Suicide prevention strategy launched

On Monday the Department of Health launched the new suicide prevention strategy for England.  Have a read here.

RCN publishes factsheets on new NHS commissioning structure

If you get bogged down and confused by the new NHS commissioning structures, the Royal College of Nursing has published some plain-English fact sheets.  Have a read here.

Health inequalities gap widening, say King's Fund

You've probably seen this already since it has been all over the news but I thought I would direct you to the original report by the King's Fund which shows some interesting correlations between socio-economic status and health behaviours.  The report found that people with lowest income and no qualifications were most likely to smoke, drink, be overweight and take no exercise.  There are some interesting recommendations for national policy and it is well worth a read.

National Mental Health and Wellbeing Framework published

Last week the government published the UK Mental Health and Wellbeing Implementation Framework, which sets out organisational targets to achieve the six objectives in the 'No Health without Mental Health' strategy.  Read more here.

Stats, stats and more stats

If you are ever looking for statistics about health and social care in the UK, don't miss out the NHS Information Centre.  It has statistics about hospitals, health and lifestyles, social care, and mental health.  If you want to know how many school kids have taken drugs, or how much GPs earn, or how many hip replacement operations took place last year, this is the place to look.

Research jargon

If you get confused by research and want to know what it all means, have a look at this user-friendly NHS glossary.  It explains the differences between different types of studies, and has lots of difficult-to-understand concepts explained in a nutshell in layman's terms.

Draft Care and Support Bill published

The proposed Care and Support Bill was published in draft by the Department of Health yesterday.  This new wide-ranging Bill aims to provide a single piece of legislation to cover adult care and support in England.  You can read the draft Bill and supporting documents here.

Achieving high quality care for people with complex needs

Last month The King's Fund hosted a conference on how to coordinate care for people with complex age-related chronic conditions.  The presentations from the day are now available on the website, and are well worth a look.

Up To Date

Up To Date is a (very expensive) database which is designed to support clinical decision making.  We don't have it at the University, but if you are lucky enough to work or have placements at the Luton & Dunstable Hospital you can access it via the hospital intranet.  Most of the content is advanced and designed for consultant-level specialists, but there is some free patient information available which might be very useful for your assignments or background reading.  If you go to the Up To Date website, then make sure the search box is set to 'Patient', you will be able to search all the free content.  The range of topics is huge and definitely worth a browse.

Cochrane Library latest podcasts

Sorry for the extended lack of blogging.  To ease myself back into it, here's a nice reminder about the latest Cochrane Library podcasts.  Podcasts are a really nice way of getting to grips with the latest health research without having to digest an entire systematic review.  Latest topics include dementia, asthma, polypharmacy and smoking cessation.  You can listen here.

DSM V panel rejects two new diagnoses

A new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)  - the US standard text for classification of mental illness - is being prepared for publication.  The new edition, DSM V, included two new diagnoses: 'attenuated psychosis syndrome' and 'mixed anxiety depressive disorder'.  However, consultants for the manual have now decided to reject these two new conditions due to fears that the number of people diagnosed with mental illness would skyrocket.  The entry in the manual for depression has also been revised to distinguish the condition from 'normal' sadness and unhappiness.  The proposed new edition of the Manual has caused much controversy so far, and you can read more about it in this article from the New York Times.

NHS Acronym Buster

Many thanks to my colleagues at Royal Berkshire Hospital for alerting me to this NHS Acronym Buster.  Very useful!

Extended opening hours at Park Square and Polhill LRCs

Park Square and Polhill libraries will offer extended opening hours for the following dates:

Park Square:


Monday - Friday

8.30 - 02.00

8 May - 25 May 2012



Polhill Library:

Monday - Friday

21.30 - 00.00

23 April - 11 May (excluding Mon 7 May University Buildings closed for Bank Holiday)

NICE mobile app

Just a quick post to let you know that the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) have launched a handy smartphone app for Android and iPhone.  Clinical guidelines at your fingertips! More details here.

The Mental Elf

Many thanks to my colleague Melsina for letting me know about The Mental Elf, a great website designed to keep you up-to-date with mental health research, guidelines and policy updates.  The site is run by Andre Tomlin, a librarian based in Oxfordshire, who also runs:

The Dental Elf

The Diabetes Elf  and...

The Learning Disabilities Elf

Take a look, they are really great resources!

New resource: Bone & Joint

The British Editorial Society of Bone and Joint Surgery has launched a new website - Bone & Joint.  It's designed as a 'knowledge hub' for orthopaedics, and has lots of free content (not everything is free unfortunately).  Have a browse!

Helping people live healthier lives

Yesterday the new complete Public Health Outcomes Framework was published by the Department of Health.  The Framework sets out over 60 health measures so we can see where we are, where we are going and how we are doing!  Councils and health authorities which do 'best' (according to the measures) are rewarded with some extra cash.  Here are some of the measures from the accompanying press release:

• fewer children under 5 will have tooth decay
• people will weigh less
• more women will breastfeed their babies
• fewer over 65s will suffer falls
• fewer people will smoke
• fewer people will die from heart disease and stroke

Happy reading!

Department of Health publishes education and training strategy

Just a quick update to alert you to a new publication.  Yesterday the Department of Health published their new policy framework for workforce education and training and you can have a read of it here.

Calling all third years! National Student Survey

If you are a third year undergraduate or dipHE student, please don't forget to complete the National Student Survey.  It only takes a couple of minutes to complete, and we do take notice and act on your feedback.  We would also love to hear about the good things you have experienced during your course as well as areas where we can improve!  There is a section in the survey about learning resources which does inform our services and strategic planning - your opinion counts!

NICE offers guidelines on how to keep your New Year's resolutions

Happy New Year to you all, and hope you had a good break.  How many of you have set yourselves some New Year's resolutions?  Well, don't worry if that last selection box is calling to you because NICE have issued some guidance to help you succeed with your New Year goals!