I’m collecting examples of service user writing for a course I’m helping to run. I’d like to use some blog posts to illustrate how service users are employing new technology to discuss their experiences. I know a few of the service users who contribute here also write their own blogs, so [...]

The NHS faces a massive shortfall in its budget.

The NHS Confederation report says the health service in England will not survive unchanged, the BBC has learned.

Managers at its conference will be told they face an “extremely challenging” financial outlook…

…The report, to be published on Wednesday, warns any modest cash increases could be [...]

Nursing faces a recruitment crisis. So says the RCN: -

The Royal College of Nursing says over the next decade 200,000 nurses will retire – a third of the total number.

It said school leavers were snubbing nursing as a career, and called on ministers to run campaigns in schools to tackle the [...]

Margaret Haywood is a nurse who filmed undercover for the BBC in order to expose the shockingly poor care and neglect of elderly patients in a hospital in Sussex. She has been struck off the register by the NMC on the grounds that she compromised patient confidentiality by not asking permission to [...]

This, tucked away in The Observer: -

Data collected by the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) shows that 1,282 people in England died in what it calls “patient safety incidents in mental health settings” in the period 2007-08.

Another 913 patients – more than two a day – suffered what is termed severe harm, or [...]

So, if you’ve been following the news, you’ll be aware that Damien McBride, a man who once enjoyed a privileged position at Gordon Brown’s right hand, has resigned after emails came to light, thanks to Paul Staines aka Guido Fawkes, about a proposed smear campaign McBride was to conduct with the assistance of [...]

Some therapists seem to have failed to notice that it’s the 21st century and are still offering “treatment” for homosexuality.

The survey, published in the journal BMC Psychiatry and conducted by London researchers, involved 1,400 therapists.

Many were acting with the “best of intentions”, said the lead author.

Only 4% said they would attempt to change [...]

OK, I know I am in super-cynical mode at the moment, but the news that a new agency is to be set up to deliver the government’s mental health reforms makes me groan with despair. What will they be doing? This, apparently: -

Key projects include improving access to talking therapies, promoting [...]

…in the House of Lords, a rather important ruling has been made: -

Where there was a real and immediate risk of a patient detained in a mental hospital committing suicide, art 2 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as scheduled to the Human Rights Act 1998, imposed [...]