CHILD MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES Food for Thought
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The Journal of the Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association MARCH 2017 VOLUME 90 / NO. 3 CHILD MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES Food for thought Practical guidance Seeing the unseen Hygiene matters Making a business case Modern slavery and Beating bugs with for your service how you can help a new scheme communitypractitioner.com | unitetheunion.org/cphva 1 COVER FINAL.indd 1 01/03/2017 15:13 GROW Electronic Paediatric Growth Chart Solution iGrow was put in place and links very neatly to the electronic records. When iGrow came on line, I was initially sceptical as to how easy it would be to use. From “WKHÀUVWWLPH,WULHGLWKRZHYHU,IRXQGLW extremely easy to navigate and really very intuitive. Entering data is painless and quick and it is impressive to see the new plots appearing almost instantly on the relevant chart. I’d say that it is as quick as plotting measurements on the paper charts, but with the very real bonus that there is less margin for error than with the paper charts, where there is always a ULVNWKDWDVHWRIPHDVXUHPHQWVZLOOEHSORWWHGLQFRUUHFWO\ Because my special interest is in neurodisability, it is DOVRZRQGHUIXOWKDWP\FRKRUWRIFKLOGUHQZKRKDYH 7KHXQDQLPRXVIHHGEDFNIURPP\ Down Syndrome is catered for, with an electronic colleagues re the iGrow system is that it has YHUVLRQRIWKHVSHFLÀFFKDUWIRUFKLOGUHQZLWKWKHV\QGURPH GHÀQLWHO\EHHQDSRVLWLYHPRYH The product is extremely satisfying to use. “ IRU iGrow operates well linked to our EDM and it Many thanks to you and all the team at Harlow SRSXODWHVWKHGHPRJUDSKLFGDWDIURP('0ZHOO having developed it. We value the way in which the corrected age LVFDOFXODWHGDQGSORWWHGIRUSUHWHUPLQIDQWV« Marian McGowan much easier and reliable than the manual ” Consultant Paediatrician method. St. George’s Hospital Dr Yogi Thakker Consultant” Paediatrician Milton Keynes Community Health Services A try before you buy version is available online. Although fully functional, the demonstration site is not NHS secure so please dod not use real patient data during your assessment. Free Trial SimplyS go to www.igrow-software.com CreateC your user name and password for a full and free 30 day access. If you wish to discuss the application please contact one of our specialist iGrow team on: 0191 4554286 p02.CPMARCH16.indd 2 24/02/2017 16:32 Contents Volume 90 Number 3 EDITORIAL 5 Keeping health in mind NEWS 6 A look at the latest stories in public health 28 10 The most recent research from the professions 12 A sign of the times? OPINION 14 Head of health Sarah Carpenter sets out NHS plans to tackle bullying in the workplace 15 A mother describes her experiences with loneliness 16 To save our public health services, we must provide the evidence that they’re needed, says QNI chief executive Crystal Oldman 18 Meet the health sector candidates for Unite’s executive council election COVER STORY 20 We asked, you told – a summary of results from 28 When rhetoric 48 A selection of useful dates our reader survey meets reality: for your professional diary why are mental health FEATURES services for children and LAST WORD 22 Rima Evans looks at the adolescents so lacking? 49 Sue Ashmore, director of ways in which practitioners Phil Harris asks why the Baby Friendly Initiative can present a business case our youngest and most at Unicef UK, discusses for their service vulnerable are having to why we need to start ask for more changing the conversation around breastfeeding 34 With nine out of 10 women now smoke-free 42 when their baby is born, the figures are going the 37 Modern slavery continues right way but there’s still to be a real and more work to do, as the widespread problem, but Smoking in Pregnancy public health nurses can Challenge Group explains help to identify victims and combat the crime, as 14 Helen Bird discovers 49 42 Public Health England is piloting an educational 22 course to increase awareness around hygiene, self-care and antibiotic use in the community. We find 26 Join the fight at this special out more lobbying event in parliament CRISFORD CHLOE COVER: March 2017 Community Practitioner 3 3 S.indd 3 01/03/2017 15:16 NEW VITAMIN D CPD MODULE HOW TO ASSESS AND TACKLE VITAMIN D DEFICIENCIES The CPD module will: • Introduce vitamin D: what it does in the body, where we find • Offer practical advice to identify children who may be at it in the diet and the consequences of vitamin D deficiency for risk of vitamin D deficiency, and suggest ways to improve children’ health children’s vitamin D status • Describe the latest advice on vitamin D • Provide figures on vitamin D intakes and prevalence of deficiency in UK children using the National Diet and Nutrition Visit: hub.communitypractitioner.com for Survey (NDNS), a government rolling survey of the UK population further information on the module. Wp04.CPMARCH16.indd 2 24/02/2017 16:24 EDITORIAL Keeping health in mind Unite/CPHVA Existing Unite/CPHVA members with queries Welcome to the March issue of Community Practitioner. relating to their membership should contact 0845 850 4242 or see unitetheunion.org/ contact_us.aspx for further details. To join Unite/CPHVA, see I’ll always remember when my brother Chris was diagnosed with unitetheunion.org Tourette’s syndrome. Our mum had to look up the condition using Unite-CPHVA is based at 128 Theobald’s Road, London WC1X 8TN our dial-up internet connection, since neither the GP nor the 020 3371 2006 community mental health team nurse was able to give us much Community Practitioner information. And all the while my poor, 17-year-old brother was Unite-CPHVA members receive the journal free scared and bewildered by his symptoms, which included both each month. Non-members and institutions may subscribe to the journal to receive it. physical and vocal tics. He was being bullied at school as a result of Non-member subscription rates his ‘diff erent’ behaviour and had become depressed. It was 1997. Individual (UK) £125 Twenty years later and Tourette’s is far more widely known among Individual (rest of world) £145 Institution (UK) £145 the public and healthcare professionals, so I would hope that no Institution (rest of world) £195 teenager, nor their family, would have to face such a dearth of knowledge, understanding and Subscription enquiries may be made to support today. But it begs the question: what must it have been like 20 years before that? Community Practitioner subscriptions There’s no doubt that awareness of mental health issues across the board, but particularly in Redactive Publishing Ltd PO Box 35 children and young people, has improved hugely in recent years. But I fear that the support these Robertsbridge TN32 5WN vulnerable groups so badly need is still severely lacking – a concern that we outline in this issue’s t: 01580 883844 [email protected] cover feature on page 28. At the age of 37 my brother continues to need support, and despite his The journal is published on behalf of job as a support worker on a psychiatric ward, he still struggles to access it. Unite-CPHVA by Redactive Media Group, When will mental health reach the elusive ‘parity of esteem’ status that politicians often 17 Britton Street, London EC1M 5TP 020 7880 6200 promise? So many times I’ve wondered with sheer frustration, whether his condition, which Editorial Advisory Board now incorporates severe obsessive compulsive disorder and body dysmorphia, would be so Obi Amadi, Surrinder Bains, Lucretia overlooked if there were obvious physical manifestations. As our feature points out, while the Baptiste, Louise Condon, Toity Deave, Barbara Evans, Gavin Fergie, Elaine political rhetoric around mental health is there, the current reality far from matches it. Haycock-Stuart, Brenda Poulton, Onto more positive developments, you’ll see on page 20 a summary of fi ndings from our Janet Taylor readership survey. I’d like to thank all of you who took the time to participate and guide us on Editorial Team what you think about Community Practitioner. And don’t worry if you didn’t have a chance to Emma Godfrey-Edwards, Managing Editor [email protected] submit your feedback before the deadline: you can send me an email any time to Helen Bird, Editor [email protected] with your comments and I’d be glad to hear from you. [email protected] 020 7324 2757 One of the fi ndings that stood out was your thoughts and preferences around the delivery Chloe Crisford, Picture Editor of professional papers. As I mentioned in the January issue, we have held back from publishing Nicholas Daley, Designer any papers while the survey was ongoing. Now that the results are in, we’ve made a decision Unite Health Sector Officers based on the majority opinion to repackage professional papers into a shorter, more digestible National Officers: Sarah Carpenter and Colenzo Jarrett-Thorpe format for the pages of the printed journal, with a link to access the longer form version online. Lead Professional Officers: Obi Amadi; Gavin All authors who have submitted papers will be contacted in due course and we plan to start Fergie; Rosalind Godson; Dave Munday; Jane Beach; and Ethel Rodrigues publishing the newly formatted papers from the April issue onwards, so watch this space. In the meantime, a date has now been confi rmed for the ‘Love Your Health Visitor/School Advertising queries Alex Edwards Nurse’ lobbying event at the House of Commons. Turn to page 26 for further details, and make 020 7324 2735/[email protected] sure you mark 26 April in your diaries – it promises to be an historic day. Production Jane Easterman 020 7880 6248/[email protected] Printed by Warners © 2017 Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association ISSN 1462-2815 The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the editor nor of Unite-CPHVA.