2010:

Feb 2 : Ruby Wax to perform at private psychiatric unit - outpatients and staff are among audience for dates at Birmingham clinic

Jan 22: Psychiatric unit defends seclusion after complaint - Nottinghamshire NHS trust publicly states isolation used "as last resort" after patient kept in one room for past eight weeks.

Jan 22: Her own way - Judi Chamberlin's book On Our Own was held up as a rallying cry for the mental health service-user movement when it was published in 1977. Louise Pembroke remembers the American activist who died on January 16.

Jan 21: 'Many service user workers are still wobbly' - the recovery ideal in mental health has been lost and the NHS is taking advantage of compliant service users. It's time to get radical again says Marion Aslan. By Adam James

Jan 15: Meditation could "prevent thousands" relapsing with depression every year - claim made as charity promotes mindfulness therapy for NHS

Jan 7, 2010: "It’s the sort of place I would not mind going on holiday" - are new therapeutic and light and airy mental health units really that good, asks Adam James?

2009:

Nov 18: Government to provide web mental health training for professionals working with children - pledge aims to help workers alert to how mental health problems can present themselves.

Nov 18: Eight out of 10 people recover after CBT, reports study - new research claims effectiveness for government's psychological therapies programme

Nov 6: Surge in mental health treatment by force - threat of compulsion now "hangs heavy" over patients, says Mind chief executive Paul Farmer

Nov 6: Probe into mental health patient's police van death - Independent Police Complaints Commission to examine death of Bournemouth man

EXCLUSIVE
Oct 26: Psychoanalysts threaten legal action against health regulator - lawyers for 1,500 Freudian therapists write to Health Professions Council with judicial review warning over “unlawful” failure to assess whether statutory regulation is necessary for psychoanalysts. Adam James reports.

Oct 14: Gordon Brown urges end to mental ill health stigma - Prime Minister joins the ranks of those calling for "change in attitudes" towards mental illness.

Oct 6: NHS launches online mental health checker - people advised to call 999, visit a GP or speak to an NHS Direct nurse.

Feature: Oct 1: Has Labour kepts its promises on mental health? Ten year ago the government set itself targets to meet on mental health provision. Mental health tsar Louis Appleby, left, says they've been met. Others are not so sure. Report by Adam James

Sept 18: People with mental health problems to be prescribed self-help books - pilot initiative launches in London

Sept 14: Every mental health trust should employ service users to promote recovery, charity urges - "Cultural transformation" needed, says psychologist Geoff Shepherd

Aug 28: ASBO for schizophrenia man is "inappropriate" - stigma and distress caused by an ASBO could make matters worse, says charity

Aug 28: Cameron criticised over mental health omission - Conservative leader failed to mention plans for mental health during speech on NHS reform

July 27: Equality and human rights to be basis of mental health, vows government - New Horizons document outlines mental health priorities until 2020.

July 17: Suicide at lowest recorded level in England - rate is now 7.5 deaths per 100,000 people, new statistics reveal.

July 1: Psychiatric patient gets £400,000 compensation after failed suicide bid - judge said patient had experienced "undue suffering" after being insufficiently monitored by the staff in hospital

May 28: Public less likely to help person crying than if knocked to ground, finds survey - charity launches mental health first aid campaign to help people with knowledge and confidence to respond to distress.

May 18: Zito Trust to close - objectives have been met, declares group which pushed for tighter controls over potentially violent psychiatric patients

May 11: Charity's rock of support - Phil Harvey (left) is a member of Coldplay, one of the most popular rock bands on the planet. He also is an aspiring psychologist and a volunteer for a mental health charity in London. In a rare interview Harvey talks exclusively to Adam James

April 22: NHS trust boss defends reputation after "shocking" mental health patient death data - Erville Millar, chief executive of Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust, points to "significant flaws” in statistics

April 15: Therapist anger at NHS "downplaying" of counselling and psychotherapy - NICE states patients should be explained about the "uncertainty" of counselling and psychodynamic psychotherapy for depression

March 30: "Alarm" as therapists reduce feelings of homosexuality - "Homosexuality is not an illness and therefore is not curable," says Tom Warnecke of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy in response to new research.

March 19: CBT "does not work” says high-profile clinical psychologist - Oliver James accuses government ministers of being "downright dishonest” on depression cure claim

March 11: Professionals never engaged therapeutically with psychiatric patient before he killed - investigation into care of Ismail Dogan, diagnosed with schizophrenia, revealed treatment only ever involved anti-psychotic medication

March 6: Government rapped over take up of computerised CBT - treatment fully available in just nine of 152 primary care trusts in England, according to new figures.

Feature:
Feb 13: New dialogues on voices - Cognitive behavioural therapy has long been accepted as a valid therapeutic intervention for people who hear voices. So what does the future hold for more
radical approaches, such as voice dialogue, asks Adam James

Jan 30: We'll check on government promise to end mixed-sex wards, say campaigners - NHS trusts which fail to provide single-sex accommodation face fines, says health secretary

Jan 26: CBT in the classroom to be piloted - if successful the cognitive therapy at school could be rolled out to the rest of the UK, says Professor Paul Stallard (pictured left)

Jan 12: 'No evidence' for psychiatric medication by force - literature review authors, including Professor Len Bowers (left), call for more research on the validity of compulsory treatment

Jan 9: Half of mental health trusts now have foundation status

Dec 29: Mental health advocacy qualification launched - "independent mental health advocates" will support detained patients who, under new law, are entitled to support and advice on their rights.

2008:

Nov 27: Council to "champion” good mental health of children in Britain - new body to “hold government to account” on delivery of CAMHS review's recommendations.

Feature:
Nov 19: Feel the power? - Can an empowering "personalisation" approach - incorporating Buddhist retreats and dating agencies - apply to mental health care? Adam James reports.

Nov 7: NHS trust promises improvements made after five-week delay ended in anorexia death - criticised Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health Trust says changes now implemented after problems caused by staff sickness

Nov 7: People with mental health problems not to be forced into work, pledges minister - Anne McGuire says "safeguards” of new benefits system will ensure people not put into crisis by taking up inappropriate or unsupported work

Oct 23: Use of powers to detain people under mental health law increased by fifth - detentions for mental disorders in England increased by 20% from 1996 to 2006

Oct 23: NHS psychiatrist criticised after patient's overdose death - consultant rapped for failing to comply with care programme approach and not organising multi-disciplinary meeting

Comment:
Oct 9, 2008: Cognitive behavioural therapy; no more than a Labour quick fix - the government is recruiting CBT therapists to "cure" people with depression and anxiety. But CBT simplifies what distress is, says Dorothy Rowe

Sept 11: Psychiatrists becoming 'more trusted' - community psychiatric nurses also praised in Healthcare Commission survey of community patients. But three in ten patients say they are not told of medication side effects

Comment: Sept 3, 2008: Psychotherapists and counsellors should refuse registration - state control will fail to protect the public from abuse and will threaten psychoanalysis, says Ian Parker

EXCLUSIVE:
Aug 8: Homicides by mentally ill at record low, states research - new study likely to call into question how best to assess number of killings attributable to mental ill health

August 7: Top names in radical mental health at conference - event will showcase critical work on psychiatry and psychology, says co-organiser Ian Parker, left

May 29: Triple prison mental health staff, urges charity - this will ensure those diagnosed with severe mental illness get equivalent level of service as patients in community, states report.

May 15: Don't charge people with mental health problems for overdrafts, charity tells banks -
more than half of Mind survey respondents say they have gone without food due to crippling debt.

May 15: Don't charge people with mental health problems for overdrafts, charity tells banks -
more than half of Mind survey respondents say they have gone without food due to crippling debt.

May 1: Psychologist's non-drug approach provokes storm of reactions - psychiatrists call NHS clinician's work “dangerous”. But other professionals give support

Comment:
April 18: Underground recovery - Clinical psychologist Rufus May explains why, when using a non-drug approach to help a doctor who heard voices, he had no choice but to work in secret.

April 11: Launch inquiry into social worker stabbing, says MP - Philip Ellison, 47, killed during a visit to Preston supported housing for people with mental health problems

Comment:
April 9, 2008: This tide's already changed
The recovery approach in mental health is not new. Our research-based recovery model has been operating across the world for 10 years, say Phil Barker and Poppy Buchanan-Barker.

April 2: Mental health TV drama seen by 1.3 million - Poppy Shakespeare was a dramatisation of the book, left, by Clare Allen who spent ten years as a patient at a London day centre. What did you think?

March 26: More people should have therapy for "problem anger” urges charity - there is mounting evidence linking anger with heart disease, stroke, cancer and violence, states report

March 20: 'Recovery' approach in mental health is idea 'whose time has come' - charity bids to present principles behind “empowering” philosophy of care

March 20: Psychiatric patients launch test case for right to smoke while detained - patients could be only group of people banned from smoking "in the privacy of their own home", judges told

Feb 29: New therapists to "cure" 450,000 depressed and anxious people in three years, says government - trainee psychologists, nurses and graduate workers will each have up to 250 patients per year, Alan Johnson, left, announces

Feb 1: Lewis doubts worth of Henderson Hospital - minister questions effectiveness of underthreat therapeutic community

Jan 31: It's no joke - website visitors reprimand authors of offensive comments after fire at Southampton psychiatry unit

Jan 16: Stigma is no laughing matter - Adam James profiles Sue Baker, head of the largest ever campaign to tackle the stigma linked to mental health

Jan 16: 'The Henderson saved my life' - here's why the acclaimed personality disorder unit should be saved, writes Kath Lovell

Jan 10: Private psychiatric units increasingly used to detain patients - new figures show 24 per cent increase of detentions in independent hospitals

Mental health comment:
Jan 10, 2008: The wrong advice - The national clinical guideline on depression is flawed, acts as a mouthpiece for pharmaceutical firms and pays lip service to the views of service users. We must now challenge it, says Malcolm Learmonth

2007:

Dec 18: Government is two years late on mental health home treatment promise - finds the National Audit Office

Nov 29: People with mental health problems experience "extreme" level of victimisation - most have suffered theft, been attacked, harassed, sexually assaulted or raped by people in their own community, according to new report.

Nov 29: Man names himself after psychiatric hospital to combat stigma - Brendan Curran is now Craig Dunain, the name of the former psychiatric hospital in Inverness

Nov 14: Woman gives harrowing account of forcible sterilisation when a psychiatric patient - Dorothea Buck-Zerchin's first-hand description of how, aged 19, she was sterilised in a German hospital in 1936 during Nazi rule.

Nov 14: Screen for mental health problems before making ASBOs, says charity - stop “fast-tracking vulnerable individuals into the criminal justice system, and to prison” says Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health

Mental health comment:
Oct 31: Getting personal - Stop the psychological therapy "brand warfare" and recognise a therapist's personal qualities are more important than their theoretical model, argues Martin Seager, who helps advise the government on how to make mental health services more therapeutic

Oct 25: Extra 3,700 psychological therapists to be recruited into NHS
- Health Secretary Alan Johnson, pictured left, also promises that average waiting times for psychological therapies to drop from 18 months to “a few weeks”

July 26: People wait up to three-and-a-half years for psychological therapy - figures from Derbyshire Mental Health Trust come at time when government is promising to increase access to psychological therapies

July 26: Biggest ever campaign to combat mental illness stigma launched - announcement on heels of research claiming an increase in prejudice over last ten years.

May 24: Countryside exercise should be frontline treatment for mental health problems, says charity - "ecotherapy" includes walking in a park, flying a kite or gardening therapy

May 16: Hewitt promises 10 more psychological therapy centres in England

March 29: Cognitive behavioural therapy via computer to be available from next month to depressed - critics, however, say computerised therapy is dehumanising.

Feb 28: Consider ECT for severely depressed pregnant women, psychiatrists told - new guidelines issued for women with prenatal or antenatal mental health problems

Jan 25: Psychologist who allegedly insulted client ordered to undergo supervision - depressed client told he was a “wanker” and “waste of space”, conduct committee hears

Video snippets:
Nov 8: On the spot - exclusive video snippets from a panel question and answer session at the Mental Health Today conference in London. Including, comments on the underthreat Henderson Hospital personality disorder service in Surrey.

Oct 30: Mental health services in UK are "model" for Europe, says WHO regional adviser - "There is so much money [in England] in mental health," says Matt Muijen.

Oct 30: Suicides at lowest level since 1995 - average is now 8.5 deaths per 100,000

Sept 15: NHS could be sued over inadequate physical health care for mentally ill and learning disbled - Disability Rights Commission warns health service “complacency” in accepting that people with mental health problems and learning disabilities “just do” die younger could be breaking the law

Sept 7: Suicide in Scotland far higher than rest of UK

Aug 14: Advise manic patients to participate in “calming” activities, professionals told - clinical guidelines for management of bipolar disorder in NHS primary and secondary care are published

July 21: Alleged rapes of NHS psychiatric patients “truly shocking” - outrage as report claims 11 of 19 alleged rapes were by staff.

Feature:
July 21: The art of staying out - how does one patient peer-support project reduce time its members spend in hospital by 89 per cent?

June 23: Half of 10,000 new NHS therapists should be clinical psychologists - further 5,000 could be trained from among the 60,000 NHS nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and counsellors, states new London School of Economics report

June 23: Home treatment and crisis resolution reduces inpatient stays by 30 per cent - figure reported by South Essex Partnership NHS Trust in government mental health "priorities" document

June 2: Government campaign against mental health stigma failing, charity report claims - 'We need stronger anti-discrimination law, not just attitude change', says Mental Health Foundation

May 11: Government takes first step to bring in thousands more counsellors and therapists into health service - Patricia Hewitt (left) announces launch of two pilot cognitive behaviour therapy centres in Doncaster and London

May 12: £30m being cut from mental health services, claims report

May 10: Screen test - A Bush policy to screen the US population, including preschool children, for undiagnosed mental illness is well underway. But is screening effective and would it be accepted in the UK? Adam James investigates

May 5: More than 10 per cent of mental health trusts are cutting services, admits Louis Appleby (left) - Appleby responds to Tory criticisms that in-the-black mental health trusts cut services to assist other financially-cripped trusts

March 28: Charity reminds GPs they can earn £8,000 by checking the physical health of people with mental health problems

March 6: Mental health day centres "maintain" stigma - day services should help users back to work, not just be 'drop-ins', says government

March 1: Computerised cognitive behaviour therapy recommended for depression, panic and phobia - therapy can be delivered on a PC, over the internet or via the telephone

Feb 3: Man with schizophrenia need not have died during restraint by police, jury decided - Andrew Jordan, 28, died when pinned down on stomach

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