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“You’re bloody lovely ain’t you,” said Frances Barrett, as the robotic cat she was stroking flicked its ears and whiskers one lunchtime this week at the Oak Manor care home in Bedfordshire. The resident was one of several who live with dementia playing with the home’s small menagerie of animatronic animals that were originally designed to entertain American girls aged four to eight but have found a growing market in British care homes. At the other end of the table, Majorie Stephenson tickled her “cat” under its chin, laughed as she scooped it up in her arms and announced: “I’m going to take him home with me and take him for a walk every day.” Click here to read more

The National Academy for Social Prescribing is a national charity, founded in October 2019. Our goal is to ensure social prescribing thrives across the whole country. We envision a vibrant, innovative, and ambitious movement. One that connects communities and mobilises hundreds of thousands of people. Each with a shared commitment to transforming lives. We support the grassroots groups and national charities who offer socially prescribed activities. We connect the health system to the incredible work that’s happening in communities. We help medical professionals, including Social Prescribing Link Workers and students. We work with leading researchers to build more evidence for social prescribing. We develop effective new approaches to common problems. And we champion social prescribing across the world. We know…

Many problems at work can be resolved informally, for example through an informal chat. An employee could raise a problem informally by telling their line manager or someone else at work, for example, another manager or someone in HR. It does not have to be in writing at this stage. Take the problem seriously - if an employee raises a problem informally, you should still take it seriously. If you do not, the problem might be raised as a formal grievance later. A formal grievance might lead to the employee making a claim to an employment tribunal if it's not resolved. Click here to read more  

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“Where there are people, there will be problems, but there will also be potential” is a key part of Neil’s work. And that is precisely what this manual is all about – equipping practitioners from various professional disciplines to help people address their problems and realise their potential. Part One provides an extended essay on the nature and significance of problem solving to lay solid foundations of understanding. Part Two then offers guidance on using 101 problem-solving tools that can be used in a wide variety of circumstances. Available from https://neilthompson.info/shop/ or Amazon

The term ‘trauma’ is often used in a very loose and ‘watered down’ way to refer to any difficult or distressing situation. However, in its technical sense, trauma refers to a wound (physical or psychological) that has lasting effects. We are now realizing more fully that so many of the mental health problems that people encounter are linked to earlier experiences of one or more traumas. Indeed, difficulties in life more broadly will often have their roots in trauma. So, if we are working with people in any sort of supportive or supervisory way, we would do well to ask ourselves whether trauma is playing any part in the situation – particularly those situations that are proving problematic or challenging…

The Covid-19 pandemic has fundamentally shifted the way in which people work, with a rise in remote and hybrid working. While many workers, businesses and sectors have benefited from changing working practices during the pandemic, disabled people bore the brunt of the pandemic’s economic consequences and experienced higher rates of unemployment and redundancies than non-disabled people. Just 52.7% of disabled people are in employment, compared with 81% of non-disabled people. A key driver of the disability employment gap is workplace inflexibility. Pre-pandemic, many employers were reluctant to allow remote or hybrid working, even as a reasonable adjustment for disabled workers. However, as the pandemic led to compulsory remote working for most desk-based workers, we are now seeing employer plans change.…

As society’s understanding of gender and sex evolves, our use of language evolves, too. Maternity wards and pregnancy care have, traditionally, largely used language oriented around women: the word ‘maternity’ itself, for one, but also ‘midwife’, ‘matron’, or ‘sister’. And while cisgender women remain the primary patients in such services, a rising number of trans and non-binary people, who may not identify as women, are also engaging with pregnancy planning and birth-related services, Being excluded by the language used in birthing settings could lead to these parents feeling othered by the experience of bringing a child into the world, and potentially plant the seed for further-reaching mental health impacts. With giving birth being as stressful as it is, plus the…

Childlike involves wonder. It’s the ability to see the world with fresh eyes and create magic. Childish, on the other hand, is living as if there are no consequences. Over time, we’ve gotten very good at measuring the long and short-term consequences of our actions. And good at ignoring them. Adults do well when they seek to be childlike, and that’s possible without being childish. Click here to read more

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