click here courtesy of Care Services Improvement Partnership.

Images: flickr, LCC, Department of Health website

Public attitudes to mental health (Assignment 2 - Article 1)

The British public have improved their attitudes towards sufferers of mental health conditions – but there is still work to be done.

The Department of Health found last year that 90% of people have a sympathetic attitude towards those who suffer from mental health conditions and that four out of five people are of the opinion that there should be a more tolerant approach to people with cognitive problems that can be of detriment to, or disadvantage them.

A further nine in ten also think that there is a social responsibility to provide such individuals with the best professional care possible.

Even more encouraging figures showed that four in five people disagreed with the opinion that mental health sufferers are a burden on society.

47% of people have also admitted to knowing someone with mental health problems, an indication that people are now feeling more at ease to be open about the subject.

Despite these positive statistics, the minority that still exists suggests that there are still prejudices within certain members of society according to Ivan Lewis, Health Minister, speaking after the revelation of the results showing public opinion. "As a government, we are committed to providing the support people need to recover safely in the community. As a society, we need to break down the barriers, like prejudice, that can make this difficult.” He added.

Ad campaigns have been used by the NHS in recent years to try and inform the public about negative attitudes towards those who could be suffering from depression or from some form of psychosis.

The ads confront issues such as mental illness in the workplace and forms of depression or psychosis in young people.

Despite the ads and increased awareness of mental health, many British people are still unsure on what policy the NHS has with regards to mental health and do not know what treatments are available or how it can be accessed. This provokes concerns that there is still a stereotype that surrounds mental health problems.

People in Preston City Centre give their veiws on mental health.

Over the past year 11 projects have been working to allow those with anxiety or depression to have access to better and more immediate access to psychological therapies.

The projects had funding of £2.2million between them and were launched all over the country.

Messing around with Googley Maps!

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GM Me!

Today it seems that we're on the fringe of a revolution. One that finally proves the old saying "an apple a day kee-" oh - scratch that - how about "a purple tomato a day keeps cancer at bay"? Yes, it seems that the evil scientists at Castle Genepool have developed a genetically modified tomato that they believe could prolong the life of a cancer patient or, hopefully, raise an individual's resistance to cancer. It's been developed using the DNA of a snap dragon flowers, apparently this means they now contain more anti-oxidants (molecules that prevent oxidations that can lead to damaged cells), it also means that they're a deep shade of purple. Freaky. So far it's only been tested on mice, hold on animal rights it seems to have done some good, it's prolonged the life of cancerous rats and it's hoped a similar reaction will occur within humans. Interestingly, experts in the field seem to be hoping this will boost the credibility of genetic modification and enlighten people's attitude towards it. Personally I think what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, and as long as there's no Willy Wonka incidents i.e. people growing large and purple... I'm all for it.

Where is my mind?

First of all an apology for the shameful neglecting of this blog, my time management is in need of a review.

Eleven days ago on October 10 it was World Mental Health Day. Mental health is often overlooked as an attribute of what most people regard as "health", people believe that as long as they're not incapacitated on their sick bed then they are healthy - this isn't always the case though.
WMHD is an annual effort to raise awareness of mental health; to help those with mental conditions to come to terms with it, to educate the general public about mental health and, perhaps most importantly, how to ensure your own mental well-being in an effort to sustain good mental health.
Good mental health can be maintained by a good cognitive process, namely a positive and realistic view of yourself and the world around you. Obviously everyone is different, and different types of personality will deal with certain stressors in different ways. For instance if someone performs badly at a test a negative way of thinking would be "I'm rubbish at tests." This is not healthy as it begins a negative cycle that can have a detrimental affect on someone's state of mind, it is because of cycles like this that people develop depression. A far more constructive way of thinking would be "I didn't do so well this time, but I know where to focus my attention next time."

This is only a very brief introduction to mental health issues, a taster if you will. I'll try to do a post follow-up with links to sites with more information than what I've given here, as well as expand on just what WMHD is all about and about how depression has recently become an issue of severity in society.

Not a diagnosis

Health is something which affects us all, whether it be a cold, a flu epidemic, the condition of our local health service or that niggling concern about your daily carb intake.
But just what is health? What is healthy? The fact is that there are many different answers, all of which I'm sorry to say I won't be addressing here. Over the coming weeks (and maybe beyond) I'll be looking into these