Charity founder Louise Hallett explains why the death of footballer Dalian Atkinson shows us that how the police treat people with mental illness needs to change.

The mental health charity Hammersley Homes founder, asks for a change in how the police treat those suffering from mental health.

The Court reported that Mr Atkinson was suffering from some sort of psychotic episode at the time of his death brought on by a kidney condition.

 One of the two police officers on trial stated that Dalian, unarmed, appeared to be suffering mentally. 

Louise, who founded the charity in 2018, said: “The case of Dalian Atkinson is a tragic one.

Ms Hallett say that she believes that more needs to be done to protect those suffering from mental illness when they commit a crime.

They don’t have a criminal mind; they have a condition. 

” I spend much of my time campaigning for people with mental illnesses who commit crimes due to a psychotic episode.

Ms Hallett says that she thinks mental health sufferer should be directed to the mental health authorities rather than the police.

 “As one so often reads that they are in other countries like Norway, The Netherlands, Switzerland – or better still, if they could be safely housed with permanent support. 

When will we learn from our mistakes? 

When will we learn from other countries’ success stories?

She added: “I belong to a wonderful carer group, and this topic is often raised. 

“There’s supposed to be an Integrated Care Scheme in place bringing all the services like the NHS, Social Services, Housing and Police together.

“But it doesn’t work.  

“The police are not sufficiently trained in mental health care, nor are the prison workers or the Probation Services. 

“The system fails the most vulnerable amongst us in so many ways.

“Perhaps if there was a better system was in place, Dalian Atkinson and others like him might still be with us.”

Hammersley Homes and what they can offer mental health sufferers

Hammersley homes are currently raising funds to open their first supported home in Hampshire.

The aim is to provide a longer-term aim of developing this flexible model nationwide. 

Help with resident needs such as treatment compliance to help with cooking, cleaning, and laundry is available 24/7.

Hammersley is open to non residents with mental health problems enabling help with making new friends, activities and outings.

This week is World Mental Health Awareness Week and the focus is on sleep or the lack of it and its impact on our mental health.

Kalms are working to raise awareness of the ‘stress-sleep cycle’, and the impact that it can have on our mental health and wellbeing.

Mark Rowland, Chief Executive, said: “By understanding what affects our sleep, we can help protect the mental health of millions of people and also support recovery.”

“We want to start a national conversation about how we can all sleep better, and uncover the hidden mental health costs of the poor sleep that affects so many of us.”

One in 4 Britons reports that stress is the main contributing factor for losing sleep.

Stress is our body’s reaction to pressures from a situation or life event.

In many everyday cases, it can be seen as a normal reaction that helps keep us awake and alert, but when stress becomes excessive or persists over some time, the opposite happens.

The knock-on effects of stress can have a vast impact on our mental and physical wellbeing while disrupting the balance of hormones released.

Dr Irshaad Ebrahim, co-founder of The London Sleep Centre and neuropsychiatrist, comments; “When our internal neurochemical systems are working normally, they regulate biological processes like sleep, appetite, mood, and energy levels.

If we are stressed, the Adreno-Cortical System is dysregulated, and our energy sources are diverted, resulting in sleep disruption and mood changes.”

The persistence of stress can affect our ability to sleep. As we continue to accrue a sleep deficit – the cumulative effect of not getting enough sleep, our ability to concentrate worsens, mood drops, and productivity decreases, all of which can emphasize feelings of stress and anxiety.

Physical effects of stress can lead to a heightened risk of respiratory problems, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity.

Feeling stressed increases physiological and psychological arousal in ways that are incompatible with the conditions your body and mind need to enter a relaxed, restorative sleep.

This process repeats and a stress-sleep cycle is formed.

Dr. Irshaad Ebrahim explains; “Many peoples’ sleep issues are worsened through anticipatory stress, whereby we fear an outcome before the event has taken place.

When this happens repeatedly, a cycle begins to form.

The Stress Sleep Cycle

Here Dr. Irshaad Ebrahim shares his top 5 tips to help break the stress-sleep cycle:

1. “Ensure consistency with your bedtime routine.” Going to bed and waking up at the same time helps maintain the circadian rhythm – the body’s 24-hour internal clock.

2. “Switch off your electrical devices.” Bright lights before bed can stimulate us, again interfering with a person’s circadian rhythm. Turning off your electronic devices an hour before bedtime is a significant intervention to assist sleep – go on try it for two weeks!

3. “Consider trying a traditional herbal remedy (THR)”. Based on long-standing use as traditional herbal remedies, Kalms Night One-A-Night is used for temporary relief of sleep disturbances. In contrast, Kalms Day is used for the temporary relief of symptoms associated with stress. Both contain Valerian Root.

4. “Relax and clear your mind” Reducing cortisol levels, and in-turn stress levels, before we go to bed is a must. Try 15 minutes of meditation or breathing exercises beforehand to help decrease anxiety and promote relaxation.

5. “Exercise regularly – but not before bed” Physical activity is great for helping our body balance hormone levels, improving sleep, and reducing stress. It’s a great way to release endorphins and other chemicals in the brain, which reduces stress and regulates mood.

Kalms products

Kalms products are available to buy at most supermarkets and pharmacies to suit your needs.

Kalms Lavender
One-A-Day Capsules is a traditional herbal medicinal product used for the temporary relief of the symptoms of mild anxiety such as stress and nervousness, exclusively based on long-standing use as a traditional herbal remedy.

Kalms Night and Kalms Night One-A-Night
These are traditional herbal medicinal products used for the temporary relief of sleep disturbances, exclusively based on long-standing use as a traditional herbal remedy – Contains Valerian Root.

Kalms herbal
This is a traditional herbal medicinal product used for the temporary relief of; symptoms associated with stress such as mild anxiety and irritability exclusively based on long-standing use as a traditional herbal remedy.

Mental Health Awareness Week is the perfect chance to try out new remedies and techniques.

Have you ever tried Kalms? Share your thoughts below or on our social media pages.

December isn’t just the start of the Christmas countdown it’s also National Anger Awareness Week which encourages individuals to recognise the causes and symptoms of anger.

Christmas is one of the most stressful times of the year and this week aims to help schools and people in the workplace aware of counseling services and coping strategies available to stop difficult situations that arise.

This time of the year can put a strain on many families, for example, Where to spend the big day, plans for the festive period, being extra busy at work due to the Christmas break, money worries, and fighting anxiety when the shops are busy.

Mike Fisher, Founder of the British Association of Anger Management (BAAM) aims to bring awareness to the severity of the problem and the need for services to support sufferers and their families.

“National Anger Awareness Week encourages people to think about how anger impacts their lives and find ways to deal with this powerful feeling.

In fact, if channeled correctly anger can be a creative rather than a destructive force,” explains Fisher.

National Anger Awareness Week, now in its nineteenth year highlights the issues and offers ‘tools to cool’. “BAAM constantly monitors the causes of anger and we have noticed an increase in rage caused by unavoidable, everyday incidents such as traffic incidents, queue jumping, social media, and frustrations with modern technology.

We need to find ways to cope and with the media highlighting anger and rage in our leaders and media stars, none of us are immune from experiencing what it feels like to experience this behavior.”

The British Association of Anger Management (BAAM) provides free information on National Anger Awareness Week, nationwide anger management courses, and other resources aimed at supporting individuals, educators, and organisations deal with anger management issues.

Today is world mental health day 2019 where many of us are wearing yellow and posting messages to social media and raising awareness but how much has really changed since last year?

From a personal point of view, nothing has changed apart from the fact this time last year I was misdiagnosed with BPD by a junior Psychiatrist at Bolitho House in Penzance.

At least I was offered a CPN for a few sessions to revisit my CAT therapy, but no treatments since moving to the other end of the county.

I’ve had one session with a psychiatrist who thinks I have Bipolar 2 and not BPD and a letter from them saying I’ve refused help because of this which is lies.

I’ve phoned the mental health team at Trevillis House in Liskeard several times but I’ve heard nothing!

So since the last world mental health day, my treatment is worse.

Prince Harry and Ed Sheeran can put out as many videos as they want but for one day only.

Once a year is not enough, and wearing yellow for one day a year isn’t going to fix the millions of people who suffer from mental health.

Just like cancer and heart charities, more money and resources need to be pulled into mental health and more treatments need to be explored.

As a nation, we appear to be going round in circles year after year with the same old talk and treatments.

NHS England has promised mental health checks and treatment for the partners of pregnant women and new mothers who are themselves suffering from anxiety, depression, or psychosis.

Over the past few years, there has been a lot more media coverage on men suffering from depression.

I’ts estimated that 10% of new fathers experience anxiety or depression during the first six months after the birth of a baby.

Individuals who are ‘seriously unwell’ will be offered a range of interventions such as ‘peer-support, behavioral couples therapy sessions.

Other family and parenting interventions in specialist community perinatal mental health settings or referred to a leading psychological talking therapy programme’.

There has also been a lot of coverage on Children and mental health, especially here in Cornwall where they have recently opened a new Children’s mental health ward.

The Government has also confirmed plans to improve mental health support in schools and colleges.

This will be available from the new mental health support teams in 25 areas, starting with training for teams at seven universities across the UK and trailblazer sites serving 20% – 25% of England by 2023/24.

Each area will have one team providing support to up to 8,000 children and young people in 20 or so schools and colleges.

This will build on existing services, including what is available in the voluntary and education sectors, to support children and young people who have mild to moderate mental health issues and help those with more severe needs to access the right support and care.

Funding for senior mental health leads will come from the Department for Education.

NHS long term plans

The NHS Long Term Plan includes a strategy for supporting children and adults with autism from this month.

They will collect evidence from autistic children and adults, families, carers, and professionals on how to improve services and support, covering how to coordinate services for health, social care, and education; providing an earlier diagnosis; improving the transition to adult services; and increasing understanding of the different forms of autism.

It looks like the government could finally be accepting mental health as an illness after doing a U-turn over disability benefits.

Are you entitled to PIP? An article in the Guardian said: “Up to 164,000 people are in line for increased disability benefits after ministers gave in to a high court ruling that said government policy had been “blatantly discriminatory” against people with mental health conditions.”

Individuals with conditions such as severe anxiety and bipolar disorder who said they were too scared to leave the house and needed support to walk 200 metres, were told by the government that they weren’t entitled to PIP payments because they did not need a stick or a physical aid.

The new work and pensions secretary, Esther McVey’s decision overturns moves by ministers in spring 2017 to stop people qualifying for enhanced payments within the mobility component of PIP for reasons of “psychological distress”.

The decision left many disabled people angry as many disabled people lost money and after an outcry from campaigners who said those benefit recipients afflicted by “overwhelming psychological distress” were treated less favourably than other claimants as a result.

A challenge to the high court resulted in a judgment before Christmas last year, in which Mr. Justice Mostyn said: “In my judgment, the 2017 regulations introduced criteria … which were blatantly discriminatory against those with mental health impairments and which cannot be objectively justified.”

PIP has two parts, one for help with daily living, the other for mobility. The announcement now means that mental health sufferers can also apply for the mobility part.

To get the standard rate of £22 per week a person must score eight points at assessment.

Scoring 12 points entitle a person to the enhanced rate of £58 per week.

Many had expected Ms. McVey to appeal against the decision but instead, she asked the Department for Work and Pensions to begin an exercise going through all affected cases in receipt of PIP.

She also released a ministry statement that said: “We will then write to those individuals affected, and all payments will be backdated to the effective date in each individual claim.

I hope that by making this statement it is clear that the government is committed to improving the lives of people with mental health conditions.”

Ms. McVey’s comments could be a sign that the government is finally accepting mental health as a serious disability after years of failing to recognise it.

Let us know in the comment section or on our social media channels if you have been refused PIP or if you will be applying now that the rules have changed?

This week’s mental health news features stories on a Labour MP who reveals that a suicidal 10-year-old was denied mental health help four times and a musician who collects donations for mental health charity Mind at his concerts.

Labour Mp reveals that a 10-year-old suicidal child who was denied mental health treatment four times because he hadn’t attempted suicide; he didn’t meet their criteria for help.

Care Quality Commission inspector Dr Paul Lelliot, giving evidence to the cross-party committee on child and adult mental health service provision, said: “Many services were forced to come up with their thresholds for treatment as they do not have adequate resources”.

He added: “Many units miss both their own applied targets for waiting times, as well as the NHS statutory 18-week target”.

“What we hear from them is that it’s very often staffing levels that they take to be an issue,” he added: “We also find them managing very long waits by raising the threshold for taking young people on.

They will apply criteria and turn away referrals that don’t meet it.

Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, told the committee she had experienced families “pouring through the door” to talk about mental health since taking on the role nearly three years ago.

She added that she was “shocked” when teenagers as young as 13 told her they knew they would have to attempt suicide before they received any help.

Barbara Keeley, Labour’s shadow minister for mental health, said the situation was a result of government cuts to mental health services.

“The scandal of children being turned away from mental health treatment because they don’t meet thresholds of mental ill-health is a direct cause of the Tory government’s failure to protect mental health budgets,” she told Huffington Post UK.

Adult mental health isn’t much better, either. I contacted my GP about going back on the mental health team after being released without a diagnosis late last year. I attended an appointment back in May this year and saw a mental health assessor and a student.

I was told that I would hear back within a week either way only to attend an appointment with my GP last month who told me that the mental health lady I saw was leaving and that my notes had gone missing.

I’m still waiting now to see if they are going to give me a proper diagnosis and any more help.

George Ezra collects money for mental health charity “Mind” at his concerts

Musician George Ezra told NME that he is no exemption from mental health and that he has started raising money for the charity “Mind” at his concerts.

After addressing his battles with anxiety on recent single ‘Don’t Matter Now‘, the singer-songwriter will be playing a special London charity show at London’s Union Chapel next month in aid of the charity the mental health charity MIND.

He also revealed that when he went on tour earlier this year, he decided to test run collecting for the charity at his shows.

The donations made by fans blew him away. They managed to raise over two grand in two weeks!

He said: “Since then I’ve been plotting different ways to help the charity, and the upcoming show felt like the perfect way to end the year with MIND. I will, of course, continue to collect at shows too.”

A budget for mental health

The final budget of the year is about to be announced but is it a budget for mental health?

At the beginning of the year, the Government showed promise when they made some much-needed commitments to boost mental health service spending and support.

To deliver the NHS’s Five Year Forward View for Mental Health, published last year, the Government pledged that an extra £1 billion would be spent on mental health services by 2020/21. And second, it has pledged to spend £1.4 billion spread over five years (2015-2020) to improve children and young people’s mental health services.

A Budget for better mental health would make sure that schools had the right help and support to build children’s emotional health and wellbeing – from training teachers to be more confident talking about mental health to providing counselling and other support services when students (or staff) need them.

It would ensure people with mental health difficulties who are unable to work and have to claim benefits had enough money coming in to live. And it would invest urgently in mental health support throughout the criminal justice system, including prisons and probation.

The Looneychick Vlog has finally launched

The Looneychick has finally plucked up the courage to vlog after kick-starting the YouTube channel at the beginning of November.

We hope that this channel will educate and inform people about mental health matters by giving you a glimpse of what it’s like to live with mental health.

We also hope that it will end the stigma and encourage people to see the person and not the illness, no matter how challenging and frightening life gets.

Remember to subscribe to The Looneychick Vlogs by smashing that button.

If you have any mental health news and updates that you would like to share with us comment below, email admin@looneychickblog.co.uk or take part in our discussions on our social media channels.

There has been a lot of talk about mental health funding and facilities it needs in the UK.

Over the past few days, there has been a lot of positive talk within the media surrounding the future of mental health patients in the UK.

Mental health funding and facilities in the country are almost non exsistant in terms of therapies and treatments and the forever growing list of sufferers is increasing year on year.

The Huffington Post printed an article that said that “Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt recently announced a plan that aims to see 21,000 more mental health workers recruited over the next five years.

Put together by Health Education England; it’s hoped that the recruitment of thousands of additional nurses, therapists, and consultants over the next five years will benefit an extra one million people who need support from mental health services by 2020-21.”

This is encouraging news for mental health patients as the current system for patients with mental health is non-existent, and with 1 in 4 people rumored to be suffering from mental illness in the UK, this is appalling.

My personal experiences with the Mental Health team are terrible; you have to wait months to see someone then you finally see a CPN and they tell you that you don’t have an illness such as bipolar.

The Psychiatrist only saw me twice in the year that I was on the mental health team and told me that I might have Adjustment disorder and a personality disorder and that they can’t rule out bipolar, despite the CPN ruling this out.

The Psychiatrist told me that he couldn’t be sure because they haven’t seen you enough.

What’s worse is the fact that they give you a written report and end up getting that wrong as well, and then they tell third parties about you without your written permission.

After 11 CAT therapy sessions, I was released from the mental health team, and my GP said that this was because of NHS funding cuts.

I was put back on the mental health team back in May and told by an assessor that they would be in touch within a week. It’s now August, and I still haven’t heard anything.

With more NHS funding available and more staff recruited, hopefully, more treatments will become available as it’s clear that the current therapies and treatments aren’t working.

Fewer people would have mental health problems. Why isn’t mental health treated the same as any other illness?

Therapies and treatments should be available in NHS hospitals not being hidden away a back street run-down buildings or old run-down hospitals.

When you walk into a hospital, there should be a sign directing people to mental health facilities.

I’m hoping that with the new plans that the government said that they would put into place actually happen and we will see people recover as a result of new therapies, treatments, and medications due to more research on mental health.

As for acceptance, mental health still has a way to go; many people are still bullied, criminalised, and fired due to their health.

In 2017, this shouldn’t be happening, but the reality is that it is still happening and by 2020-2021, let’s get this stigma put to bed.

What are your thoughts on mental health funding and facilites? Do you think they are adequent enough?

Please share your thoughts with us, if you have a story to tell and would like to remain anonymous email admin@looneychickblog.co.uk.