Well Being Nurses For Mental Health Services

August 18th 2006

Mental health services are to start hiring "well-being" nurses to work with their patients, it was announced yesterday.

The government announced plans for a drive to boost the physical health of the mentally ill - who tend to suffer from high rates of heart disease and diabetes.

They are also four times as likely as others to die from lung and other related diseases.

Some £7 million will be divided between 88 primary care trusts to employ the first of the specialist nurses.

The department of health said the idea had been tested successfully in eight areas over the last two years.

Health minister Rosie Winterton said: "Your mental and physical health are both equally important; the state of one affects the other.

"We know that that people with severe mental health problems are more likely to die prematurely because of poor physical health, and we also know that physical activity and a balanced diet can help to maintain and protect people’s mental well-being.

"This means making patients more aware of the healthy choices they can make and providing them with the support they need to improve their health."

Public health, training hit by cash crisis - claim
Public health and training are being hammered to enable the NHS to balance its books, it was claimed today.

An analysis of the latest NHS financial projections - which predict break even - shows the savings come from primary care trusts, according to the Health Service Journal.

The analysis shows the deficit of nearly £900 million faced by some 120 trusts wll be offset in part by a new £350 million contingency fund and another £415 million also delivered by the new strategic health authorities.

The journal said this budget was allocated to public health, medical education and clinical training and was devolved to strategic health authorities for the first time this year.

Professor Rod Griffiths, president of the faculty of public health, told the journal: "I’m very disappointed that something as important as this has been so clumsily managed. The overspends have not been caused by community medicine; it is poor commissioning and poor management of acute services."

A department of health spokesman said SHAs would use local knowledge for "better targeting and management of resources".

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