Advice and support for people with dementia

The Mental Health Foundation has launched the first UK initiative to provide one-to-one advice and support to people with dementia and their carers. The pilot sites for the National Dementia Advice and Support Service will run until December 2002 initially. The service will train and coordinate volunteers to go into the homes of people with dementia and their carers and provide them with practical and emotional support. It will focus on maximising the mental and physical health of both the person with dementia and the carers. The volunteers will provide information and advice on key issues such as access to benefits and accessing increased levels of professional help. They will also aim to equip the carer with the personal coping skills they will need and support them in difficult times. For further information please contact Rachel Clinton or Lesley Warner at the Press Office of the Mental Health Foundation (telephone: 0171 535 7421/7422).

Safe Solutions and Training For Mental Health Part 3 are new publications from Pavillion Publishing. Safe Solutions is a new manual which aims to provide practical ‘hands on’ guidance for anyone within a family mediation service who may find themselves working with people who have either experienced violence, or who have perpetrated violence in their home. The materials are designed to help staff deal with domestic violence safely and fairly by taking them through the various stages of the mediation process. This resource pack is priced at £25. Training For Mental Health Part 3 is a new module of the existing package which provides training sessions in specific areas of mental health. This module, priced at £80, includes the following topics: the service user perspective; coping with a crisis; self-help and complementary approaches; eating, food and eating disorders; and mental health issues for older people. For further information or to order please contact: Pavillion Publishing (Brighton) Ltd, 8 St George's Place, Brighton BN1 4ZZ (telephone: 01273 623222; fax 01273 625526).

The Mental Health Foundation has produced a new self-help manual for therapists and health professionals to use with their service users. Titled Managing Anxiety and Depression, the manual, which uses cognitive—behavioural strategies, is an easy to use workbook with a quick reference index of problems and helpful exercises. It explains what anxious or depressed feelings are like and how to copy with them, suggests ways of managing panic attacks and explains that medication alone may not be a cure for anxiety or depression, although it may help reduce symptoms. The 45-page, A5-size manual costs £6.50 and is available from the Mental Health Foundation (telephone: 0171 5357441).