New work and research from the Centre

Hello from Sarah!

Dear friends,

It has been five weeks since the country was put into lockdown to keep us safe from coronavirus and it has been a test of all sorts of things: our health and care system, our communities, and ourselves and our families. It is a challenge to write a cheery newsletter piece knowing that so many lives have been lost and that, sadly, as in normal times the disease is not experienced equally. Andy has written a very moving blog about this.

We’re working behind the scenes with government and partners all the time, advocating, analysing and making sense of people’s experiences - you can find out more here. One of our most important pieces of work is looking at what we might expect to happen to the nation’s mental health over the coming years, so that we can help the system develop services that will respond to ongoing and emerging needs. We are particularly interested in how we (as services and as society) can create trauma-informed environments in our workplaces, homes and communities.

We’re sharing blogs from people with lived experience, practitioners and organisations, so do get in touch if you’re interested in sharing your experience with us. And we know that the academic data collected will only make sense if they are thought about within the context of people’s experiences – which is why we’re launching a new project focused on collecting people’s narrative accounts of how the pandemic has affected their mental health.

Stay well, stay safe.

Sarah

Our Chief Economist, Nick O'Shea, shares a simple explanation for "r0", or the reinfection rate in relation to COVID-19, and what this means in terms of slowing the spread of the virus. As ever, he's thrown in some handy visual aids.

Nick is back with another helpful explanation video, this time highlighting four key messages to take away from the financial measures announced by the Government to mitigate against COVID-19.

Supporting mental health in communities during the coronavirus crisis
Across the UK, voluntary and community organisations are already taking action and working with their NHS and local government partners in response to the pressing needs of the communities they serve and come from.

This briefing looks at how statutory service commissioners and providers are working with their voluntary and community sector partners to respond to the crisis and gives practical advice on how to build effective partnerships locally.

Download the report here

Earlier this month, over 70 people attended our free webinar providing information on employment rights relating the COVID-19. We were delighted to team up with Kathleen Bolt, an experienced lawyer and mediator to provide this one-off session to Mental Health Employment Specialists.

Whilst our face-to-face courses are on hold at the moment we’re concentrating on providing information and resources to IPS services via digital means. If we can help we’d love to hear from you - contact Zak via [email protected]

April 2020