The BMJ’s freedom of information requests show how budget constraints are affecting public health services. Gareth Iacobucci reports
Millions of pounds have been stripped from frontline public health services in England as a result of the government’s cuts, The BMJ can reveal. According to the findings of our investigation, councils are disinvesting in areas such as prevention, addiction services, sexual health, and weight management after a 6% government cut in the public health grant for this financial year. More cuts are planned for 2016-17.
Researchers at University College London have developed a simple computer algorithm using routinely collected health data that could help GPs predict the risk of patients developing dementia. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens
Physiotherapy and occupational therapy provide no clinically meaningful benefits to activities of daily living or quality of life, either immediately or in the medium term, for patients with mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease, a study has found. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens
Musculoskeletal symptoms limit adherence to exercise interventions for individuals with type 2 diabetes. People with diabetes may be susceptible to tendinopathy due to chronically elevated blood glucose levels. Therefore, we aimed to investigate this potential association by systematically reviewing and meta-analysing case–control, cross-sectional, and studies that considered both of these conditions. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens
How are sexual health services weathering the storm in their new local authority home? Caroline White reports. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens
The United Kingdom cannot keep relying on unpaid carers to support people with dementia because the burden and the care “lottery” will prove unsustainable, a conference has heard.
Adelina Comas-Herrera, assistant professorial research fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said that the estimated cost of dementia was some £26.2bn (€34bn; $37.1bn) in the UK in 2014. This included £4.3bn in NHS costs and £4.5bn in local authority funded social care; the rest came from social care funded by patients and families themselves (£5.8bn) and the costs of unpaid carers (£11.6bn). To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens
Pharmacological treatments for agitation and aggression in patients with Alzheimer’s disease have shown limited efficacy. The authors assessed the heterogeneity of response to citalopram in the Citalopram for Agitation in Alzheimer Disease (CitAD) study to identify individuals who may be helped or harmed. Login at top right hand side of page using your SSSFT NHS Athens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library http://www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
Infographic with some quick figures about mental health in the UK, including the impact on business. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens
to describe the views of healthcare workers on the facilitators of communication with people with dementia in a care setting. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
The state of the care home market in England is explored in this note, including the market structure, current issues facings it, the Spending Review and provisional local authority funding settlement, and the role of local authorities and the Care Quality Commission in the market.
potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP) is a significant problem in health care today. We hypothesise that if doctors were given a single indicator of PIP and adverse drug reaction (ADR) risk on a patient's prescription, it might stimulate them to review the medicines. We suggest that a frailty index (FI) score may be such a suitable indicator. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library - www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
Animal assisted therapy service, Home Safari has introduced two week old pygmy goats, Billy and Elliot to their growing array of animals that regularly visit our Trust.
The two new arrivals visited the Sheridan Ward at Hollins Park today to the delight of many service users and staff.
Each Friday the team visit units across the Trust to deliver animal assisted therapy for service users and patients which improves social interaction, health and wellbeing.
Home Safari Animal Therapist, Cheron Mannion explained how they have been a great help to service users and said: "the response from service users has been unbelievable. Everyone loves them and there are smiles and grins everywhere."
Background The Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) is a cognitive test that is commonly used as part of the evaluation for possible dementia.
Objectives To determine the diagnostic accuracy of the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) at various cut points for dementia in people aged 65 years and over in community and primary care settings who had not undergone prior testing for dementia.
Impaired emotion regulation contributes to the development and severity of substance use disorders (substance disorders). This review summarizes the literature on alterations in emotion regulation neural circuitry in substance disorders, particularly in relation to disorders of negative affect (without substance disorder), and it presents promising areas of future research. Login at top right hand side of page using your SSSFT NHS Athens for full text. SSOTP - request a copy of the article from the library http://www.sssft.nhs.uk/library
The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) has published a number of recommendations today (15 January 2015) following its meeting on 19 November 2015.
The independent expert committee made 11 recommendations in total, which included improvements to existing screening programmes for Down’s syndrome and other related conditions, cervical cancer, bowel cancer and eye screening for people with diabetes.
This is one of a series of BMJ summaries of new guidelines based on the best available evidence; they highlight important recommendations for clinical practice, especially where uncertainty or controversy exists. To read the full article, log in using your NHS Athens