You’ve probably seen or heard about the findings of the Care Quality Commission’s Mental health acute inpatient service users survey 2009, released to an indifferent public last week. There wasn’t much media coverage, just an article in the Guardian: http://tinyurl.com/cqcsurveyguardian   The CQC describe the survey as follows: The survey of acute adult inpatient mental health […]

Hello I’m sorry I’ve been so behind-the scenes (and occasionally wilting behind the scenery) the last few months. The bumpiness of my mental health at least meant I got to have a good old experiential catch-up on front-line Star Wards’ action. Yes, I popped back for my annual fortnight’s break at St Ann’s, Tottenham. As […]

The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) was created following the recommendations of the Bichard Enquiry, which was set up in response to the Soham murders in 2002. The new Vetting and Barring Scheme will aim to help organisations increase their protection of children and vulnerable adults, by improving the current provisions for screening both potential and […]

Lots of wards take the opportunity of Red Nose Day http://www.rednoseday.com for plenty of zany fun, and bucket-fulls of feeling good. This year’s Red Nose Day is particularly significant as Comic Relief has made even more of a commitment to mental health than previously. It’s one of the main themes of the day and they’ve also […]

Although Safer Internet Day and its resources are primarily directed towards protecting children, the issue of user-safety is still very relevant to adult wards because: We’re dealing with vulnerable adults here – and the info is valuable to vulnerable people of whatever age and ability there may be issues about protecting children from Internet use […]

You’ve probably seen or heard about the findings of the Care Quality Commission’s Mental health acute inpatient service users survey 2009, released to an indifferent public last week. There wasn’t much media coverage, just an article in the Guardian: CQC describe the survey as follows: The survey of acute adult inpatient mental health services involved […]

From the Daily Telegraph 2nd July 2009Mental health patients to be ‘tagged’ with GPS trackers Dangerous mental health patients are to be fitted with state-of-the-art GPS trackers by the NHS after a mental patient on the run murdered a pensioner. By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent Published: 7:00AM BST 02 Jul 2009   An NHS Trust […]

10 Dec 2012  Guest blog by Debbie Cleaveley                         Mental ill health. You never think it’s going to happen to you so when it does, it pulls your legs from under you and you fall into a blubbery heap of misery that feels totally, […]