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1st International Health Humanities Conference

On the 6th – 8th August 2010, The Institute of Mental Health Nottingham will be hosting The 1st International Health Humanities Conference at The University of Nottingham, UK. The conference has been funded by a generous award from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and is part of the Madness and Literature Network research project.

China and UK join forces to develop research into mental health

The Institute of Mental Health (IMH) Nottingham at The University of Nottingham has agreed a formal agreement with Shanghai Mental Health Centre to enable academic exchanges of up to three months.

The aim of this reciprocal fellowship scheme is to develop and sustain joint research between Chinese mental health researchers and Nottingham IMH — which is a partnership between Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and the University.

Healthcare assistants lead in dementia care

Featured on the Nursing Times website – 8th June 2010

Healthcare assistants play an unacknowledged managerial role in the care of dementia patients, research has revealed.

The study, from Nottingham University and funded by a Department of Health research programme found HCAs provided the type of care most important to dementia patients themselves and created a “positive therapeutic environment”.

The National Audit Office has estimated over half a million people in England have dementia and expect this to double in the next 30 years – posing questions around the workforce and skill mix requirements to meet that need.

Behavioural rewards 'work like drugs' for ADHD

Featured on the BBC news website – 18th April 2010

The brains of children with attention-deficit disorders respond to on-the-spot rewards in the same way as they do to medication, say scientists.

A Nottingham University team measured brain activity as children played a computer game, offering extra points for less impulsive behaviour.

Their findings, published in Biological Psychiatry, could mean lower doses of drugs such as Ritalin in severe cases.

Response Article – It is wrong to say that this rehabilitation programme doesn’t work by Professor Kevin Howells

Featured in The Guardian - 17^th March 2010

The treatment for severe personality disorders is in its infancy, but we’re quickly learning, says Kevin Howells.

As someone who has worked clinically and as a researcher in the area for some years, I enjoyed Zoe Williams’ thoughtful piece on the rehabilitation of offenders who have committed very serious crimes (We don’t execute killers, but demand a death-penalty-lite, 4 March).

But she talks of “a report on the dangerous and severe personality disorder programme (DSPD)…summarised on Channel 4,” and concluded: “It doesn’t work is the short answer.” Journalists should be aware of unquestioningly accepting statement appearing elsewhere in the media. In reality, we don’t yet know the effectiveness of the treatment, which took on its first patients in 2004 and whose outcomes are inevitably long-term.

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