Psychological support system opens to infected blood victims
The Infected Blood Psychological Service will include talking therapies; peer support and psychosocial support, NHS England said.
More than 30,000 people in the UK were infected with HIV and hepatitis C after they were given contaminated blood and blood products between the 1970s and early 1990s.
And more than 3,000 people have died as a result, while survivors are living with lifelong health implications.
The new service is open to victims of the scandal as well as bereaved partners, parents, children and their extended families.
People can self refer by phone or can be referred to the service by their GP.
Officials said that a specialist therapist will help create tailored mental health plans for those in need of support.
The Infected Blood Inquiry Report is now published on the Inquiry website. Access the Report here: https://t.co/lhr9SGYlFd
— Infected Blood Inquiry (@bloodinquiry) May 20, 2024
Claire Murdoch, national mental health director at NHS England, said: 'The contaminated blood scandal and the subsequent long fight for answers have had life-altering physical and psychological impacts for thousands across the country and the NHS is determined to ensure that anyone infected or affected can receive evidence-based support and treatment.
'It has been so important that the Infected Blood Psychological Service has been co-designed with members of the infected blood community to ensure the best and most personalised care possible, and we are very grateful to all our partners who have helped establish these vital new services.'
Nicola Leahey, from Lancashire, was infected with Hepatitis C following blood transfusions in 1975 and/or 1980, and was part of the expert advisory group to the new service.
'After my diagnosis, I felt that my body had been violated, that I had been physically and mentally abused, stripped of my dignity, my self-esteem diminished, I mourned lost opportunities, I felt betrayed,' she said.
'So many of us have long awaited the opportunity to have professional support to try to cope with the trauma and life-long effects that we've been subjected to.
'I'm thrilled that this much-needed service is now operational for both those infected and affected members of the infected blood community across England.'
Professor Meghana Pandit, co-national medical director for secondary care at NHS England, added: 'Following the recommendations of the Inquiry, this new service represents a vital step in ensuring patients and families affected in England can be offered tailored psychological treatment and support, and we are pleased that specialist clinics are now open in all areas of England.
'This bespoke psychological treatment is already making a difference to the lives of the first people to access it, and we now want to ensure everyone eligible is aware of the services provided.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
12 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Prince Harry's former charity Sentebale slashes UK staff to just ONE amid donations collapse and toxic infighting
The charity founded by Prince Harry has laid off all but one of its London staff amid ongoing funding concerns. Sentebale, an HIV /Aids awareness charity, was plunged into crisis earlier this year following a very public feud between the Duke of Sussex and the charity's chairwoman Dr Sophie Chandauka. Four of the five employees based in the organisation's London office have now been made redundant, including its global head of finance and compliance, the Times reports. Last night Sentebale confirmed to the Daily Mail that there is now only one full-time staff member operating at its UK headquarters. They added that 'between April and September there will be a total of seven departures across three locations'. A redundancy letter, sent to staff in April and seen by The Times, stated that the group 'does not have' donor funding and that it is in 'retrenchment'. Harry set up Sentebale with Prince Seeiso of Lesotho in 2006 to work with disadvantaged young people in Lesotho and Botswana, with both men honouring their late mothers. But the pair stepped away from the charity this month following a damning report into an explosive race row sparked by Dr Chandauka. The UK Charity Commission had launched a probe into the acrimonious boardroom battle - but criticised both sides in its findings. The probe said it could find 'no evidence' of 'widespread or systemic bullying or harassment, including misogyny or misogynoir' at Sentebale after Dr Chandauka made a series of incendiary allegations about the behaviour of the Duke of Sussex and his fellow trustees. But it also criticised the trustees, who included Harry, who resigned en masse in March after the row was made public. Scores of donors - loyal to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex - allegedly stopped donating to the charity, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds in essential funding. The watchdog acknowledged the 'strong perception of ill treatment' felt by all parties, including Dr Chandauka, and the impact this may have had on them. It ruled that failures leading up to, and following, the dispute had led to 'mismanagement in the administration of the charity'. A Sentebale spokesperson said the charity had 'suffered from the negative impact of the adverse media campaign launched by the duke and former trustees on 25 March'. In a sign the two parties remain deeply entrenched, they added that this was as a result of the Charity Commission probe 'which has made fundraising extremely challenging for Sentebale and so we have been reliant on reserves'. The spokesperson told the Daily Mail: 'First discussed in 2024, the Sentebale Board took a deliberate and responsible step to right-size its workforce in all three locations due to increasing uncertainty relating to international donor funding such as USAID and uncertainty relating to events such as polo.' The Senetable Polo Cup - which historically raised around £740,000 a year - has not taken place for the last two years. The spokesperson added: 'The global restructuring was intended to improve efficiencies, transition senior executive roles to Southern Africa and to respond to changing service delivery demands. 'False is the notion that any restructuring was because of a 'funding crisis', but was a planned restructuring.'
The Sun
a day ago
- The Sun
NHS struggles to improve under Labour as waiting lists rose in June and patients still facing delays in A&E
NHS LISTS GROW While NHS England said staff 'pulled out all the stops' in June the backlog increased for the second time this year THE NHS is struggling to get better under Labour, figures suggest. Waiting lists rose in June and there are still unacceptable numbers of patients facing day-long delays in A&E, they show. 1 Data confirmed the recent British Medical Association strike was less damaging than previous ones. And while NHS England said staff 'pulled out all the stops' in June the backlog increased for the second time this year, from 7.36million to 7.37million. Dr Becks Fisher, of the Nuffield Trust think tank, said: 'The figures show the NHS waiting list has gone up slightly after falling over most months this year.' She added: 'It is still treating fewer patients than are being referred.' Danielle Henry, of the Independent Healthcare Providers Network, added: 'The NHS needs to rapidly increase the amount of activity it delivers if it is going to successfully reduce waiting lists by one million each year.' Official figures show improvements to A&E delays, cancer treatment times and ambulance response times but doctors said the system was still struggling. Dr Nick Murch, of the Society for Acute Medicine, said: 'Clinicians across the UK are reporting this week as one of the worst they have experienced. "Figures show an unacceptable amount of people — 35,467 — waited over 12 hours in emergency departments, often suffering avoidable harm.' Lib Dem MP Helen Morgan said: 'This Government is doing no better than treading water.' Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: 'We are getting on with the job of delivering progress in the face of strike action, and we will continue to put patients first.'
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
Boston boy, 4, suffers terrifying HIV scare moments after mistaking city's drug addicts for ZOMBIES
A four-year-old boy suffered a terrifying HIV scare after he was pricked in the foot by a dirty hypodermic needle that had been discarded by the 'zombie' drug addicts who have taken over the streets of Boston. The youngster was jabbed by the needle while attending a birthday party in a South Boston park near his family home on July 11. He ran out of the play area without any shoes on and screamed as a needle stuck out of the big toe on his left foot, his mother Caroline Flynn recalled. 'I was freaking out. I was scared,' Flynn told The Boston Herald, noting how 'there was leftover blood in that needle'. He was rushed to the emergency room at nearby Boston Medical Center where he underwent extensive blood testing, got an x-ray, and was prescribed multiple anti-HIV preventative medicines, which he reportedly 'wasn't able to tolerate'. After a month of panic, Flynn finally got some 'relief' on Wednesday when doctors informed her that her son's 'blood tests came back negative' for HIV and hepatitis. Flynn, who is urging Massachusetts lawmakers to address the crippling opioid crisis, has now heartbreakingly shared how her son mistook the drug addicts that stagger through Boston as 'zombies'. 'We were sitting down at McDonald's and he looked out the window and said, "Look Mom, zombies!",' Flynn told the newspaper. Drug addicts stumble through Boston's city parks and streets, and are known to openly shoot up in public. Drug users are pictured smoking and shooting up at the intersection of Atkinson and Southampton Street in the South Boston neighborhood She says her son watched as addicts stumbled around public streets, claiming that some were even openly shooting up. He witnessed visibly intoxicated people pushing rusty wheelchairs and old shopping carts around. Others rode around on city-operated rental bicycles, she claimed. Flynn has called on legislators to urgently take action, telling the newspaper how 'something needs to be done' to combat the drugs epidemic. The mother even suggested that anyone caught shooting up in public be arrested and forced to undergo addiction treatment. Boston's raging drug problem has been in the spotlight after residents lashed out at Democrat Mayor Michelle Wu, blaming her policies that allegedly enable drug use. Locals claim Wu's controversial decision to hand out free crack pipe syringes and other paraphernalia to addicts in 2022 has helped fuel the problems. While her administration pitched the move as 'harm reduction,' critics have countered that all she's done is increase the permissiveness of public drug use in Boston. Massachusetts state Sen. Nick Collins is among those pushing for a crackdown on the city's open-air drug markets and has branded the Flynn family's case as 'collateral damage caused by the ongoing crisis at Mass and Cass'. The intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, known as 'Mass and Cass,' is notorious for open-air drug usage. Wu has tried to clear out the crime-ridden area, dubbed 'Methadone Mile', by trying to take down tent encampments. But instead of isolating the drug crisis, it has amplified and spread - further plaguing the historic city. Flynn's son stepped on a needle in park near the corner of Columbia Road and Mercer Street, less than two miles away from the so-called Methadone Mile. 'Nobody should have to worry about stepping on a needle in a public park,' Collins told the Herald, adding that we 'owe it to the boy' to intervene. The senator called for a reform of the city's public health policies, as well as protocols on civil interventions and discharge policies. Residents from across Boston have complained that the Mass and Cass crackdown has led to 'out of control' spillover into their neighborhoods. The streets of once-pristine communities, including ritzy Beacon Hill where the median housing price is $2.8million, have been left littered with dangerous needles. A clean-up crew supported by the Newmarket Business Improvement District has estimated they pick up about 1,000 needles a day across Boston. Wu's office, in a statement issued to the newspaper Thursday morning, reiterated that outdoor drug use is 'illegal and unacceptable'. The mayor's office said they are using 'active and continuous police enforcement' in drug-stricken areas and working to 'transition individuals into recovery programs'. The city is said to be focused on needle pickup and has expanded working hours for its needle collection teams. Boston has also ended its outdoor and weekend syringe exchange. 'No family should have to worry about their children's safety playing outside,' the statement added.
