Isledon Road has a new phone number
The phone number for the Isledon Road day centre has changed.
The new number is 020 7062 9881.
Volunteering Opportunities at Islington Mind
Mental Health Recovery Pathway volunteers
Hours: Minimum 1 day/week 9:30am-5:00pm
Location: London Borough of Islington
Closing date: Ongoing
We are looking to offer volunteering placements with our new Mental Health Recovery Pathway (MHRP) – a mental health provision based across three sites in Islington responding to the mental health needs of Islington residents. It offers two pathways:
- The Integrated Community Support (ICS), providing day service opportunities for people with Low and Medium Preventative Care Needs
- The Structured Integrated Support (SIS) for people with Higher and more complex needs.
You will be assisting service users who experience mental distress in one to one and/or in group settings.
We ask for a commitment of at least 1 day a week 9:30 – 5:00 for a full year (+ about 2-3 months for DBS check and induction), though there are plenty of opportunities to volunteer more than one day a week.
If this sounds interesting and suitable to you, please complete the volunteer application form and return with your CV and a letter of interest, indicating
- why are you interested in volunteering for Islington Mind
- whether there is anything specific that you would like to do in your volunteering placement – e.g. facilitate activities, work one-to-one with service users, support our open access drop-in sessions, support service users with completing forms, accompany service users to appointments etc.
- your availability – e.g. one or more days a week and which days of the week you are available.
Please email all the above application material to:
Volunteering Opportunities at Islington Mind’s Enablement Service
The Islington Mind Enablement Service offers Islington residents who experience mental health problems, the opportunity to work in a focused way through a programme of up to 16 weeks, designed with them to help develop strategies to improve their quality of life and reduce their dependence on statutory services. We also offer one-off sessions of personalised support.
We are looking for volunteers who can support people with activities for at least 3 hours per week. Activities such as:
- Escorting people to appointments/outings/activities or events
- Organisational and administrative tasks – help with budgeting; understanding/applying for welfare benefits; letter writing and form filling; arranging activities/appointments; planning the use of other services such as shopping
- Supporting people to maintain their homes – reporting/organising repairs; organising a move; signposting and referring to services and activities
- Ad-hoc support
Staff benefits include volunteers receiving 4 days of training and a fortnightly group supervision.
What you will gain from this role:
- Free accredited Mental Health First Aid training
- On the job training and supervision
- Support with professional development
- Work references provided after completion of one year’s volunteering
- Travel expenses reimbursed (within London)
How to apply: Please read the Role Description carefully and if you feel you are able to commit to the requirements of the position, we would love to hear from you. Please return the completed volunteer application form, along with a copy of your CV, to ossi.ron@islingtonmind.org.uk
If you have any questions, please email Ossi at ossi.ron@islingtonmind.org.uk or phone 020 3301 9850
University regulator unveils scheme to reduce student suicides
A £14.5m programme to help reduce the number of student suicides at universities and colleges in England has been unveiled by the higher education regulator.
Nicola Dandridge, the head of the Office for Students (OfS), has said too many students are having their experience “blighted by mental ill-health” and more should be done to tackle the issue.
One of the projects awarded funding includes an Early Alert Tool, led by Northumbria University, which will identify students at risk of mental health crisis by mining data sources, like social media.
The scheme, which focuses on early warning signs, has been launched in response to figures showing that only one in three people who die by suicide are known to mental health services.
The OfS the sector’s watchdog, has awarded £6m in funding to universities and colleges, with co-funding of £8.5m, to combat a rise in student mental health concerns.
The proportion of full-time UK undergraduate students reporting mental health concerns when they enter university has more than doubled over the last five years, according to recent figures.
At least 95 university students took their own lives in the 12 months to July 2017 in England and Wales, the most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show.
Ten projects have been given funding as part of the collaborative programme, which includes a scheme at the University of Nottingham that will focus on international students.
Full story: The Independent
One in five young women have self-harmed, study reveals
So many young people are self-harming that it risks becoming normalised and increasing the number who kill themselves when they are older, a study reveals.
One in five girls and young women in England aged 16 to 24 have cut, burned or poisoned themselves, according to research that mental health experts said was “very worrying”.
The findings, published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal, show that self-harm has risen across both sexes and all age groups since 2000. In the population as a whole it almost trebled from 2.4% then to 6.4% in 2014.
The number of people overall cutting themselves jumped from 1.5% to 3.9% over those 14 years.
Growing numbers of people are harming themselves as a way of coping with feelings of anger, tension, anxiety or depression. However, a lack of NHS services and people’s unwillingness to seek help means that more than half of those who self-harm do not receive any medical or psychological care.
Full story: Guardian
Use of restraint, seclusion and segregation laid bare by care regulator
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is calling for an independent review of every person who is being held in segregation in mental health wards for children and young people and wards for people with a learning disability or autism. These reviews should examine the quality of care, the safeguards to protect the person and the plans for discharge, the regulator says.
CQC makes the recommendation in its interim report published today, in which it shares early findings from its review of restraint, prolonged seclusion and segregation for people with a mental health problem, a learning disability or autism.
The review, which was commissioned by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock, also highlights the need for a better system of care for people with a learning disability or autism who are, or are at risk of, being hospitalised and segregated.
From an information request sent to providers CQC was told of 62 people who were in segregation. This included 42 adults and 20 children and young people – some as young as 11 years old. Sixteen people had been in segregation for a year or more – one person had spent almost a decade in segregation. The longest period spent in segregation by a child or young person was 2.4 years.
CQC has so far visited and assessed the care of 39 people in segregation, most of whom had an autism diagnosis.
Reasons for prolonged time in segregation included delayed discharge from hospital due to there being no suitable package of care available in a non-hospital setting. For some, the commissioners had found it difficult to find a suitable placement.
The safety of other patients or staff and inability to tolerate living alongside others were the most common reasons providers gave for why people were in segregation. In some cases, staff believed that the person’s quality of life was better in segregation than in the less predictable environment of the open ward.
Some of the wards were not suitable environments for people with autism and many staff lacked the necessary training and skills to work with people with autism who also have complex needs and challenging behaviour.
Full story: Mental Health Today
Coroner calls on universities to destigmatise MH issues
A coroner has called for universities to destigmatise mental health issues after concluding that a student took his own life after facing dismissal from his course and the prospect of losing his accommodation.
First-year Bristol University student Ben Murray, 19, fell from a bridge after receiving a note telling him he was going to be dismissed for missing lectures and an exam.
The senior coroner Maria Voisin said that more work needed to be done to make sure students felt they could declare their mental health issues without fear of missing out on a place at university.
Murray, who was studying English, is one of 12 students at Bristol who have killed themselves or are suspected of taking their own lives since September 2016.
During his inquest at Avon coroner’s court, Murray’s parents, James and Janet, said the university had failed their son.
They believe Murray was troubled and asked for help from the university but nobody saw him face to face to address his concerns.
On Thursday, Voisin ruled that Ben died from multiple injuries as a result of suicide. She said: “It is clear from the act that lead to Ben’s death that he intended to take his life.
“There were a number of issues in his personal life that support this evidence. His place had been withdrawn and he owed a significant debt for his accommodation.
“I will be writing to Bristol University, the Department for Education, the minister of suicide prevention [Jackie Doyle-Price] and Ucas [which helps process university applications].”
The coroner continued: “Bristol University have clearly made many fundamental changes to their practices since Ben’s death, and they should be praised for that. But there needs to be a move towards de-stigmatising mental health.
“Currently, only 37% of students [with a mental health issue] disclose it on their Ucas form or to their uni. More students need to be assured that disclosing this will not affect their place.”
Fully story: Guardian
Mind urges Government to address Universal Credit problems
Frank Field MP, Chair of the Work and Pensions select committee, has criticised the Government for not devoting enough time or energy to their response to a report published by the committee about Universal Credit. The committee refers to the response as “skimpy and disappointing”.
Responding to Frank Field’s comments, Sophie Corlett, Director of External Relations at Mind, said:
“The Work and Pensions Select Committee report yet again highlighted the many difficulties people face under Universal Credit. We know thousands of people with mental health problems are struggling to cope every week with this new benefits system. We’ve heard repeatedly from people at crisis point still being required to look for work or risk losing their benefits. We’re also concerned about what will happen to people still receiving older disability benefits moving over to the new system. We have repeatedly asked the Government to address issues and guarantee that no one receiving benefits will be worse off if they are unable to make a new claim.
“Many people are slipping through the net during the move to Universal Credit – because they’ve moved house, for example, or been in hospital for treatment. The Government should be taking steps to address these issues, so it’s worrying that the Work and Pensions committee don’t feel the Government is listening to its recommendations to improve the way Universal Credit works.
“If the Government is determined to forge ahead with Universal Credit, it needs to take responsibility in tackling urgent problems affecting thousands of people – issues requiring serious attention, not scant responses.”
Source: National Mind
Mental health problems don’t end with age
After years languishing in the dark, mental illness is finally getting its moment in the spotlight. Frustrating political football it may be, but one thing can’t be denied – it’s making headlines more than ever. Focus, largely, has been on young people – crises in child and adolescent mental healthcare and in student populations have been both persistent and significant. But mental illness doesn’t end with reaching adulthood – often, in fact, it doesn’t end at all.
New research from the British Journal of Psychiatry into self-harm in older people puts this into stark perspective. A meta-analysis of 40 studies found that yearly self-harm rates were about 65 per 100,000 people, with risk of repetition and of suicide also higher than average. Self-harm is still seen as a problem among younger demographics; and while that remains true, this data proves that the issue is even more complex and diffuse than we thought.
The findings are not wholly surprising. In 2014, the World Health Organization found that suicide rates were highest in people aged over 70 in almost all regions of the world. The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) also found that 40% of older people in GP clinics experience mental ill-health; this rose to 50% in general hospitals and 60% in care homes. And, as the Mental Health Foundation points out, the UK population is ageing rapidly – since 1974, the number of older people in the UK has grown by 47%. By 2027, the Office for National Statistics predicts, 20.7% of the UK population will be aged 65 or over, compared with 15.9% in 2007. The problem, clearly, is not going away.
Full story: Guardian
Screen time has little effect on teenagers’ wellbeing, says study
Screen time has little effect on the psychological wellbeing of teenagers, regardless of whether they use devices for hours a day or just before bedtime, according to a study by researchers at Oxford University.
The research, based on analysis of the screen use of more than 17,000 teenagers across Ireland, the US and the UK, found use of screens before bedtime was completely unrelated to psychological wellbeing, and screen time more generally had a “minuscule” effect on wellbeing in teenagers when compared with other activities in an adolescent’s life.
The effect was believed to be small enough that adolescents “would need to report 63 hours and 31 minutes’ more of technology use a day in their time-use diaries to decrease their wellbeing” by an amount big enough for them to notice.
The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, is an important data point in the growing debate about whether excessive screen time can damage the mental health of young people.
Full story: Guardian