I wanted to share it even further and decided to post the link here as well.

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb

Garfield is one of my favourite cartoon strips and I find this idea fascinating. It works so well, it’s often very moving.

Garfield Minus Garfield

I thought the Mental Nurse readership might be interested to know that WISH’s campaign against the smoking restrictions in mental health inpatient units, Stubbing Out Our Rights, has been launched this week.

The arguments for and against the restrictions have already been debated here in a lot of depth so I won’t go into them again, but if you’d like to wander over to the campaign’s website you will see WISH’s take on the issue.

The starting point for the campaign will be 2 petitions: an e-petition, and a paper petition for those without internet access (current inpatients especially). A leaflet about the campaign to accompany the paper petition will be up on the website next week, as well as a template for a letter you can send to your MP.

As is the custom these days, there is also a Facebook group for the campaign.

Please take a few minutes to have a look at the website, sign the petition and let your friends and colleagues know about the campaign. Thank you!

The NMC are currently running a review of pre-registration nursing education.

Questions include:

should nurses be prepared to diploma or degree level?

what proportion of a pre-registration programme should be spent learning in practice?

should shared learning be a requirement?

should there be generalist and/or branch programmes, and if so, what should the branches be?

The recruitment numbers in my area for mental health nursing students has been cut by almost 50% for the next year. Those working at the coal face have a feeling of bewilderment at this, but some number crunchers somewhere have decided this is a good idea.

If the decrease were to continue annually, it could be a slippery slope to phasing out the branch entirely.

Look at learning disability nursing. There isn’t much of that training going on these days, with mental health nurses filling many of the posts. Some argue that they are very different specialities and rmns are ill-equipped for such nursing care.

If our branch is phased out, over the coming years we could be working with ordinary general nurses in our highly specialist areas. (gasp!)

I certainly found my first year of generic training quite uninteresting and an effort to remain motivated, but I knew it would be branch specific and interest me more in second and third year. I am not sure I would have done the training at all if I had to do generic training (read = adult nursing).

If we aren’t careful, our nurse training could resemble the training received in the USA and Australia. I certainly don’t think this is a good thing, perhaps others see things differently?

This survey is only open until 8 February (2008) so I would urge you to fill it in as soon as you can and to tell anyone with even a vague link or knowledge of mental health nursing - be they user, carer or worker - to do the same.

I am Bloo, a 2nd year Mental Health Student Nurse. I will start my final year in September ‘07. I have been visiting Mental Nurse for some time now, having not so recently changed my name. I fancied something different.

I often have trouble remaining (or even starting to be) serious, so expect some utter nonsense from me from time to time. I will hold back when posting here to try to keep up the excellent standard.

Now all we need is Mo to start posting regularly and this site will be fantastic instead of brilliant!

Oh, and you can see a photo of me here. Unfortunately I did not have on by Bloo uniform that day.

NESTA launches £20m initiative to stimulate innovation

The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) (http://www.nesta.org.uk) is today launching a new £20 million initiative designed to encourage innovative solutions to some of the UK’s most pressing social issues including chronic disease, mental health and climate change.

NESTA’s ‘Innovation Challenges’ (http://www.nesta.org.uk/challenges) will focus on several key themes, starting with Health Innovation and followed by the Environment. Each theme will last for three years during which NESTA will conduct a series of high-impact projects with key partners, designed both to unearth existing ideas, and stimulate new approaches in response to recognised problems.

NESTA lays down first challenge for innovation in health

Focusing on health, the first Challenge aims to identify and develop solutions to issues around chronic disease management, mental health, and ageing. The Challenge programme’s initial partnership projects will see NESTA calling for both social entrepreneurs and front-line workers to come forward with ideas. The first two projects are:

Those with potential ideas can apply online at http://www.nesta.org.uk/challenges and through partner websites.

Each of the Challenges will create a range of opportunities to tackle key issues. These will include seeking and funding ideas from front-line workers or users, providing capital and support to start-up social enterprises, or engaging the general public in a search for a solution to a specific problem.

NESTA is looking for potential partners with sector-specific expertise or a track record in social innovation to help devise, deliver or co-fund projects. These projects will be aimed at stimulating innovation in services as well as in new products and technologies, and will also aim to facilitate practitioner-led, community-led and third sector innovation.

NESTA Chief Executive Jonathan Kestenbaum explains, “The UK faces significant social challenges that are resistant to conventional solutions. Mostly the impetus for addressing these issues is placed on the shoulders of government alone but this isn’t enough – there’s an increasing gap between the scale of the problems and the solutions available. It’s time we empowered people at the grass roots to develop ideas which, with the right support, could have a lasting impact on key social issues”.

Science and Innovation Minister, Malcolm Wicks said, “I welcome NESTA’s efforts to help boost social innovation. It’s vital that we look to as many different areas as possible in our bid for new ideas, so it’s great to see this challenge involving front-line workers and the broader community, who might have creative solutions which have previously gone unheard. We all need to work together to ensure the UK remains a world leader in terms of innovation, science and technology, because it’s these areas which will help secure our economic future.”

For further information about NESTA’s Innovation Challenges, the Health Innovation Accelerator or the Mental Health Call for Proposals, interested parties should go to http://www.nesta.org.uk/challenges or contact the Challenges team on 020 7438 2500 or mailto:challenges@nesta.org.uk.

Fast forward to the end of my student days - I spent a year working as a Nursing Assistant on a rehab/continuing care ward. I formed good strong relationships with many of the residents and the year I spent on the ward was undoubtedly one the things I have been most privileged to do during my life thus far. Not a day has passed when I haven’t found myself missing the residents.

Currently I work for an occupational psychology organisation and am studying psychology with a view to something psychologically career related. I made a conscious decision to leave nursing until I sort some of my personal demons out and then I shall return! I am not quite sure in what kind of capacity I shall return but I want to care and make a lasting difference.

However, enough about me and my background, I need your help!

Dressed as a big blue stress ball on 22 April I’m going to be running/jogging/walking/waddling/rolling all 26.2 miles of the London Marathon in aid of Mind. A picture of the costume can be found at http://www.justgiving.com/helenrayner

Given that I will attract some media attention in my costume I have been asked to think about a sentence or two I can spout out should anyone come near me with a microphone.

How do I sum up mental health in a sentence? How do I convey that mental health is everyone’s concern? What shall I say to make people realise that service users are normal humans who are dealing with what life has thrown at them? How can I protest about mental health being the bottom of agendas?

Your answers in the form of comments please.