News

Charities attack treatment delays for mental health patients

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Sectioned - mental healthMore than one in 10 people with mental health problems are waiting for longer than a year before receiving talking treatments and more than half are waiting longer than three months, mental health charities and practitioners have found.

The We Need to Talk Coalition said that delays and a lack of choice were having a devastating effect on people who were not getting the right treatment, while others were being driven to pay for private treatment.

It said the NHS should offer a full range of evidence-based psychological therapies to all who need them within 28 days of requesting a referral. Official figures published last month showed that more than 80,000 of the 241,250 patients referred by GPs and other clinicians to talking therapies in the second quarter of this year waited more than 28 days to receive treatment.

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Chilling knife threat on veteran civil rights activist

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Maxie HaylesA police investigation is underway after civil rights activist Maxie Hayles found two large knives plunged into the front seat of his car which was parked outside his home in Birmingham.

The chilling incident happened overnight on Wednesday, October 2, and has stunned the veteran campaigner, who has endured several threats on his life during decades of anti-racist work.

Police have seized both knives for forensic examination and carried out house-to-house inquiries in the neighbourhood where Hayles has lived with his family for the past 27 years.

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Enrolling into a pension at work

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Pension RetireSource: DirectGov

Starting from October 2012, employers will enrol workers into a workplace pension, if they meet the criteria below. When you pay into your pension, your employer and the government will contribute too. Find out how this affects you, when this will happen and the benefits.

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Workplace pension – what it is!
A workplace pension is a way of saving for your retirement arranged through your employer. It is sometimes called a ‘company pension’, an ‘occupational pension’ or a ‘works pension’.

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