Media
Healthcare assistants lead in dementia care
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
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
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.
Media Contact
The Institute of Mental Health’s Communications Office responds to requests from the press and acts as a point of liaison between the media and the Institute’s experts in the field of mental health research. The Communications Office is happy to help facilitate interviews and arrange briefings between the media and our academic experts.
The Communications Office can be contacted regarding media enquiries, spokespersons, events and press releases as follows:
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