Tuesday 6 March 2018

Safety net: The impact of cyberbullying on children and young people's mental health

Safety net: The impact of cyberbullying on children and young people's mental health Social media companies aren’t doing enough to tackle cyberbullying putting young people’s mental health at risk. Social media is always present making cyberbullying inescapable for thousands of children. Young people want social media companies to get tougher on cyberbullying.

The report of our inquiry with YoungMinds contains recommendations calling on social media companies to take faster and firmer action to stop cyberbullying. The inquiry led by Alex Chalk MP heard from young people, adult industry experts, and social media companies on what more can be done to tackle cyberbullying and promote good mental health. The Children's Society

Plans to cut excess calorie consumption unveiled

Plans to cut excess calorie consumption unveiled Major steps to cut people’s excessive calorie intake have been unveiled by Public Health England (PHE) and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), as part of the government’s strategy to cut childhood and adult obesity.

The package includes:
  • new evidence highlighting overweight or obese boys and girls consume up to 500 and 290 calories too many each day respectively
  • a challenge to the food industry to reduce calories in products consumed by families by 20% by 2024
  • the launch of the latest One You campaign, encouraging adults to consume 400 calories at breakfast, and 600 for lunch and dinner. This comes as adults consume 200 to 300 calories in excess each day
Too many children and most adults are overweight or obese, suffering consequences from bullying and low self-esteem in childhood, to type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some cancers as adults. An obese parent is more likely to have an obese child, who in turn is more likely to grow up into an obese adult.

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'Opportunities missed' by trust before Poundland attack

'Opportunities missed' by trust before Poundland attack A coroner has criticised an NHS trust over how it treated a schizophrenic drug addict who stabbed a man to death in a Poundland store.

Trevor Joyce attacked Justin Skrebowski with a knife from the shop in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in December 2015.

Oxfordshire Coroner Darren Salter said important information about Joyce was not passed to police.

Mr Skrebowski's widow said her husband "paid with his life" because of failings in Joyce's care.

In a statement Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust apologised and said it had implemented a number of changes after a review of the case. BBC News

Hundreds of mental health patients dying after NHS care failures

Hundreds of mental health patients dying after NHS care failures Guardian investigation finds 271 highly vulnerable patients died between 2012 and 2017 after 706 failings by health bodies.

At least 271 highly vulnerable mental health patients have died over the last six years after failings in NHS care, a Guardian investigation has found.

Coroners have been so alarmed at the lapses in care that emerged during inquests that they issued legal warnings to 136 NHS bodies, mainly providers of care, between 2012 and 2017. They included mental health trusts, acute hospitals, ambulance services and GP surgeries. Continue reading...

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If Hadiza Bawa-Garba worked in the US she would still be a doctor

If Hadiza Bawa-Garba worked in the US she would still be a doctor In the individualistic US medical errors are blamed on systems but in the collectivist NHS individuals are blamed for errors.

When I moved to Philadelphia for training in radiology, three things struck me about the US – the numerous types of bagels, defensive medicine, and the amount of support for trainee doctors. American medicine, though famously litigious, protects its residents (trainees), who work as hard as their British counterparts, and often make critical decisions, sometimes unsupervised, but rarely unsupported.

I’ve trained in both systems, as a surgical senior house officer in Britain and a radiology resident in the US, and the difference between the two systems for trainees is stark. In the US residents must gradually earn their independence; in Britain independence isn’t earned but assumed. I was on call overnight, unsupervised in a busy A&E in London 18 months after qualifying from medical school, with no consultant or registrar on site. This would be unthinkable in the US. I never complained because I enjoyed the independence and felt supported by the nurses. In hindsight, I feel goosebumps knowing that I was only one catastrophic error from facing the same fate as Hadiza Bawa-Garba, the paediatric registrar convicted for manslaughter for missing sepsisContinue reading... The Guardian

7 million UK women suffer urinary incontinence

7 million UK women suffer urinary incontinence 7 million women suffer incontinence: Now, the UK’s top doctor has revealed her own ordeal to break the most embarrassing taboo of all.

'We women, after we’ve had babies, can be damaged so that we get incontinence and actually — I’ve never gone public about this — after my first child I could only go three yards before I peed my pants.'

These are the words of Dame Sally Davies, England’s chief medical officer, who last week, revealed she’d been virtually housebound for six weeks after the birth of her first daughter Olivia, now 26. The Daily Mail

More than 44,000 patients affected by an IT glitch

More than 44,000 patients affected by an IT glitch More than 44,000 patients have been affected by an IT glitch that means some of their medical data has been lost.

GPs at affected practices will have to review their records to ensure information is up-to-date for each of their patients.

Pathology results, vaccine uptake and read codes have been lost at around 2,500 surgeries across England.

It comes at a time when resource-strapped doctors have warned they are overwhelmed by a surge in demand amid the 'worst winter ever'. The Daily Mail

5,000 flu and norovirus patients are still stuck in hospital

5,000 flu and norovirus patients are still stuck in hospital More than 5,000 patients are still stuck in hospital with flu and norovirus – the equivalent of one in 20 NHS beds.

Three times as many people have had to stay in hospital this year after the worst flu season in seven years.

This has combined with a spike in norovirus cases to fill the equivalent of ten acute hospitals with these patients alone, the head of NHS England warned.

Simon Stevens said NHS staff had worked tirelessly to cope with this winter’s pressures. He praised their efforts at reducing so-called bedblocking, adding that the health service had ‘turned the corner’ by working with councils to enable patients to be discharged more quickly. The Daily Mail