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Today's top SocietyGuardian stories
• Catherine Zeta-Jones's courage praised as she reveals bipolar treatment
• Alastair Campbell: Bipolar disorder doesn't just affect film stars
• What is bipolar disorder?
• Hospital accused over girl's glue injection
• Demolition of London housing estate to begin
• Datablog - NHS spending: how serious are the spending cuts?
• Poverty is on rise among school pupils, say teachers
• Terry Pratchett documentary to show assisted suicide
• PM accused of breaching immigration policy deal
All today's SocietyGuardian stories
Other news
• Nurses should undergo an annual "MoT" to ensure they are able to cope with the physical and psychological demands of their jobs, according to the Telegraph. Delegates at the Royal College of Nursing conference said the yearly check-ups, carried out alongside professional appraisals, should include fitness tests and discussions about their emotional state.
• Social workers in six councils have been promised more freedom to work with service users independently of local authorities by piloting social work practices for adult social care, reports Community Care. The six practices, which are expected to start this summer, will be social worker-led organisations who will support specific groups of adults and their carers in pilots expected to last two years. The pilot areas chosen are Birmingham, Lambeth, Suffolk, Surrey, Shropshire and North-east Lincolnshire.
• A&E doctors are warning casualty departments risk being swamped unless there is proper planning for the long Easter and royal wedding weekends, reports the BBC. The College of Emergency Medicine points out there are only three working days between 21 April and 3 May and fear A&E will be people's "default" option for NHS care, potentially leading to long waits and threatening patient safety. But the Department of Health says the NHS has "robust" plans in place.
• Poor housing in Wales costs the NHS £67m a year, reports Inside Housing. It says a new report, The cost of poor housing in Wales, commissioned by Shelter Cymru and the Building Research Establishment Trust, calculates the cost to the NHS of treating accidents and illnesses caused by problems in the home such as unsafe steps, electrical hazards, excessive cold, damp and mould.
On my radar ...
• Mental health. In this excellent blog for Comment is free, One in Four magazine's Mark Brown writes about Catherine Zeta-Jones's frank statement about her mental health and how it has sparked debate:
But by refusing to accept that experiencing a mental health difficulty is something of which to be ashamed, Zeta-Jones may have done us more of a favour than anyone realises.
And on his blog, Alastair Campbell fears the impact of NHS reforms on mental health services
I have yet to meet one GP who wants to take on MH services in the way set out in the reform plans, or who thinks they can run those services adequately with all the other pressures on them.
David Cameron constantly espouses the virtues of community and social wellbeing in his 'Big Society'. Yet at the same time as attempting to sell some idea of a 'political utopia' they are seeking to starve the very sector that is best placed in helping them achieve their goal. It is simply not good enough to suggest that any shortfall in assistance can be met through the voluntary sector alone, because as we have heard, they are facing cuts and financial pressures too.
Let me state the obvious – a decline in the nation's mental health budget will lead to a decline in the nation's mental health. At a time of austerity and savage cuts the state of the nation's mental health and general wellbeing will be essential components in overcoming the challenges our country faces in the years to come.
• Eric Pickles, who has fired a new salvo against the town halls he believes are making "politically motivated" cuts. He told the BBC's Newsnight earlier this week that Manchester and Liverpool councils "seem to be glorying in cuts to the most vulnerable", while praising the supercouncil merger plan of Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea councils in London.
Now Liverpool council is demanding an apology from the communities secretary. The authority's deputy leader, Paul Brant, accused Pickles of "trying to pick a fight with the city".
The We Love Local Government blog writes of how councils, having already gone through one round of cost cutting measures are now looking again at where to make savings.
Meanwhile, on the LGIU blog, Sarah Phillips, deputy director of the centre for public service partnership, looks at the DCLG's current consultation about public consultation. Pickles is proposing to replace authorities' current "duty to involve" as part of the drive to cut town hall bureaucracy:
The press release notes this simplification will reduce bureaucracy for councils and scrap 56 pages of statutory guidance. The proposed replacement draft is less than a page. Is page length the right measure for such a basic democratic function as informing, engaging and involving people in government decisions?
This frees up councils – but will it speed the pace of local government working with local communities?
• This excellent resource on disability benefits, Benefits and Work, which was set up in 2002 by advice worker turned barrister Holiday Whitehead and benefits writer and trainer Steve Donnison to help people claim and keep their benefits. (thanks to the Broken of Britain)
And the Broken of Britain's Rhydian Fon James blogs about an imminent legal ruling on care cuts.
• The newly launched Refugee Children's Rights Project set up by lawyers at the Children's Legal Centre and Islington Law Centre, and funded by The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund. Its aim is to use strategic litigation to ensure children's rights are upheld to international standards.
• The latest film made by young homeless clients of the Connection at St Martin's day centre in central London. G is for Gang Violence, is part of a planned A-Z of homelessness to warn other people about the dangers of rough sleeping.
• Scouting for girls - not the indie band, but the news that for the first time, the Scouting movement attracted more girls than boys last year. Now the Scout Association is looking for new adult volunteers to keep up with the demand.
• Jim Glover, who has been named as the new chair of learning disability charity Mencap. Glover has worked for B&Q's parent company, the Kingfisher group, and is a former managing director and then chairman of Superdrug, and deputy managing director of Woolworths. He is to take up the new role in a month's time.
• The amazing story of Fred Obala, a former child soldier who was abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda aged 14. He managed to escape a year later and, with the support of the Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Programme, has been helping to rehabilitate other former child soldiers.
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