The Health News United Kingdom March 23 2018

• Tracey Crouch, Minister for Sport and Civil Society HAS unveiled the first Mental Health Action Plan for Elite Sport, which has been developed with mental health and sports organisations to improve awareness and training in top-level sport. A new mental health strategy will be implemented across all elite sports to promote good mental wellbeing and give athletes and National Governing Bodies better information about accessing sports and clinical psychologists.
• More than one million NHS staff, including nurses, porters and paramedics, are being offered increases of at least 6.5% over three years – with some getting as much as 29%.
  The deal has been formally agreed by union leaders and ministers on Wednesday and will cost £4.2bn. Staff will now be asked to vote on the deal, with rises backdated to April if they agree by the summer.
• A new report has shown that drugs to vaccinate everyone over the age of fifty against Alzheimer’s could be available within ten years, but would cost the NHS £9 billion. New analysis commissioned by Alzheimer’s Research UK found that drugs to halt, slow or reverse the disease could be available in as little as 3 years with major vaccine and screening programmes possible within a decade.
  

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 23rd of March 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

http://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/government-unveils-mental-health-action-plan-elite-sportspeople

Tracey Crouch, Minister for Sport and Civil Society HAS unveiled the first Mental Health Action Plan for Elite Sport, which has been developed with mental health and sports organisations to improve awareness and training in top-level sport. A new mental health strategy will be implemented across all elite sports to promote good mental wellbeing and give athletes and National Governing Bodies better information about accessing sports and clinical psychologists.

By two thousand twenty four, elite sport must have mental health procedures embedded in their performance plans, and provide clear pathways for athletes to help them access professional mental health support. National Lottery Funded athletes will also be encouraged to visit mental health units to improve discussions and help break down the stigma around mental health.  Good mental health practise will also be embedded at a grassroots level as part of the plan. Sport England will ingrain mental wellbeing into its Talent Strategy and teach holistic athlete development, and mental health welfare alongside physical training.

The Action Plan was developed after the Minister hosted two roundtables last year one with elite athletes from across British sport to hear firsthand the pressures they face and the other for sports and mental health organisations to discuss how the sector can improve support, and share best practice.

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Progress has been made to break down the stigma around mental health and this plan underlines the commitment to tackling this important issue in sport. It will help create a stronger industry where our elite sports men and women can continue to thrive and inspire future generations.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-43481341

More than one million NHS staff, including nurses, porters and paramedics, are being offered increases of at least six point five percent over three years – with some getting as much as twenty nine percent. The deal has been formally agreed by union leaders and ministers on Wednesday and will cost four point two billion pounds.

Staff will now be asked to vote on the deal, with rises backdated to April if they agree by the summer. The deal is tiered with the lowest-paid in each job receiving the biggest rise.
The agreement covers all staff on the Agenda for Change contract – about one point three million across the UK – which is the entire workforce with the exception of doctors, dentists and senior leaders. The agreement is complex. It means that: half will get a six point five percent pay rise over three years;  the other half will receive rises of between nine percent and twenty nine percent because they are not at the top of their pay bands; the lowest full-time salary – paid to the likes of cleaners, porters and catering staff – will rise by fifteen percent to more than eighteen thousand pounds.

Sara Gorton, lead negotiator for the health unions, said: “It won’t solve every problem in the NHS but it will go a long way towards making dedicated health staff feel more valued, lift flagging morale and help turn the tide on staffing problems.”
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The Royal College of Nursing claims average pay for nurses has fallen by more than fourteen percent in real terms since two thousand ten. Statistics obtained by the BBC from NHS Digital showed thirty three thousand nurses walked away in two thousand seventeen, piling pressure on understaffed hospitals and community services. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the cost of the rise would be covered by the Treasury rather than coming out of the NHS budget.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2018/03/21/drugs-vaccinate-over-50s-against-alzheimers-could-decadewith/

A new report has shown that drugs to vaccinate everyone over the age of fifty against Alzheimer’s could be available within ten years, but would cost the NHS nine billion pounds.
New analysis commissioned by Alzheimer’s Research UK found that drugs to halt, slow or reverse the disease could be available in as little as three years with major vaccine and screening programmes possible within a decade.

But dementia experts warned that demand from patients would be ‘instant and huge’ and called on the NHS to act now to make sure funds were in place for when the breakthroughs occurred.
Hilary Evans, chief executive of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “With over one million people expected to be living with dementia by two thousand twenty five, we have a duty to ensure that people with dementia and their families can benefit from innovations in new treatments in the coming years.”
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The charity commissioned experts at the London School of Economics to model the impact of five hypothetical Alzheimer’s treatments. Currently, there is no “disease modifying” treatment available that can alter the progress of Alzheimer’s. The most patients can hope for is something lessons the symptoms, and temporarily boosts thinking and memory skills. But the twelve drugs coming through the pharma pipeline could provide a lifeline for patients.  
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The report estimates that a vaccine could prevent around seventy percent of Alzheimer’s cases.
The researchers said there could come a time when all Britain’s twenty nine point five million over fifties were given vaccines and booster medication to ward off Alzheimer’s.
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The report said effective vaccine delaying onset of the disease for at least three years would be expected to wipe twelve point seven billion pounds off the total twenty six billion pounds per year that dementia costs the UK economy.