We should only treat people who are ill

The Mental Health Act defines ‘mental disorder’ to describe the cohort of people who may be subject to the application of the Act. The existing definition is clear that learning disability itself is not a mental disorder. However, it then says “unless that disability is associated with abnormally aggressive or seriously irresponsible conduct on his part”. That additional clause allows the Act to be applied. This means in effect that people with a learning disability and/or autism can be detained for assessment and treatment, using the same legislative framework that is applied to people with a treatable mental health condition.

“We have seen too many examples of people detained in hospital, sometimes many miles away from their families, resulting in distress for both the person and their families to precious little therapeutic benefit.”

The Mental Health Act review offers an opportunity to change the law. Myself and a number of colleagues from both NHS England and NHS Improvement are arguing that the issue of detaining people with learning disabilities and/or autism who don’t have a diagnosed mental health condition ought to be included in the review.

A plea from the National Autistic Society

On 3 November, your MP has the chance to help change the law. You can make sure they do.

You have an urgent opportunity to help change the law to limit the use of dangerous restraint on children and young people in mental health hospitals. Take action now and email your MP.

In February we launched Always, a joint campaign with Young Minds. Nearly 10,000 of you signed our petition calling for strong, enforceable rights to protect children in mental health hospitals, and their families, when they need it most. Right now, we have an opportunity to change the law to protect vulnerable children in mental health hospitals. Practices like face-down restraint can be very distressing and in extreme cases, can also lead to serious physical injury.

You can influence a vote in Parliament.

On 3 November, Steve Reed MP is taking the Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Bill to Parliament. This will be a vote in Parliament which could limit the use of restraint on children and improve staff training in mental health hospitals. The Bill is being referred to as Seni’s Law, named after a young man called Seni who was tragically killed in a mental health unit after being physically restrained.

We need as many MPs as possible to turn up on the day to vote to make sure this Bill goes through to the next stage. Every MP will count. Will you take action by emailing your MP and asking them to turn up to the vote?

Good quality, safe care is a lifeline to many children with mental health problems. But for others, including some on the autism spectrum, their mental health can get worse in hospital and they and their families can struggle to get help that is right for them.

Rights matter. Always. Stronger rights for children and their families mean they always receive the support that’s appropriate for them. Make sure your MP knows that.

An updated memorandum of understanding (MoU) against conversion therapy has been launched today, which makes it clear that conversion therapy in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation (including asexuality) is unethical, potentially harmful and is not supported by evidence.

Conversion therapy is the term for therapy that assumes certain sexual orientations or gender identities are inferior to others, and seeks to change or suppress them on that basis.

The primary purpose of the 2017 MoU is the protection of the public through a commitment to ending the practice of ‘conversion therapy’ in the UK. The 2017 MoU updates one released in 2015 at the Department of Health, which focused exclusively on sexual orientation, and is endorsed by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender charity Stonewall.

The MoU also intends to ensure that:

• The public are well informed about the risks of conversion therapy
• Healthcare professionals and psychological therapists are aware of the ethical issues relating to conversion therapy
• New and existing psychological therapists are appropriately trained
• Evidence into conversion therapy is kept under regular review
• Professionals from across the health, care and psychological professions work together to achieve the above goals.

Best Way to Recognize Emotions in Others: Listen

WASHINGTON — If you want to know how someone is feeling, it might be better to close your eyes and use your ears: People tend to read others’ emotions more accurately when they listen and don’t look, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.

“Social and biological sciences over the years have demonstrated the profound desire of individuals to connect with others and the array of skills people possess to discern emotions or intentions. But, in the presence of both will and skill, people often inaccurately perceive others’ emotions,” said author Michael Kraus, PhD, of Yale University. “Our research suggests that relying on a combination of vocal and facial cues, or solely facial cues, may not be the best strategy for accurately recognizing emotions or intentions of others.”

In the study, which was published in APA’s flagship journal, American Psychologist®, Kraus describes a series of five experiments involving more than 1,800 participants from the United States. In each experiment, individuals were asked either to interact with another person or were presented with an interaction between two others. In some cases, participants were only able to listen and not look; in others, they were able to look but not listen; and some participants were allowed to both look and listen. In one case, participants listened to a computerized voice reading a transcript of an interaction — a condition without the usual emotional inflection of human communication.

APA – Recognising Emotions in Others: Study

Looking forward to seeing everyone on Wednesday where we will have a presentation from Dr Peter Mason, the ADHD specialist for Cheshire.

I have managed to review another book prior to the group called “The Illustrated Guide to Dyslexia and its Amazing People”.

“A really imaginative book which manages to impart a lot of good and accurate information in a way which will engage young people and their parents too.”

Dyslexia is a learning difference not a difficulty. It is clearly articulated throughout the book and the strengths of Dyslexia, as well as the challenges, are also noted.

There are very few words in the book and mostly images and this is quite rare for any books on Dyslexia but obviously of enormous benefit.

I have also been told I need to bring copies of my book, apologies for the self-promotion but just in case anybody would like to borrow the book.

We may be down on numbers of staff due to holidays by various members of us which has resulted in a bit of a backlog and, as always, we would be grateful for input from members of the group to help us with this.

Half of CCGs to cut mental health spending

 

Half of clinical commissioning groups plan to reduce the proportion of their budget they spend on mental health for this financial year (2017/18), according to new figures from Labour’s Luciana Berger.

Of the 129 CCGs (62%) that responded to the freedom of information request, 64 (50%) plan to reduce the proportion of their budget they will spend on mental health.

In 2014, 67% of CCGs did not intend to increase their proportion of spend on mental health.

The next year, 2015/16, this number was 38% and last year, in 2016/17, it was 57%.

The amount CCGs plan to spend on mental health services varied between South Cheshire, which will spend just 5% of its budget on mental health services, to Lewisham which plans to allocate 16% of its total budget to mental health – an 11% range.

The Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, stated in an Opposition Day Debate on Mental Health in December 2015 that “CCGs are committed to increasing the proportion of their funding that goes into mental health.”

NHS England’s planning guidance for 2017 – 2019 states that all CCGs are required to increase their spend on mental health by at least as much as their overall budget increase.

Referring to the guidance in July 2015, the then Minister for Care and Support, Alistair Burt, said in Parliament: “That is as transparent as it has ever been, and we will ensure that that standard is maintained.”

Dear All

 

For the first time ever I will not be at the Post-Diagnostic Support Group. This will be because I am on holiday.

Calvin bought me the holiday as a surprise and had asked Carly previously which dates to avoid in July. Unfortunately he made a Dyspraxic/Dyslexic error and picked the dates that Carly told him to avoid because it was the post-diagnostic support group.

 

I hope the group goes well and I will see you all again at the next one.

 

Linda

The BACP warned this month that counselling could be removed from the NICE Guidelines for Depression, leaving NHS patients only access to CBT. What could this mean for the mental health of the UK?

Favouring cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) over counselling is not a new thing.

The NICE guidelines for Depression already recommends CBT as its frontline therapy. While they ask therapists offering counselling to discuss with their patients how uncertain the effectiveness of counselling can be.

What’s the difference between CBT and counselling?

Both CBT and counselling are used to support people with similar issues like anxiety and depression. And they’re both forms of talking therapy and can be used for short term work.

But while CBT therapists and clients work together to change a client’s behaviour or thinking patterns, counselling is less directive and through listening, empathy, encouragement and challenge counselling hopes to help the client to better understand themselves and find their own solutions to cope with the issues that face them.

Arguably someone could equally benefit from being supported by both interventions at different stages of their lives.

“A Boy Made of Blocks”

by Keith Stuart
Published by Sphere

He watches a particular programme, hosted by Dara O’Briain, called ‘Go 8 Bit’ and he has an off-shoot programmed DLC programme and various gamers compete against each other.

More recently Keith Stuart, who writes the Guardian column around gaming appeared and spoke about one of his sons being Autistic. He then explained how both Keith and his two sons started playing video games together, especially Minecraft. Keith had always played games and since 1995 has been writing about them.

The powerful creative sharing as a family and the blossoming communication that followed informed his debut novel ‘A Boy Made of Blocks’, a story about a dad who wants to communicate with his Autistic son, a dad who has forgotten how to play, is a story about letting go, about being a kid, which is how Keith learned about everything important in his life, starting with his son.

“Meet eight year old Sam, beautiful, surprising and different. To him, the world is a frightening mystery, but as his imagination comes to life, his family will be changed for good”.

Jessica Kingsley Publishers Book News