Breaking the cycle: The case for integrating money and mental health support during the cost of living crisis

Breaking the cycle: The case for integrating money and mental health support during the cost of living crisis Breaking the cycle shows that giving people money advice alongside talking therapies could double recovery rates for people with debt and depression — and help an extra 27,000 people recover from mental health problems each year.

The report shows small changes to link up money and mental health support will make a huge difference, especially during the cost of living crisis. It could also save the government and the NHS £144m each year, by reducing demand on health services and helping more people with mental health problems thrive in work. Money and Mental Health Policy Institute

See also:

• Up to 3m UK people behind on bills have had mental healthproblems, study says The Guardian

Prevention, integration and implementation: healthcare leaders’ views on the major conditions strategy

Prevention, integration and implementation: healthcare leaders’ views on the major conditions strategy NHS leaders have identified key levers that the major conditions strategy can use to maximise its impact on healthy life expectancy and reduce inequalities. These fall under three categories: create a healthy society; make the most of existing infrastructure and policy; and implementation. NHS Confederation

High Court ruling on supply of agency workers during industrial action

High Court ruling on supply of agency workers during industrial action Legal guidance from Capsticks, our legal partner, on the High Court ruling on supply of agency workers to carry out duties of striking workers. NHS Employers

Drug donanemab seen as turning point in dementia fight

Drug donanemab seen as turning point in dementia fight A new drug, donanemab, is being hailed as a turning point in the fight against Alzheimer's, after a global trial confirms it slows cognitive decline.

The antibody medicine helps in the early stages of the disease by clearing a protein that builds up in the brains of people with this type of dementia.

Although not a cure, charities say the results in the journal JAMA mark a new era where Alzheimer's can be treated. BBC News

See also:

• Donanemab in Early Symptomatic Alzheimer Disease: The TRAILBLAZER-ALZ 2 Randomized Clinical Trial JAMA
• Results from Lilly's Landmark Phase 3 Trial of Donanemab Presented at Alzheimer's Association Conference and Published in JAMA Eli Lilly
• “Another milestone” – successful phase 3 trial of alzheimer’s drug, donanemab, confirmed Alzheimer's Research UK
• New drug donanemab is 'a turning point in the fight against Alzheimer’s' Alzheimer's Society
• How does donanemab fight Alzheimer's? And when will it be approved in the UK and US? Everything you need to know about game-changing new drug The Daily Mail
• Are we REALLY at a 'turning point in the fight against Alzheimer's'? Breakthrough new drugs halt cruel disease's decline... but experts warn crippling side effects (and cost) may outweigh any benefits The Daily Mail
• What impact will Alzheimer's drug donanemab have? The Guardian
• Everything we know about breakthrough Alzheimer’s drug Donanemab The Independent
• Why is this Alzheimer’s breakthrough so important? The Independent
• Alzheimer’s drug: Breakthrough medication could be available on the NHS by 2025, experts say iNews
• Alzheimer’s drug donanemab helps most when taken at earliest disease stage, study finds Nature
• Donanemab found to slow Alzheimer's and hailed a 'turning point in fight against disease' Sky News

UK cough syrup could be pharmacy-only over addiction fears

UK cough syrup could be pharmacy-only over addiction fears Cough syrup or codeine linctus could no longer be available over the counter because of concerns it is addictive and can lead to serious health problems.

Rising numbers of reports of drug abuse and dependence to codeine medicines are being made to the UK medicines safety regulator.

It now wants views on reclassifying it as a prescription-only medicine because of fears of misuse.

Pharmacists also say they are worried about the overdose risk. BBC News

See also: 

• MHRA Public consultation on the proposal to make Codeine Linctus available as a prescription-only medicine (POM) Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency

The doctors graduating during walkouts and record waiting lists

The doctors graduating during walkouts and record waiting lists Eighty one young people have become the first to graduate from one of the UK's newest medical schools.

With junior doctors and consultants staging a walkout over salaries - and record-high waiting lists for hospital patients - why do the graduates at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) want to brave a career in the NHS? BBC News

Deadly tickborne virus that’s spreading in Europe ‘likely to reach UK’

Deadly tickborne virus that’s spreading in Europe ‘likely to reach UK’ A virus with a fatality rate of 30 per cent that is spreading in Europe will almostly certainly reach the UK, an expert has warned.

Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a disease caused by a tickborne virus, categorised as one of the nine “priority diseases” deemed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to “pose the greatest public health risk due to their epidemic potential”. The Independent

Link between hearing aids and dementia revealed

Link between hearing aids and dementia revealed Hearing aids might reduce cognitive decline in older adults, but only in people who are at higher risk of dementia, research has suggested.

The study found the devices and audiological support services did not have any impact on cognitive decline over three years in a general population of older adults.

However, treating hearing loss was found to protect against cognitive decline – loss of memory and thinking skills – in older adults at greater risk of dementia. The Independent

See also:

• Hearing intervention versus health education control to reduce cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss in the USA (ACHIEVE): a multicentre, randomised controlled trial (abstract) The Lancet

It looks like a toy spider, but this micro-robot is one of an army of tiny devices designed to travel INSIDE your body to spot - and even treat - disease

It looks like a toy spider, but this micro-robot is one of an army of tiny devices designed to travel INSIDE your body to spot - and even treat - disease One of them had legs and ‘to be honest, looked a little scary’ — Professor Pietro Valdastri is describing one of his designs for a miniature robot capable of navigating its way through a human body, one of 20 prototypes he has designed with the potential to diagnose or ‘even cure’ disease. The Daily Mail