Category Archives: Mental health

Child mental health admissions to acute wards in England rise 65% in a decade

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Hospital wards struggle to cope with rising cases of self-harm and eating disorders, the study warns

The number of children admitted to acute hospital wards in England due to serious concerns over their mental health has increased by 65% in a decade, with a particularly alarming surge in girls who have self-harmed, research reveals.

Doctors are treating almost 40,000 children with acute mental ill health in general wards every year, up from about 24,000 10 years ago. The increase is six times higher than the rise in admissions of children for all conditions (10.1%) over the same period.

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Wards in NSW’s largest psychiatric hospital close as mass resignations begin

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Doctor calls situation ‘an absolute disaster’ for public mental health system and vulnerable patients

Mental health wards have begun to close in New South Wales as negotiations to avert the mass resignations of psychiatrists continue.

At Cumberland psychiatric hospital, the largest mental health facility in NSW and the oldest in Australia, the acute and rehabilitation wards have closed, and the NSW branch of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) predicts more will follow.

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Ketamine’s move from club to ‘chill out’ drug is sign of a troubling culture shift

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Experts say mental health treatment is key to tackling rise in UK, rather than simply reclassifying drug as class A

It was once viewed as a fringe club drug whose use as a horse tranquilliser gave it a “dirty” reputation. But with illegal ketamine use reaching record levels, the Home Office announced last week that it was considering reclassifying it as a class A drug in response to a dramatic increase in use among young people.

An estimated 299,000 people aged 16 to 59 reported ketamine use in the year ending March 2023 in England and Wales, the largest number on record, according to Home Office data. Behind the headline figures, there is also evidence of a troubling culture shift, with an increasing number of people taking the drug, which has dissociative, anaesthetic and psychedelic effects, at home rather than in an occasional party setting. This heightens the risk of dependency, experts say, which can lead to devastating health consequences.

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Coroner issues warning about antidepressants after suicide of royal’s husband

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Thomas Kingston, son-in-law of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, had been prescribed SSRIs

A coroner has issued a warning about the effects of antidepressants prescribed by a Buckingham Palace doctor to the son-in-law of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent before his suicide.

Thomas Kingston, 45, whose marriage to Lady Gabriella at Windsor Castle in 2019 was attended by the late Queen, killed himself last February after “suffering adverse effects of medication he had recently been prescribed”, an inquest found last month.

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Kenya court rules that criminalising attempted suicide is unconstitutional

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The judgment has been welcomed as an important shift in perceptions by human rights and mental health groups

A Kenyan judge has declared as unconstitutional sections of the country’s laws that criminalise attempted suicide. In a landmark ruling on Thursday, Judge Lawrence Mugambi of the country’s high court stated that section 226 of the penal code contradicts the constitution by punishing those with mental health issues over which they may have little or no control.

While the constitution says in article 43 that a person has the right to the “highest attainable standard of health”, criminal law states that “any person who attempts to kill himself is guilty of a misdemeanour and is subject to imprisonment of up to two years, a fine, or both”, with the minimum age of prosecution for the offence set at eight years old.

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Home Office may reclassify ketamine in response to record levels of use

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Illegal use in UK seems to reflect growth of unregulated market in US, where its high-profile users include Elon Musk

Ketamine, the anaesthetic taken by Elon Musk to control his moods, could be reclassified as a class A drug by the Home Office after illegal use reached record levels last year.

Currently controlled as a class B substance, ministers are seeking “expert advice” on reclassification after an estimated 299,000 people reported use of the drug last year.

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Instagram actively helping spread of self-harm among teenagers, study finds

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Researchers say parent company Meta is failing to remove explicit images on the social media site

Meta is actively helping self-harm content to flourish on Instagram by failing to remove explicit images and encouraging those engaging with such content to befriend one another, according to a damning new study that found its moderation “extremely inadequate”.

Danish researchers created a private self-harm network on the social media platform, including fake profiles of people as young as 13 years old, in which they shared 85 pieces of self-harm-related content gradually increasing in severity, including blood, razor blades and encouragement of self-harm.

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Australian-style social media ban for under-16s ‘a retrograde step’, say UK charities

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Child safety experts say similar move in Britain would penalise young people for the failings of tech companies

Child safety experts have warned the UK government against enacting an Australian-style social media ban for children under 16, which they called a “retrograde step” that would “do more harm than good”.

On Thursday, Australia became the first country in the world to ban under-16s from using social media platforms. The move was supported by a large majority of the Australian public – but academics, politicians and child rights groups said it could backfire, driving teenagers to the dark web, or make them feel more isolated.

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Widow of gambling addict lambasts watchdog’s failure to investigate suicides

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Exclusive: Annie Ashton, whose husband killed himself, says more people will die because of Gambling Commission inaction

The widow of a man who took his own life after becoming addicted to gambling says more people will die because the regulator is refusing to investigate suicides linked to the addiction.

Annie Ashton is planning legal action against the Gambling Commission after it said it would not investigate or penalise Betfair over the death of her husband, Luke – despite concerns raised about the company at his inquest.

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Mental health patients harmed by being sent to units far from home, report finds

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Distant placements found to have led to anxiety, PTSD and suicide in some cases, as use of them increases in England

Mental health patients in England are being harmed by the increase in placements in psychiatric units far from their homes and families, a new report indicates.

Patients have had anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), while some have died by suicide as a result of their distant placements, according to a Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) report, which drew on interviews with patients and their loved ones. The participants spoke of how their experiences had resulted in feelings of anger, frustration and a loss of trust in the mental health system.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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Housing, social care and universities: who lost out in the UK budget?

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Rachel Reeves made funding the NHS a priority but people working in other areas said they were disappointed

Rachel Reeves’s first budget emphasised raising taxes to help the NHS, as the health service tries to cope with huge waiting lists and an ageing population. Funding the NHS was a top priority but people in other sectors – from universities to social care – feel the budget was a missed opportunity to tackle impending crises or introduce desperately needed reforms in their areas.

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Therapy-speak and 80s hairstyles: will Harris’s Brené Brown sit-down swing white female voters?

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The Democrat’s cozy chat with the vulnerability expert was largely apolitical – which could play well with a key demographic

In the quest to win over white female voters – 53% of whom showed up for Donald Trump in 2020 – Kamala Harris made her case on a podcast hosted by one of their beloved avatars, the vulnerability researcher Brené Brown. The episode, released on Monday, was a mostly fluffy discussion about leadership, trauma and the notion of voting as agency in an uncontrollable news cycle.

Brown, a University of Houston professor and bestselling author who has spent two decades studying social sciences, became an overnight celebrity after giving a 2010 Ted Talk called “the power of vulnerability”. One could argue the talk, which birthed Brown’s Oprah-approved speaking empire, also spawned our culture’s current obsession with therapy-speak.

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Diverse sexuality reported by more than one in 10 Australian high school students

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Authors of study that found 12% of year 8 pupils identify as gay, bisexual, pansexual or asexual say results highlight ‘urgent need’ for support services

More than one in 10 Australian teenagers identify as gay, bisexual, pansexual or asexual, a survey of high school students has found.

Researchers surveyed 6,388 year 8 students between 2019 and 2021, finding that 12% of the teens reported diverse sexualities, while 3.3% identified as gender-diverse.

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More than 200 health professionals say Trump has ‘malignant narcissism’ in open letter

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George Conway-led Pac questions Republican nominee’s mental fitness for office in full-page New York Times ad

An anti-Trump political group organized a letter signed by more than 200 mental health professionals, warning that Donald Trump is dangerous because of “his symptoms of severe, untreatable personality disorder – malignant narcissism”, which makes him “grossly unfit for leadership”.

Less than two weeks before the presidential election, the group bought a full-page ad styled as an open letter in the New York Times on Thursday, arguing that the Republican nominee for the White House is “an existential threat to democracy” in the US.

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Psychotherapists in England must be regulated, experts say, after abuse claims rise

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Exclusive: Lack of formal oversight means anyone can set up in practice and continue to work after misconduct cases, campaigners say

Ministers face calls for the urgent regulation of psychotherapists and counsellors to protect vulnerable people, as lawyers report a rise in lawsuits by patients for alleged harm done during therapy.

Unlike most other healthcare roles, including doctors, midwives and osteopaths, “psychotherapist” and “counsellor” are not protected titles nor statutorily regulated professions in the UK.

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When therapy goes wrong: the problem of underqualified practitioners

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In the age of influencer therapists and mental health apps, experts say the public need to be better informed

From influencer therapists on social media to psychotherapy platforms advertising on TV and radio, going to see a therapist is increasingly mainstream – yet many people know little about who they are seeing and what they are getting.

Experts said more information and awareness among the public of how therapy works was desperately needed, to minimise the risks of making their mental health worse.

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ITN criticised by its journalists after report on internal complaints

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Law firm advises company to review use of non-disclosure agreements after allegations about their use


ITN has faced criticism from senior journalists and staff after a report on how it deals with internal complaints raised concerns about “low trust and psychological safety”.

The media company has been told to review its use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and improve its whistleblowing processes after allegations that it used NDAs to cover up gender pay discrimination, harassment and bullying.

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Overwhelming majority of young Americans worry about climate crisis

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Survey of young people aged 16-25 from all US states shows concerns across political spectrum

The overwhelming majority of young Americans worry about the climate crisis, and more than half say their concerns about the environment will affect where they decide to live and whether to have children, new research finds.

The study comes just weeks after back-to-back hurricanes, Helene and Milton, pummeled the south-eastern US. Flooding from Helene caused more than 600 miles of destruction, from Florida’s west coast to the mountains of North Carolina, while Milton raked across the Florida peninsula less than two weeks later.

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Melbourne psychologist who had sexual relationship with client barred from practising for five years

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Tribunal cancelled Jonathon Walker’s registration after it found ‘evidence of coercion’ towards vulnerable patient

Melbourne psychologist Jonathon Walker, who coerced a young, vulnerable client and moved her into his home after they began an intimate relationship, has had his registration as a health worker cancelled.

The Victorian civil and administrative tribunal (Vcat) also disqualified Walker from reapplying for registration as a psychologist or any other health practitioner for five years, and in its decision Vcat said Walker had limited insight into his misconduct.

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Do you know more? melissa.davey@theguardian.com

In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, call or text Mental Health America at 988 or chat 988lifeline.org

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Badenoch accused of ‘stigmatising’ autism and mental health issues in comments over support – UK politics live

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The Tory leadership contender came under fire from a former cabinet colleague over her comments in a foreword to an essay

More than 100 venues are backing Martyn’s law to help protect the public from terror attacks, ahead of the second reading of the terrorism (protection of premises) bill in the House of Commons today.

Parts of the bill are named for Martyn Hett, 29, who was killed along with 21 other people when suicide bomber Salman Abedi attacked the Manchester Arena in 2017 at the close of an Ariana Grande concert.

Certainly I feel this is the beginning of the end of the campaign, although there’s a bit to go still. But, yeah, I can see it’s coming to fruition now, finally.

Martyn’s law is never meant to be punitive or onerous, like some people may suggest; it literally is very proportionate.

It depends on the size of the venue, and it’s obviously in two tiers as well, and the standard tier is actually far less restrictions than the bigger venues, 800-plus, who may have to put more stringent measures in place.

One Home Office adviser said the contract notice was signed off while the immigration minister was … Robert Jenrick himself. They argued that his plans would’ve cost nearly £200 million more, over a shorter, six-year period, and lacked the break clauses that the government has now included. Another Labour official added: “It seems Jenrick has lost his memory as well as all that weight.”

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