Category Archives: Mental health

Vogue Portugal under fire for mental health cover in ‘very bad taste’

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Front of magazine’s ‘Madness’ issue attacked as attempt to glamorise mental illness

Vogue Portugal has been criticised for insensitive treatment of mental health on one of its latest magazine covers.

The image – one of four covers created for its July/August “Madness” issue – features model Simona Kirchnerova crouched in a bath flanked by two nurses, with one pouring water over her head. The cover has been criticised both for attempting to glamorise mental illness and for the use of the outdated term “madness”.

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‘I saw so much killing’: the mental health crisis of South Sudan refugees

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Therapy is helping some of the thousands forced over the border to Uganda to cope, but funding shortfalls mean resources are becoming scarcer

As darkness fell, Rebecca closed the door to her makeshift home. The day was over.

The 29-year-old, who had been uprooted from South Sudan to a north Ugandan refugee settlement, sat on the bed where her four children slept and, at around 10pm, tried to take her own life. “By then I didn’t care about anything – not myself, not even my kids. The pain was too extreme,” she says. Her children awoke and their cries brought help from neighbours.

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Only 13% of UK working parents want to go back to ‘the old normal’

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Survey shows people want to continue with more fulfilling and family-friendly work environments

Whatever the new normal is post Covid-19, we don’t want it to be anything like the old one. At least, when it comes to earning a living.

Lockdown has given people a chance to sample new ways of balancing their jobs and family lives and they have concluded that something must change. Just 13% want to go back to pre-pandemic ways of working, with most people saying they would prefer to spend a maximum of three days in the office.

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Refugee on hunger strike over age dispute with Home Office

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Bristol man sees official record of his age as five years older than he says as theft of his identity

A young man who was given permission to stay in the UK after fleeing Gaza has been on hunger strike for more than 90 days in protest at what he sees as the “theft” of his true identity on his official records.

The man, who has learning disabilities and post-traumatic stress disorder, says he was wrongly assessed as being five years older than he is when he arrived in the UK. He regards his date of birth as a crucial part of his identity and a vital link to his late parents.

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Prince William volunteering for mental health crisis service

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Duke of Cambridge reveals he is trained volunteer for UK’s Shout text platform

The Duke of Cambridge has been secretly working as a volunteer supporting people contacting a crisis helpline for mental health support, he has revealed.

Unbeknown to those who have accessed the Shout 85258 text-messaging service, Prince William is one of its 2,000 trained volunteers.

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Coronavirus: millions shielding in England can go outside from Monday, says Robert Jenrick – video

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Goverment guidance requiring 2.2 million people in at-risk groups to stay indoors is to be relaxed in England from Monday, the communities minister has announced. Robert Jenrick confirmed that people currently shielding will be able to spend time with their households or, if they live alone, with one person from another household. The full guidance will be posted on the gov.uk website. 'Now that we’ve passed the peak, the risk to those shielding is lower,' Jenrick said.

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‘A lot of benign neglect’: how Ghana’s social changes are isolating older people

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The modernising economy is changing family structures – but can ‘western’ residential homes be accepted culturally?

After breakfast on a Friday morning, a small group of elderly people are engaging in gentle exercises – walking to one end of a walled compound and back. Some of them need the assistance of nurses or walkers, or both, to complete the journey.

“Usually, we do this a couple of times but it is a little bit cold today so we are going just once,” says Henry Ofori Mensah, administrator at Comfort For The Aged, a residential care home in Kasoa, a dormitory town west of Accra, Ghana’s capital.

At the turn of the century, a facility like this would have been hard to imagine in Ghana.

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UK gambling addiction much worse than thought, says YouGov

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New research also warns that half of those with a problem are not getting the help they need

Gambling addiction rates may be much higher than previously thought, according to research that also warns nearly half of those with a problem are not getting any help.

Related: Isolation will fuel gambling addiction. We must protect those at risk | Carolyn Harris

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Coronavirus Australia live news: Rockhampton aged-care nurse tests positive to Covid-19 – latest updates

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Queensland’s chief health officer says staff member in facility with 115 residents continued to work when sick. Follow live

One of the eight new cases of Covid-19 detected in New South Wales in the past 24 hours is an overseas traveller who recently flew from Brisbane to Sydney after completing their mandatory 14-day quarantine period, the state’s health department said.

Despite completing the quarantine in Brisbane, the person developed symptoms afterwards and NSW Health believes “it is likely they were infectious on the flight to Sydney”.

Look I know it’s not strictly coronavirus-related but this video, put together by my colleagues Steph Harmon and Becca Leaver, of beloved children’s author Andy Griffiths answering questions sent in by our younger readers is very good and fun and wholesome.

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Dutch court approves euthanasia in cases of advanced dementia

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Ruling means doctors cannot be prosecuted even if patient no longer says they want to die

Doctors in the Netherlands are able to carry out euthanasia on patients with severe dementia without fear of prosecution even if the patient no longer expresses an explicit wish to die, the country’s highest court has ruled.

The supreme court’s decision followed a landmark case last year in which a doctor was acquitted of wrongdoing for euthanising a woman in 2016 with severe Alzheimer’s who had requested the procedure before her condition deteriorated.

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Lockdown living: how Europeans are avoiding going stir crazy

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People across Europe are finding increasingly inventive ways to protect themselves against the psychological risks of isolation

In Italy they are singing and sharing recipes. In France, humour is saving the day. In Spain, communal staircases have become the new running tracks, and in Germany, ordinarily disorderly hackers are busy coding corona-busting apps.

As hundreds of millions of Europeans languish in lockdown, people are finding increasingly inventive ways to keep themselves entertained – and to counter what the continent’s psychologists warning are the very real risks of confinement.

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How to use your spare time during the coronavirus crisis – video

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Australian academic, psychologist and author Lea Waters shares some advice as other activities and social engagements are cancelled during the coronavirus crisis. The video forms part of a multipart series looking at ways we can all stay positive

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How shopping and Sinatra are helping in coronavirus isolation

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People from all walks of life are mobilising to support those coping with isolation

Amy Tan is preparing to burst into song with two fellow musicians on a deserted street in Acton, west London.

“We’ll do anything by Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald – the Rat Pack,” she says. “Or maybe they would like a song by Elton John or the Beatles?”

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Coronavirus: how to cope with anxiety and self-isolation – video explainer

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The coronavirus pandemic is causing increased stress and anxiety, particularly people with existing mental health problems, practitioners and campaigners have said. The behavioural psychologist Jo Hemmings has been talking through how to cope with these feelings and offering advice to those who have a fear of isolation

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Girls stay longer in school but obesity, suicide and sexual violence remain risks

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A quarter of a century after world conference pledged to advance gender equality, reports finds opportunities and rights still lacking

Girls are far less likely to get married or drop out of school than ever before, but worryingly high rates of obesity, suicide and sexually transmitted infections underline how uneven global progress has been for them over the past 25 years, according to a report published on Wednesday.

Despite major gains in some aspects of girls’ lives since governments pledged at the fourth world conference on women in 1995 to advance the rights of women and girls, violence against them is still not only common but accepted, claim the UN children’s agency, Plan International, and UN Women. They warn that if discrimination continues, the 2030 gender equality targets are unlikely to be achieved.

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‘Judge me fairly’: man who starved to death’s plea to welfare officials

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Handwritten letter found in Errol Graham’s flat, where he died after his benefits were cut

Errol Graham, a desperately ill man who died of starvation when his benefits were cut off, wrote a moving letter pleading with welfare officials to “judge me fairly” because he was overwhelmed by depression.

The handwritten letter, seen by the Guardian, was released by Graham’s family as they launched a legal attempt to prove that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) acted unlawfully and put him at risk by failing to put in place effective safeguards to protect vulnerable benefit claimants.

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Mel C speaks out: trying to be the perfect Spice Girl made me ill

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Melanie Chisholm tells Desert Island Discs of her struggle to cope with fame

Melanie Chisholm, the former Spice Girl Mel C, dates her past struggle with eating disorders and depression back to an incident at a Brit awards ceremony, she reveals on Desert Island Discs on 23 February.

In 1996, before the girl group was officially launched, Chisholm was almost chucked out of the Spice Girls for unruly behaviour, following “a scuffle between me and Victoria” that she has only recently admitted to.

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Researchers find a western-style diet can impair brain function

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After a week on a high fat, high added sugar diet, volunteers scored worse on memory tests

Consuming a western diet for as little as one week can subtly impair brain function and encourage slim and otherwise healthy young people to overeat, scientists claim.

Researchers found that after seven days on a high fat, high added sugar diet, volunteers in their 20s scored worse on memory tests and found junk food more desirable immediately after they had finished a meal.

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Reform urged in Malaysia after disabled man is jailed for attempted suicide

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Campaign groups unite in condemnation of ‘grossly inhumane and incompassionate’ verdict

Human rights groups in Malaysia are calling for the repeal of a law that criminalises attempted suicide after a man with a physical disability was sentenced to six months in prison for trying to take his own life.

Malaysia is one of the few countries where attempting suicide is illegal. Under existing legislation, people found guilty can be punished by up to a year in prison, a fine, or both. But the Malaysian government is now considering a change to the law, which advocates say cannot come soon enough.

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Politicians condemn press intrusion after Caroline Flack’s death

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ITV says Sunday’s Love Island will not be broadcast as calls mount for regulation of traditional and social media

Politicians have condemned press intrusion, calling for more regulation of both traditional and social media after the death of TV presenter Caroline Flack.

The former Love Island presenter is understood to have taken her own life on Saturday at her home in Islington, London. She had been charged with assaulting her partner and was due to stand trial in several weeks’ time.

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