A Single Step, issue Winter 2007-08
Choice in Depression: Making Progres
Since September of last year, Depression Alliance has been working with a group of health professionals, with sponsorship from a pharmaceutical company, to take the question of choice in depression forward. You might have heard that the Department of Health announced its initiative on choice in mental health in November 2006, but very little has happened to make choice a reality. We now think there's a chance for real progress. The work we're doing is in three stages. The first is to produce a Choice Toolkit. This will be available - mainly to health professionals - from the spring. It provides information and guidance on what can be done to help people with depression to make valid choices about what is happening to them and what treatments are available. The second stage is to conduct a national audit of choice in depression, and all Depression Alliance members are strongly encouraged to take part in that - we need you to tell us what is happening in routine practice in the health service. The third stage is to produce information about the available treatments. Any information must be based on the best available evidence, and it must be of a high quality so that people can make informed choices. We don't think that most of the information available at the moment - for example inside medicine packets or available on the NHS Direct website - is good enough, but by the autumn we hope that things will have changed for the better. It would be very useful to hear of your experiences about the information you have received about depression, how it is treated, and the different antidepressants. Watch this space for more information about the availability of the Choice Toolkit, the National Audit of Choice in depression, and high quality infomation.
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Moving People
motherhood and depression
Undoing Depression
Employment and Depression
Reforming Psychological Therapies in the UK
DA Talk