Category Archives: Depression

NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Cares

February 18, 2013   Carers, Depression, mental health

New mental health service for people in Cornwall

Friday, February 15, 2013

A new service has been set up to improve the mental health of people in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

BeMe is part of a national network of services known as ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapies’ (IAPT).

NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly approved the new provider after a formal commissioning process at the end of 2012.

Neill Richardson, BeMe’s clinical lead, said his team offered a range of services to people experiencing anxiety and depression.

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How does depression affect the elderly?

January 24, 2013   Carers, Depression, health, Older care

 Guest Blog from Jason Tucker

Depression can affect anyone regardless of age or gender but it is particularly common in elderly patients. Although the onset of depression is often attributed to specific events, a particular incident or situation may simply be a contributory factor rather than the cause. Whilst a specific event or set of circumstances may contribute to the onset of depression, the illness will manifest itself in the same way regardless of the cause of the trigger. Studies have shown that the brain circuits of patients suffering depression show changes to the way the brain manages mood, appetite, sleeping and behaviour. Whilst depression can be a distinct illness and appear without any other illnesses, patients often develop depression as a result of other illness. Elderly patients may find they develop depression following the onset of another illness but Doctors are often able to treat the depression successfully.

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Mental health spending falls for first time in 10 years

August 7, 2012   Carers, Depression, mental health, ukcuts

Total government expenditure on services down by £150m, the first reduction since 2001, says Department of Health report

 

 

More than 6 million Britons are estimated to sufer from depression each year.

Spending in real terms on mental health has declined for the first time in a decade, a report for the Department of Health has found.

Although one of the coalition’s first big policy announcements was to declare that mental health ought to have “parity with physical health in the NHS”, investment in mental health for working-age adults dropped by 1%, once inflation is taken into account, to £6.63bn. For the elderly the recorded fall in real terms spending was 3.1% to £2.83bn.

In total, spending on mental health services in England dropped by £150m, the first fall since 2001. However this drop comes after a decade of rising investment: in 2001 just £4.1bn was spent on working-age adults mental health.

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