People with mental health difficulties, ranging from severe mental illnesses such as bipolar and schizophrenia, to those with more common mental health issues, including anxiety and depression, are to benefit from expanded mental health services backed by £500 million as part of the government’s Mental Health Recovery Action Plan.

The plan aims to respond to the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of the public, specifically targeting groups which have been most impacted including those with severe mental illness, young people, and frontline staff.

Under the plan NHS talking therapies (IAPT services) which offer confidential treatment of conditions such as anxiety, depression and PTSD will expand, supporting 1.6 million people to access services in 2021/22, backed by an additional £38 million.

Additional therapists will also be trained to support those with more complex mental health needs as a result of the pandemic.

People living with severe mental illness will also benefit from enhanced mental services in the community, backed by £58 million for better, joined up support between primary and secondary care, including specialist mental health staff embedded in primary care. The funding will accelerate expansion and transformation of community mental health services, enabling people with severe mental illnesses to access psychological therapies, improved physical health care, employment support, personalised and trauma-informed care, medicines management and support for self-harm.

One-off initiatives will receive funding to tackle the impact of COVID-19 on mental health and learning disability and autism services and to support groups who have disproportionately been affected by the pandemic.

Funding will also be used to help level up mental health and wellbeing across the country in the most deprived local authority areas in England, supporting prevention activities like debt advice, carers support, outreach to people facing loneliness and isolation, youth projects and community groups.

One-off, new initiatives to support mental health recovery from the pandemic include:

• £15 million to help level up mental health and wellbeing across the country through funding initiatives to promote positive mental health in the most deprived local authority areas in England – eligible local authorities will receive around £500,000 each to fund prevention activities like debt advice, carers support, outreach to people facing loneliness and isolation, youth projects and community groups for those most affected by COVID-19 including minority ethnic communities.
• £13 million to ensure young adults aged 18 to 25, including university students, are supported with tailored mental health services, helping bridge the gap between children’s and adult services – this funding will ensure services are better able to meet the needs of this group as a result of the pandemic, reducing the likelihood of needing hospital treatment in the future.
• £14 million to support the physical health of people living with severe mental illness, through schemes encouraging them to come forward for physical health checks to help spot the signs of conditions like diabetes and heart disease, and get their COVID-19 vaccine.
• £17 million to support recovery of the dementia diagnosis rate and tackle the backlog of appointments as a result of the pandemic.
• £2.5 million to pilot new approaches to support children who have experienced complex trauma.
• £2.5 million to boost a pilot supporting offenders with significant mental health needs, to divert them away from custodial sentences, and help them to access the support they need through Mental Health Treatment Requirements.
• £31 million to support learning disability and autism services, to address the diagnostic backlog as a result of the pandemic, and support intervention to prevent children and young people with learning disability, autism or both escalating into crisis.
• £3 million to begin preparations for implementing the Mental Health Act Reform, increasing capacity in the workforce and laying the groundwork for broader reforms including testing ways to improve the quality of care and provide culturally appropriate advocacy.
• £5 million to support suicide prevention through voluntary and community sector organisations.

The Recovery Action Plan highlights further initiatives to place mental health at the centre of government policy, including through the development and testing of a ‘Mental Health Impact Assessment’ for all new policies, and continuation of the Ministerial group examining the impacts of the pandemic on mental health and wellbeing. This group has overseen a range of cross-government initiatives, such as the Wellbeing for Education Return scheme launched last September.

In addition, all government departments are committing to promote Public Health England’s Psychological First Aid training to their workers and volunteers to develop their skills and confidence in providing support to those affected by COVID-19. These free online training modules help people develop their skills and confidence in providing key psychological support on issues such as job worries, bereavement or isolation.

To support NHS mental health services in the longer term, £111 million will be invested to train the workforce of the future, which will ensure staff are in place to support two million more people access NHS mental health care and treatment by 2023/24.

Support for frontline workers also remains a key priority, says the government, and an additional £10 million will be invested to support the mental health of the workforce in the wake of the pandemic. This is on top of support put in place by NHS England, including a dedicated confidential staff support line operated by the Samaritans, and a £15 million investment to strengthen mental health support for NHS staff during the second wave.

COVID-19 Recovery Full Plan

Its surprising how many premises rely on LPG tanks to supply gas to premises. Let’s not forget what happened at the ICL/Stockline factory in Maryhill, Glasgow in 2004 resulting in 9 fatalities and many injuries. The cause of the explosion was gas leaking from a buried carbon steel pipe due to external corrosion. This accumulated in an unvented basement of the building until an explosive mixture was present and a source of ignition led to its detonation. The pipe was carrying propane vapour from a storage vessel in the yard into the building and its condition had never been assessed since its installation some 35 years previously.

An inquiry into the explosion was carried out by Lord Gill and the results published as The ICL Inquiry Report.

A major conclusion is that all buried metallic pipework carrying LPG vapour at commercial and industrial premises should be replaced by polyethylene piping. This will be carried out on a prioritised basis following a timetable agreed between HSE and UKLPG with the oldest pipework in the least well-maintained condition and located in the most corrosive soils being replaced first.

This SAFed Guidance sets out what to do when inspection work is carried out on LPG installations with buried metallic vapour pipework.

Road safety organisation, GEM Motoring Assist is calling for new ways of assessing whether a driver is medically fit to hold a licence.

The call supports the latest report issued by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), which criticises current approaches to assessing driver medical fitness.

GEM is urging individual drivers to ensure they take responsibility for their own safety and fitness to drive. Family members should also be wise to the early signs of unsafe driving in their senior relatives, says GEM.

The starting point for establishing fitness to drive in the UK – and in many other European countries – is still an assessment based on age, despite studies showing that specific medical conditions, substance abuse, mental disorders, epilepsy and diabetes are also important factors when it comes to medical fitness to drive, according to GEM.

Neil Worth, GEM chief executive, said: “This report confirms that mandatory age-based screening of older drivers is ineffective in preventing severe collisions.

“It is concerning that the only requirement in law for anyone aged over 70 is to declare every three years that they are fit to drive.”

GEM says that an age-based self-certification system should be replaced by regular medical examinations for drivers of all ages, with checks on eyesight, hearing, vision, and blood pressure.

Worth added: “However, in the absence of an effective re-testing framework, it’s vital that we each take responsibility for our own safety.

“We want as many people as possible to enjoy the freedom of the open road as drivers, but safety must be the priority.”

GEM also warned fleet managers of the ‘increased likelihood’ of distracted driving when drivers get behind the wheel again amid the lifting of Coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

New research from Brake, the road safety charity, and the insurer Direct Line, has revealed that stress and anger behind the wheel has increased since the first national lockdown, in March 2020, and that drivers themselves admit that these negative moods are having a detrimental effect on their driving behaviour.

The findings, published in the partnership’s new ‘Driving behaviour’ report (see below), highlights that in March of this year, nine in ten drivers admitted to feeling stressed or angry when behind the wheel, an increase of 6% on figures from March 2020, when the UK entered its first lockdown. Troublingly, more than one in ten drivers now say they feel stressed or angry every time they are behind the wheel, up 3% over the same period, meaning that more drivers now feel stressed or angry on every journey, compared with those who never feel this way.

As the country follows the Government’s roadmap out of lockdown, Brake and Direct Line have teamed up to raise awareness of the dangers of negative moods behind the wheel, with more than half of drivers admitting these have an impact on their driving behaviour, including making them accelerate and brake more harshly, drive faster, and be less focused on the task of driving.

With Government statistics showing that aggressive driving contributed to 110 fatal crashes and one in 20 crashes which resulted in serious injury, in 2019 (the most recent annual figures available), and research highlighting stressed or angry drivers suffer a form of cognitive distraction that may affect their judgment and reaction times, the charity and the insurer are raising awareness of simple steps all drivers can take to ease their mood, and potentially reduce the risk of being involved in a crash:

Brake advises the following steps to ease mood behind the wheel:

• Focus on calm, controlled breathing, which can help release muscular tension and relieve stress.
• Plan routes carefully, and allow plenty of time for the journey to avoid feeling pressured to rush.
• Drive at appropriate speeds for the road environment and avoid overtaking unless absolutely necessary, to reduce feelings of tension.
• Have something to eat before setting off, as hunger can affect concentration. However, do not eat at the wheel as this could distract from driving
• Consider alternatives to driving, such as walking, cycling, or public transport, as these may help you to arrive feeling calmer and more refreshed.

See full guidance – click link Driver Behaviour Survey