A shared care agreement has been developed by NHS South East London, Bromley, Bexley and Greenwich Business Support Units and Oxleas.

 

The agreement suggests ways in which the responsibilities for managing the prescribing of Donepezil, Galantamine, Rivastigmine and Memantine for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease can be shared between the specialist and GP. 

 

GPs are invited to participate. If GPs are not confident to undertake this role, they are under no obligation to do so. In such an event, the clinical responsibility for the patient for the diagnosed condition remains with the specialist. If a specialist asks a GP to prescribe this drug, the GP should reply to this request as soon as practicable.

 

This agreement formalises the structure that enables GPs to work with Oxleas services to provide the most effective way of treating people with dementia, with medicines that preserve abilities and skills for as long as possible. It is important that GPs share prescribing with Oxleas services as almost all trust patients are on several medicines and it is essential that both services always have a complete list of all medicines being given. It will also allow some increase in the capacity of the Memory Service to see more new referrals for assessment and diagnosis of memory problems.

 

To read the new Alzheimer's disease shared care agreement, please click here.

 

 

Service Manager Angus Gartshore

Care, Compassion and Engagement is a new initiative within Acute Adult Services. 

 

 

 

In February 2012, a joint bid for a Psychiatric Liaison Service was successfully submitted to Bromley Commissioning Group by Oxleas'

Patients and staff enjoy Big Summer Dance at Green Parks House

The Oxleas Big Summer Dance took place recently - kicking off with a dance workshop for patients and staff at Green Parks House, Bromley's mental health inpatient unit.

 

A symbolic 'torch' represented the symbol of the forthcoming Olympics. The 'torch' was used as a container to gather comments from workshop participants on what they enjoyed about the experience. 

 

Big Summer Dance provided a safe space for the participants facilitated by occupational therapy staff and service user volunteers from each of the acute units, working alongside professional dance artists.

 

 

A quarter of young people (26%) have said that the stigma attached to their mental illness has made them want to give up on life, according to new statistics released by the mental health anti-stigma programme Time to Change, which is run by the charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness. 

 

And 27% of young people with mental health problems under the age of 25 say that the discrimination they face as a result has also made them give up on their life's ambitions. The survey was commissioned by Time to Change as it launches a new anti-stigma campaign aimed at encouraging young people to help tackle the taboo surrounding mental health problems.

One in 10 children and young people will experience a mental health problem. The new research also highlights that much of the stigma that young people face comes from those who you would expect to turn to first at a time of need, including friends (70%), siblings (35%) and 

 

Read more
 

 

Oxleas has developed a programme to work with care homes to enable them to develop a care pathway for people with dementia who are showing signs of distress. 

 

Oxleas recently helped to set up a temporary Liaison Team with the A&E Department at the Princess Royal University Hospital, to provide psychiatric assessment to those patients where there were concerns about memory. 

 

 

The trust is working in partnership with the Medical Centre, Maidstone to provide these services in Her Majesty's Prisons at Maidstone, Blantyre House and East Sutton Park, and in addition, the service also supports specialist psychiatric units in Maidstone and Dartford.

 

In 2010, Oxleas began providing mental health services in eight Kent prisons and the Dover Detention Centre.

 

This new contract supports the trust's commitment to providing the best healthcare, whether it be physical or mental health, to service users in prisons and forensic units. A full range of physical healthcare services in addition to the mental health services already provided by Oxleas are available.

To flag up some of the issues faced by people with a learning disability each beautifully decorated cake included key information about LD - on a carefully inserted flag. This included facts such as: people with LD accounted for three emergency admissions per month at the PRUH; 32% of admissions were for longer than 14 days; 26% of people with LD are admitted to hospital each year; and 46% - 52% of people with LD die of respiratory diseases. 

Easy-to-read and accessible information about health conditions and procedures, including accessible guides to cervical screening, hospital stays and ultrasound scans can be accessed and printed from Oxleas' website. They can be found here.

 

There is also guidance on health checks for GPs available, as well as accessible appointment letters and easy read health check information here.

If you have any feedback, comments, suggestions or questions regarding Fusion or any Oxleas services, please contact us.