SAMH report on costs on mental health problems in Scotland

The Scottish Association for Mental Health (SAMH) has produced a report on the social and economic costs of mental health problems in Scotland. The report, which is called "What it's worth" examined not only the costs of providing health and social care services and losses to the economy, but also the personal costs of mental health problems. The findings indicate that in 2005, the total cost of mental health problems in Scotland was £8.6 billion.

NICE guideline on dementia

The latest guideline published by the National Institute on Clinical Excellence is on dementia and, according to the NICE website, "makes specific recommendations on Alzheimer's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), frontotemporal dementia, vascular dementia and mixed dementias, as well as recommendations that apply to all types of dementia".

The guideline is available in the library or from the NICE website at this link :

Dementia : supporting people with dementia and their carers in health and social care.

Two new nursing reports

A couple of new reports on nursing have been published by the Scottish Executive. Both the reports are available in the library and via the links below on the Scottish Executive website.

Visible, accessible and integrated care : report of the review of nursing in the community in Scotland (2006)


Delivering Care, Enabling Health: Harnessing the Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions' Contribution to Implementing Delivering for Health in Scotland (2006)

The two documents are responses to the Scottish Executive's Delivering for Health (2005) document which outlined the move to a more community-centred delivery of healthcare.

NHS QIS eating disorders recommendations

New guidelines aimed at improving the care of people with eating disorders have been issued by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland. The full-text of the document is available from the NHS QIS website, or by following this link. We also have a copy in the library available for borrowing.

Library current awareness page

The Current Awareness section of the Maria Henderson Library website now contains the November edition of the NHSGGC Guidelines Newsletter and a list of the books added to the library during September and October.

Improving Mental Health Information Programme

The November 2006 message from the Improving Mental Health Information Programme has been published. The iMHIP is part of ISD (Information & Statistics Division of NHS in Sotland) and aims to improve information sharing around the area of mental health services. Amongst other things this months newsletter highlights some up and coming conferences and the new Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.

Health in Scotland 2005 report

This year's annual Chief Medical Officer's Report, Health in Scotland 2005 has been published by the Scottish Executive. It contains a chapter that highlights progress on improving mental health and services for those with mental ill-health but also highlights that the "significant adverse impact on health of alcohol is now obvious". Click here to see the report.

New Cochrane reviews on mental health

A few new Cochrane Library reviews have been published in the field of mental health.

The reviews are :

Behavioural and cognitive behavioural therapy for obsessive compulsive disorder in children and adolescents.

The review concludes that despite being "based on a small number of studies, behavioural or cognitive-behaviour therapy appears to be a promising treatment for OCD in children and adolescents. It can lead to better outcomes when combined with medication compared to medication alone".

The full-text is available here.

Cognitive-behavioural interventions for children who have been sexually abused.

The review "review confirms CBT's potential as a means of addressing the adverse consequences of child sexual abuse, but highlights the tenuousness of the evidence base and the need for more carefully conducted and better reported trials."

The full text is available here.

Crisis intervention for people with severe mental illnesses .

The review suggets that "Home care crisis treatment, coupled with an ongoing home care package, is a viable and acceptable way of treating people with serious mental illnesses". However, the author cautions that "if this approach is to be widely implemented it would seem that more evaluative studies are still needed".

The full text is available here.

A full list of mental health related Cochrane reviews published in the October update is available through the Centre for Evidence-based Mental Health e-CAB service.