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Fair Deal manifesto, skunk and depressing Wednesdays

The Royal College of Psychiatrists has been busy this week. Firstly, it has launched it's new three-year Fair Deal campaign to tackle inequalities in the mental health system.
A report, published to open the campaign found that:
  • One-in-four older people have symptoms of depression severe enough to warrant help, but only half are diagnosed and treated. ยท
  • A third of substance misuse patients with mental health needs do not receive any interventions.
  • In-patients may remain in hospital for months after their need for hospitalisation has ended while they await transfer to local authority accommodation.
  • Mental health research receives 6.5% of total research funding, compared with 25% for research into cancer and 15% for neurological diseases.
Cleverly, the campaign priorities spell out the words Fair Deal. Here you go:

Funding of research and services
Access to services
Inpatient services
Recovery and rehabilitation

Discrimination and stigma
Engagement with users and carers
Availability of psychological therapies
Linking physical and mental health

Good on the college for launching this initiative.

The college has also warned today that people who smoke skunk are 18 times more likely to develop psychosis than those who use milder forms of cannabis. It's all to do with the relative proportions of THCs, which are linked to psychosis, and CBDs which protect against them. Skunk has lots of THCs but no CBDs.
 
Finally, Mondays are not the most depressing day of the week - in fact it is Wednesdays, says the Telegraph. Apparently it's because it's the furthest point from the weekend. However, the article rather contradicts itself by then pointing out that in fact no particular days are more inherently depressing than others. Mondays are not as bad as we think they are going to be and the weekend is not as exciting as we think it's going to be.

Frankly, I'm now confused and rather depressed.

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on July 2, 2008 4:16 PM.

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