To March 8th 2007

Appropriate interventions for the prevention and management of self-harm: a qualitative exploration of service-users’ views    

Poor families face GBP1,000 a year ‘poverty premium’, say charities   Prisons: Sick, suicidal – and locked up in jail

Seek work earlier, lone parents told     Stockholm syndrome

Single parents will be expected to look for work when their child reaches 12 – rather than the current age of 16 – under new government plans published today. A long-awaited report into state welfare provision, by Sir David Freud, a City banker, was launched Monday morning. It proposes offering benefit claimants in-house care for three years after they find work but also calls for more private and voluntary sector involvement in getting people off benefits and into work, offering “bounty” payments for placing the long-term jobless in employment and making sure they stay in work.

Brown backs plan to help lone parents find work       Childhood obesity in girls can lead to early puberty

Why won’t anyone tell us where our little boy is buried?

Alzheimer’s patients overpaying for drugs   UKIP reject candidate ‘because of his disability’

Wholesalers to seek injunction on Pfizer’s drug distribution plan    Self-harm struggle

Prescription charges go up again   Disabled hit with a £500m benefits bill  The rise of technology addiction

Final choices
Peter Beresford says that in the heated debate about euthanasia, both sides seem to have overlooked the crucial role palliative care social work can play.

Attorney general halts BBC probe    NHS staff protest over job cuts    Defend the NHS.

Weighing into family life   The case of Connor McCreaddie, a fat eight-year-old from Newcastle, shows that the obesity panic is taking away our rights – and even our children.

Warning over children who abuse  Web is blamed for 20 per cent leap in sex attacks by children

Addict brain ‘designed for drugs’  Police Sniff Out Drugs At Mental Health Unit

TV contests humiliate losers, say synod speakers  Members of the Church of England laid into a range of television programmes from Big Brother and Strictly Come Dancing to Little Britain for lowering standards of behaviour and exploiting the humiliation of human beings

Internet slimming pills warning   “Wales needs its own Mental Health Bill”    Tyranny of the individual

Watchdog finds prison service ‘in crisis’   Blair: We must go further on welfare reform

The Sun’s greed for stories to feed its freakshow    NHS shakeups hitting morale, trust chiefs say in survey

Specialty Search: PsychSpider – Psychology Search Engine   Ministers ‘too slow to act’ on sex offenders

A man’s quest for forgiveness, a woman’s return to a nightmare   Mothers bear brunt of discrimination at work

Cure for addiction may lie in brain’s chemistry   Prescription abuse outstrips illegal drug use, UN warns

Social exclusion: A better way to help the poor is to reduce poverty  Right and left invoke the needs of poor people to justify or attack policies. But cutting inequality would have more impact, writes Peter Wilby.

Oliver James’ new book: it could f*** you up     Don’t hate me for being so skinny  Blair pushes to capitalise on his biotech success   Sick, suicidal – and locked up in jail

Health is best gauge of national happiness   Care homes urged to tackle ‘dementia time bomb’

Sick – UK mental health service   38% of ASBO kids have mental health issues.  New Insight Into Brain Disorders

Secrets of the Drug Trials: Seroxat and the Dangers of Antidepressant Medications

Start with the end in mind when it comes to marriage   Addiction Breakthrough May Lead To New Treatments

Revealing The Machinery Underlying The ‘Plastic’ Juvenile Brain   Ambulance call-out figures soar

Using Morphine To Hasten Death Is A Myth, Says Doctor  Stress may ‘damage child brains’

Scandal as bailiffs get right to kick down door of credit card debtors   Medical backlash over health foods

Taking an Active Role in Your Health Care       Mental Health and the Legacy of Sigmund Freud

New genre of video games target mental health    Government launches workplace mental health initiative

Repeat offenders ‘evading court’     ‘Depression link’ to small babies