ReadingLIST

25 June 2024
Campaigners Rethink Mental Illness have pulled together a summary of pledges made about mental health in this year's crop of manifestos.
All parties are promising some kind of reform of mental health services for young people, the LibDems, Greens and Tories claiming they will provide every school with direct professional support. Labour promises to open walk-in hubs for children and young people in every community. The Reform party will seek to link mental health services to job seeking pathways, aiming to 'motivate' up to 2 million poeple back to work, their focus being on 16-34 year olds. See the full rundown at rethink.org.

18 June 2024
Psychotherapist and author Moya Sarner has come to a striking realization: our instinct to comfort those in distress may be more about self-preservation than altruism. Sarner posits that when we urge others to "cheer up," we might actually be expressing our own discomfort with their misery, essentially saying, "I can't handle your pain." Instead, she suggests a more empathetic approach—recognizing and accepting these painful emotions as a fundamental aspect of the human experience, and offering a comforting presence, perhaps with a hug, when needed.
Read the full article in The Guardian.

03 June 2024
Despite the World Health Organization (WHO) declassifying homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1990, gay conversion therapy remains permissible in Italy, reports the BBC's Davide Ghiglione. Ghiglione recounts the harrowing experience of Rosario Lonegro, who, after joining a Catholic seminary in Sicily as a young man, was coerced into undergoing conversion therapy when his sexual orientation was revealed.
Read the full story on The BBC News website.

01 June 2024
Auvelity, a relatively new drug marketed by US pharamceutical company Axsome has already been used to treat 72,000 people suffering depression, reports Andy Extance in The Observer. It is a combination of the psychedelic compound dextromethorphan and buproprion, which inhibits its hallucinogenic effects.
While the therapeutic mechanism isn't entirely clear, it's believed that the growth of prefrontal cortex neurons triggered by psychedelics may lie at the heart of the success of this form of drug. Read the full story on The Guardian website.

31 May 2024
This is the claim made by Abena Oppong-Asare, Labour's sitting MP and election candidate for Erith and Thamesmead in The New Statesman.
She says 'The Conservatives' approach to mental health is not only characterised by a lack of investment, de-prioritisation and broken promises, but increasingly by a reckless tendency to blame everyone else, including health professionals and patients themselves.' Read more on the The New Statesman website.

30 May 2024
Primary schools in Northern Ireland have benefitted from counselling services provided by Barnardo's Time 4 Me school counselling programme. However, due to a lack of funding for the Barnado's service this support will be withdrawn at the end of the current school term.
Parents and school leaders have told the BBC beneficial this service has been and how its withdrawal will impact their children. Read more on the BBC News website