Centre for Mental Health

New research from Canada has found that telephone therapy offers a promising approach for children who are diagnosed with oppositional-defiant disorders (ODD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD) or anxiety disorders (AD). The study, reported in the Mental Elf, suggests that telephone treatment could more successful and reduce the barriers that stop people seeking help.

On 2 February 2011 the government published No Health Without Mental Health, a cross-government, all-age strategy for mental health in England.

The plan aims to complete the roll-out of improving access to psychological therapies services for adults, and to improve access to talking therapies across a number of groups, including children and young people. This briefing from the NHS Confederation summarises the main points of the plan and outlines the key questions that boards should be asking.

NICE has launched a new quality standard for depression, which should enable:

• Health and social care professionals to make decisions about care based on the latest evidence and best practice.
• Patients to understand what service they can expect from their health and social care providers.
• NHS Trusts to quickly and easily examine the clinical performance of their organisation and assess the standards of care they provide
• Commissioners to be confident that the services they are providing are high quality and cost effective