Donna Ockenden’s daughter, Phoebe, has won an award for her voluntary work for the homeless charity – The Four Streets Project. Phoebe received the Young Citizen of the Year award at the Chichester City Council ceremony in March. Phoebe is one of 26 volunteers who hand out much needed food and supplies every evening to those living on the streets of the city.
News Archive
The National Bereavement Care Pathway (NBCP) for pregnancy and baby loss run by Sands and partners will be extended to a further 21 sites across England from April 2018. The pioneering project seeks to improve the overall quality of bereavement care and end the postcode lottery facing parents and families whose baby has died before, during or shortly after birth.
#Whatsinakiss is an initiative to raise awareness of neonatal herpes. To be part of this movement please follow the twitter account of @whatsinakiss for all the latest information, resources and soon to be launched film in collaboration with Fixers.
Donna is delighted to have been made a trustee for MAMA Academy and says “wonderful progress is being made by the dedicated team at MAMA Academy by empowering expectant mums with pregnancy information. By helping them feel in control of their pregnancy and confident in reporting any problematic symptoms to their maternity team, this can only be a positive development”.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council has unveiled a list of over 90 procedures and communication skills that nursing associates should be trained in, as part of draft proposals. The list is still in development and is due to be consulted on in April. Around 2000 students are half way through their nursing associate training at sites across England.
Nursing Standard discusses the NMCs proposed education standards and how important suicide awareness and prevention training is. The article highlights that Pypurus, the young suicide prevention charity supports the suicide prevention competencies that have been included across all four fields of nursing pre-registration education.
The NMC is looking forward to launching the new Standards of proficiency for registered nurses and the Standards for education and training this spring. They will be discussed by the Council when it meets later in March and once approved the Standards can be launched.
Failings in NHS care are believed to have resulted in the deaths of at least 271 highly vulnerable mental health patients during the past six years. Coroners have issued legal warnings to 136 different NHS bodies between 2012 and 2017, including mental health trusts, acute hospitals, ambulance services and GP surgeries. Identified errors include misjudgements, flawed processes, lack of staff or beds and poor training.
Read the Guardian article | Read the Coroners reports to prevent future deaths
Too many people could be being placed in residential mental health rehabilitation services that are far away from where they live, for too long and that are costly for the NHS say the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
This year, Dementia Awareness Week is changing to Dementia Action Week. It will take place from 21-27 May 2018. While raising awareness and offering support will always be important, more must be done to create change in communities. During Dementia Action Week, The Alzheimers Society will be asking everyone across the UK to unite with them and take action. Whether big or small, actions can make everyday life better for people affected by dementia.
GPs are telling children with mental health problems to exaggerate their symptoms in order to receive NHS treatment, a report by watchdogs warns. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) said too many children and young people were unable to get any help until they reached “crisis point”.
New findings, published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia — are thought to be the first to suggest that higher levels of branched-chain amino acids in a person’s blood could be a marker for a lower risk of developing dementia. After analysing data from eight large studies, researchers have identified certain molecules in the blood that might serve as early biomarkers for the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.