Guidance Notes and Best Practice Guides
SE: A new online directory to help drug users and their families get the treatment they need has been launched, which contains details of more than 220 community based & residential service offering drug treatment services throughout Scotland.
It has been funded by the Scottish Government and builds on the Scottish Drug Forum's (SDF) online directory. The new upgraded directory will be maintained by the SDF.
Press release ~ Drug Services Directory ~ Scottish Drugs forum ~ Know the Score ~ DrugScope ~ Economic analysis of costs and consequences of the treatment of drug misuse: 2-year outcome data from the National Treatment Outcome Research Study (NTORS) ~ Drug Dealers Don't Care ~ Drug Misuse Information Scotland
Home Office: Community groups including the Damilola Taylor Trust have been awarded £800,000 by the Home Office to tackle crime & gang culture. The Damilola Taylor Trust will receive £300,000 to continue its ‘Respect your life, not a knife’ campaign that urges young people not to carry a knife or other weapons.
Other community groups across England and Wales will receive a share of £500,000 through the Home Office's Connected Fund to support projects that help to tackle gang culture. With the recent award of £150,000 to Urban Concepts "Don't Trigger" campaign, this brings to almost £1m the amount the Home Office has given to community groups in recent weeks.
The Home Office is also, in conjunction with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), publishing Knife Crime Best Practice Guidelines to help police and crime & disorder reduction partnerships to tackle knife crime in the most effective way.
Press release ~ Damilola Taylor Trust ~ Home Office's Connected Fund ~ Knife Crime Best Practice Guidelines ~ Don't Trigger '07 – Urban Concepts ~ Knife Crime, Gun Crime, Advice, Support, Petition for Tougher Sentences
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has issued guidance on the use of carmustine implants and temozolomide for the treatment of newly diagnosed high-grade glioma, a type of cancerous brain tumour.
Approximately 1,860 new cases of malignant glioma are diagnosed in England and Wales each year. Symptoms vary but can include seizures, visual disturbance, speech & language problems and changes in the ability to carry out normal daily activities, which can be assessed using a performance scale, such as the WHO performance status classification.
Press release ~ Improving outcomes for people with brain and other central nervous system tumours ~ Mixed gliomas: Cancerbackup
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the National Collaborating Centre for Acute Care have issued a guideline on the care & treatment of adults with faecal incontinence, which is the involuntary loss of solid or liquid stool, a condition that affects up to 1 in 10 people at some time in their lives.
The new national standards call for healthcare professionals to actively ask people in high-risk groups (such as frail old people, women who have recently given birth and those with diarrhoea or with a neurological or spinal disease) about whether they have any signs of faecal incontinence.
The guideline outlines treatments that can manage or sometimes cure the condition as well as strategies to help people cope with the condition where it is not treatable. It is hoped that the guideline will encourage people with the condition to feel more confident talking about faecal incontinence and be reassured that healthcare professionals will take their symptoms and concerns seriously.
Press release ~ Faecal incontinence ~ National Collaborating Centre for Acute Care ~ Continence Foundation ~ RADAR - The Disability Network: National Key Scheme ~ DH – Good practice in Continence Services
NICE: The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has recently issued guidance on the use of the “clot-busting” drug alteplase for the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke. NICE has recommended alteplase within the NHS as long as it is used in accordance with the safety rules already set out in the drug’s licence.
Each year in the UK, approximately 120,000 people have a first stroke, 30% of whom die within a month. In addition about 30,000 recurrent strokes occur. The risk of having a stroke before the age of 85 years is one in four for men, and one in five for women.
Stroke is also the single most common cause of severe disability, with more than 250,000 people currently living in the UK with disabilities caused by stroke. However, by breaking down the clot quickly through the use of clot-dissolving medications like alteplase, the complications of stroke can be reduced.
Press release ~ Ischaemic stroke (acute) - alteplase ~ DH - Strokes ~ Stroke Research Network ~ The Stroke Association ~ NAO report: Reducing Brain Damage – Faster access to better stroke care (1.4Mb) ~ Economic burden of stroke in England ~ Quality of care for stroke and TIA in General Practice ~ Different strokes website
DCMS: Revised guidance for local authorities on the licensing laws has been published by the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS). It offers advice & clarification for councils on a wide range of issues to help them deliver the Licensing Act 2003 effectively.
The original Guidance was published in July 2004 and parts of it were updated in June 2006, following an initial review. Licensing authorities must 'have regard' to the Guidance, but it does not in any way replace the statutory provisions of the Licensing Act or add to its scope and the interpretation of the Act is a matter for the courts.
