Category Archives: Mental health

‘I was shattered’: grieving First Nations families accused trauma support service of letting them down

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Veronica Nelson’s mother among critics of Thirrili, which encouraged people to contact it if they didn’t feel its support was adequate

First Nations families grieving the loss of loved ones have accused a federally funded Indigenous suicide and trauma support service of failing to turn up to appointments, not responding to phone calls and not replying to financial support requests.

Guardian Australia has spoken to four First Nations families who have raised concerns about the service provided by the not-for-profit Thirrili, which provides financial, social and emotional support to Indigenous families affected by suicide and trauma.

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Melbourne’s new combined addiction and mental health treatment centre ‘a no-brainer’

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The creation of a facility such as the Hamilton centre was a key finding of Victoria’s mental health royal commission

When Benn Veenker first confided in his GP about his struggle with depression and alcohol, he was holding back the full extent of his addictions.

“I was so scared of being able to say to somebody, ‘I can’t get through a day without drinking’,” he remembers.

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UK GPs have the highest stress levels, finds survey of 10 countries’ doctors

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Burnout, poor work/life balance and ‘unsustainable’ pressures are causing many NHS family practitioners to consider retirement

GPs in the UK have some of the highest stress levels and lowest job satisfaction among family doctors, a 10-country survey has found.

British GPs suffer from high levels of burnout, have a worse work/life balance and spend less time with patients during appointments than their peers in many other places.

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Hospital video footage shows Irvo Otieno was held down before his death

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Seven deputies and three hospital workers charged with second-degree murder in death of Black man at Virginia mental facility

A large group of sheriff’s deputies and employees of a Virginia mental hospital pinned patient Irvo Otieno to the floor until he was motionless and limp, then began unsuccessful resuscitation efforts, newly obtained surveillance video of the incident earlier this month shows.

The footage obtained on Tuesday, which has no audio, shows various members of the group struggling with a handcuffed and shackled Otieno over the course of about 20 minutes after he was led into a room at Central State hospital in Petersburg, Virginia, where he was going to be admitted on 6 March. For most of the duration of the video, Otieno is on the floor being restrained by a fluctuating group that at one point appeared to number 10 people pressing down on various parts of his body.

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‘It never goes away’: three Britons on how the Iraq war changed their lives

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A mother whose son was killed in Basra, a senior non-commissioned officer with PTSD and a psychiatric nurse reflect 20 years on

The Iraq war left a profound mark on the UK. It forced the country to face up to its role, having initially helped rid Iraq of a brutal dictator, in the years of deadly chaos that followed. At home, meanwhile, it acted as the catalyst for one of the most popular domestic antiwar movements the country has seen.

The conflict also left many people in the UK asking: could they ever really trust their political leaders at a time of national crisis again? And could it ever be right to send young men and women to war without having first exhausted all peaceful means – and without a clear idea of what they were even meant to achieve once they got there?

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Family of Florida man who died while being violently restrained sues jail staff

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Suit alleges that Broward county sheriff’s office used excessive force as Kevin Desir suffered mental health emergency in 2021

The family of a Florida man who died after being violently restrained by jailers is filing a civil rights suit against the officers who were involved in the incident and the jail’s healthcare provider.

According to a draft of the lawsuit shared exclusively with the Guardian, the family of 43-year-old Kevin Desir alleges that Broward county sheriff officials used excessive force against Desir while he was suffering from a severe mental health episode, violating his 14th amendment rights.

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Hunt’s disability plans put 1m at risk of losing £350 a month, IFS says

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Charities and disability campaigners say chancellor’s proposals set out in his budget more ‘stick than carrot’

Up to 1 million people currently claiming incapacity benefits could lose hundreds of pounds a month as a result of plans outlined in the budget to push ahead with the “biggest reforms to the welfare system in a decade,” experts have said.

The warning came as ministers unveiled a range of measures to try to drive more people back into the workplace, including scrapping controversial “fit for work” tests for disabled claimants and stepping up the threat of benefit sanctions against part-time workers.

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Ambulance call handlers in England tell of anguish over death risk to patients

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Dispatchers tell investigation it is common to worry: ‘How many people are we going to kill today?’

Ambulance call handlers suffer anxiety about how many people will die before they can get help to them each day, researchers looking into the welfare of NHS staff have found.

Officials from the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) in England asked staff working in urgent and emergency care, including in A&E, NHS 111 call handling centres and ambulance services, for their experiences as part of wider research into NHS care.

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Egyptian challenging Australia’s indefinite detention warned he faces forced removal within month

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Tony Sami, held for 10 years, is fighting to stay with his two children and had been preparing for landmark high court case

An Egyptian man challenging the lawfulness of Australia’s indefinite detention system in the high court has been warned that Border Force is preparing to remove him from the country “unwillingly” within a month if he doesn’t agree to leave on a commercial flight.

Tony Sami, who has been detained for a decade after his visa was cancelled in 2012 and who is fighting to stay in Australia to be with his two children, had been preparing for a landmark case that could determine the freedom of hundreds of asylum seekers and detainees.

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Children in mental health crisis spent more than 900,000 hours in A&E in England

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Exclusive: Children as young as three in emergency departments for mental health problems, data obtained by Labour reveals

‘We are letting young people down’: the secret psychiatrist on NHS delays

Children suffering mental health crises spent more than 900,000 hours in A&E in England last year seeking urgent and potentially life-saving help, NHS figures reveal.

Experts said the huge amount of time under-18s with mental health issues were spending in A&E was “simply astounding” and showed that NHS services for that vulnerable age group were inadequate.

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High-profile lawsuit against Meta can be heard in Kenya, Nairobi court rules

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Decision on case of ex-Facebook moderator, who claims the work left him with PTSD, hailed as win for accountability of big tech in Africa

A Kenyan court has ruled that a case brought against Facebook by a former content moderator can go ahead.

Daniel Motaung, who was hired as a Facebook content moderator by the tech firm’s subcontractor Sama in 2019, filed a suit against the two companies last year, alleging that he had been exposed to graphic and traumatic content at work, without adequate prior knowledge or proper psychosocial support – which he says left him with post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Victoria records highest number of annual suicides since 2000 amid fears of national trend

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Data collected by the state coroners court shows 756 suicides occurred in Victoria in 2022, up 9% from 2021

Victoria has recorded its highest number of annual suicides since the coroner’s court started collecting suicide data in 2000, with mental health workers saying the trend is occurring nationally.

In 2022 there were 756 suicides in Victoria, a 9% increase compared with 2021, according to data published by the coroner’s court on Monday which reveals much of the increase occurred in the latter part of the year.

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Parents ‘horrified’ by response to petition after suicide of Bristol student

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Government declines to act on call for legal duty of care for all students after death of Natasha Abrahart in 2018

The parents of Natasha Abrahart, who took her own life while studying at the University of Bristol, have reacted with “absolute horror” to the government’s response to their petition calling for a statutory legal duty of care for all students in higher education.

The Abraharts are one of 25 bereaved families who helped launch a parliamentary petition last October, calling on ministers to pass legislation to better protect students and arguing that their mental health, safety and wellbeing should be a government priority.

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Family of woman found ‘mummified’ say privacy laws kept them in the dark

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Laura Winham lay dead in her flat for three years before her brother discovered her body

The family of a severely mentally ill woman who lay dead and undiscovered in her flat for more than three years said they were unable to have any contact with her because of privacy laws.

Laura Winham, 38, had schizophrenia, struggled to look after herself and had become estranged from her family, who she thought were trying to harm her.

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Birdsong boosts mental wellbeing for 90% of people, UK poll finds

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RSPB shares results as Britons encouraged to spend an hour counting birds in annual Big Garden Birdwatch

Watching birds and hearing birdsong have a positive impact on wellbeing for more than nine in 10 people, according to a survey to mark the largest garden wildlife count in the world.

People are being urged to boost their mental health and help scientists by spending an hour this weekend counting the birds in their garden or local park for the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch.

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Mental health racial bias in England and Wales is ‘inexcusable’, says report

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MPs and peers say draft mental health bill must go further to strengthen patients’ choices

Ministers must use legislation to address an “unacceptable and inexcusable” failure to address racial disparity in the use of the Mental Health Act, MPs and peers have said.

The joint committee on the draft mental health bill says the bill does not go far enough to tackle failures that were identified in a landmark independent review five years ago, but which still persist and may even be getting worse.

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Antidepressants ‘should be reduced in stages’ to avoid withdrawal symptoms

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UK medicines watchdog advises GPs to ‘taper’ doses for patients who want to stop taking the drugs

GPs whose patients want to stop taking antidepressants should reduce the dose of their medication in stages to lower the risk and severity of withdrawal symptoms, the medicines watchdog has said.

About one in six (16%) adult Britons experience moderate to severe depression, according to the Office for National Statistics. In England alone, 21.4m antidepressant drugs were prescribed between July and September 2022, according to the NHS Business Services Authority.

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Labour plans to embed career advisers in health services to help people into work

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Exclusive: employment strategy aimed at those ‘written off’ by society like young people with mental health issues, says Jonathan Ashworth

Labour will “put health and wellbeing” at the heart of its employment strategy by embedding career advisers in health services, including addiction clinics, rehab centres and primary care, the party has said.

In an interview with the Guardian, Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said the strategy would help people who had been “written off” to access work.

Devolving employment support to local authorities to target the best routes into work.

Tailored extra support to work flexibly for those with caring responsibilities or chronic conditions.

Offers of “in principle” decisions for access-to-work funding for disabled people.

Change the work capability assessment regime to allow people to accept a job without fearing they would not be able to return to the benefits they were receiving.

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‘Urgent need’ to understand link between teens self-diagnosing disorders and social media use, experts say

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Sufferers may be driven online because of the difficulty in accessing affordable GP appointments, professor says

There is an “urgent need” to investigate the increasing number of children and teenagers self-diagnosing with neurological conditions, mental illnesses, and personality disorders, a trend being driven by social media and difficulty accessing healthcare, psychiatrists and paediatricians say.

A paper published in January in the journal Comprehensive Psychiatry describes how prolonged social media use, especially on video-sharing platforms like TikTok, is exposing young people to a growing number of content creators making videos about their self-described tics, Tourette syndrome and other self-diagnosed disorders.

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Ministers studying plans for UK child-specific terrorism orders

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Exclusive: Official adviser recommends giving those arrested for low-level crimes a choice to accept help or face jail

New legal terrorism orders specifically for children should be brought in to tackle the growing numbers being arrested, the official adviser on terrorism law has told the government.

Ministers are studying plans that would result in children being compelled to accept help or face jail, devised by Jonathan Hall KC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation.

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