Mental Health Act Annual Report

Care Quality Commission (2013). Monitoring the mental health act in 2011/12.
This report provides detailed information on the application of the Mental Health Act in England and the Commission worked with health professionals and patients detained under the Mental Health Act in gathering their evidence. The key findings include:

• the number of people detained is rising
• services are under pressure
• most of the concerns from their previous report remain valid e.g. little evidence of consent to treatment, or patients being fully informed
• cultures of control and containment continue to dominate over concerns for treatment and support for individuals

The Commission make a number of recommendations to policy makers, mental health trusts and NHS stakeholders.

Parliamentary inquiry into asylum support for children and young people

The publication of the Report of the Parliamentary Inquiry into Asylum Support for Children and Young People, on 30.1.13, provided a damning account of the treatment of asylum seeking families. 

"We believe that successive governments have failed children by delivering an 

asylum support system that keeps children in poverty, leads to dependency on 

the state and denies asylum seeking families the resources they need to meet 

their needs. Not only must the levels of support be increased to make sure no 

child is condemned to poverty, but many other aspects of the asylum support 

system which prevent children and families from having a dignified existence 

need to be addressed. We hope that the government will consider our report and 

recommendations." (Children's Society).

Nine benchmarks to test social work decision making

Andy McNicoll, writing in the Community Care magazine  Social Work Blog offers a nine point framework against which to measure decision making in social work. The nine characteristics were developed in the 1980s, but may still prove useful for reflective social work practice.

Pocket Guides from BASW

BASW have produces 5 downloadable pocket guides with basic information, hints and tips for practicing professionals and students of social work. The guides are:

• Alcohol and other drugs
• Children families and alcohol use
• Mental health and substance use
• Alcohol and older people
• Young people and alcohol

PDFs for all five can be downloaded from the link above.

A rapid literature review of evidence on child abuse linked to faith or belief

This publication from the Childhood Wellbeing Research Centre, funded by the Department for Education (England and Wales), is a small scale review of previous research conducted to collate information for future policy. The review looked at the incidence and characteristics of child abuse linked to faith or belief in the UK and some other countries, looked to identify good practice in the identification and reduction of such abuse and sought to define gaps in the evidence base where further research may be helpful. The main sources of information were Stobart’s analysis of Metropolitan Police cases (2006; 2009) and the more recent (as yet unpublished) research from La Fontaine (2012). The review includes evidence on "witchcraft and spirit possession" related cases and also "ritual and satanic abuse".

10 Skills Every Social Worker Needs

A succinct article for social workers from the University of Southern California. All skills transferable across the big pond.

Childhood Adversity and Adult Brain Function

My attention was drawn to the Neuroscience 2012 conference, held in New Orleans this week, 13th-17th October, by a report in the Guardian newspaper 16 October 2012, summarising some of the presentations for the lay reader. One presentation from Eric Pakulak, University of Oregon, found that children from poorer homes grew into adults with poorer working memory adverse conditions in childhood. Work by Pakulak on the mechanism involved in this has been used to devise teaching interventions which can help to improve bahaviour and cognition of school pupils.
I include a link to the abstracts section of the Conference website for further information.