Category Archives: mental health

Carers 'worried about more welfare cuts' charity warns

Around half of carers are struggling to make ends meet and worried about how further cuts to welfare will impact them, a charity has warned.

Carers UK said it was calling on the Government to help the millions of carers who provide vital help to others by providing them with better financial support.

How mindfulness can help

The theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is mindfulness, and my local authority has piloted training in meditation techniques for its social workers

Not sure about mindfulness? Neither was Abigail Bryning.

While I was growing up my mum practised meditation and recently suggested I try mindfulness as a way to deal with stress in my job as a social worker, but I was a bit sceptical. She often listened to pan pipe music and I couldn’t imagine how that sort of thing could help with serious issues and be useful in my work.

Children suffering from mental health conditions put in prison cells for want of suitable hospital beds

The vast majority of cases involved young people who posed no threat to the public, but who were suicidal or in danger of self-harming

More than 200 children, some as young as 12, were held in police cells while suffering mental health crises last year, because of a lack of suitable hospital beds, figures obtained by The Independent on Sunday reveal.

Police in England and Wales detained 202 vulnerable under-18s under the Mental Health Act, some for more than two days, despite widespread condemnation of the practice. Hampshire police held a 17-year-old girl for 63 hours and 40 minutes, while Nottinghamshire police held a 16-year-old girl for 52 hours.