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<title>All Ireland electronic Health Library - latest resources</title>
<description>The All-Ireland electronic Health Library (AIeHL) is a network of interoperable websites across the island of Ireland.  It contains knowledge resources related to health and social well-being from the so-called "grey literature".</description>
<link>http://www.aiehl.ie/</link>


<item><title><![CDATA[Poisonings and clinical toxicology: a template for Ireland.]]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17598</link><description><![CDATA[Background  Poisons information is accessed around the clock in the British Isles from six centres of which two are in Ireland at Dublin and Belfast accompanied by consultant toxicologist advisory service. The numbers of calls in Ireland are down to about 40 per day due to easy access to online data bases. Access to Toxbase, the clinical toxicology database of the National Poisons Information Service is available to National Health Service (NHS) health professionals and to Emergency Departments and Intensive Care units in the Republic of Ireland. There are 59 Toxbase users in the Republic of Ireland and 99 % of activity originates in Emergency Departments. All United States Poison Control Centres primarily use Poisindex which is a commercial database from Thomson Reuters. Results  Information on paracetamol, diazepam, analgesics and psycho-active compounds are the commonest queries. Data from telephone and computer accesses provide an indicator of future trends in both licit and illicit drug poisons which may direct laboratory analytical service developments. Data from National Drug-Related Deaths Index is the most accurate information on toxicological deaths in Ireland. Laboratory toxicology requirements to support emergency departments are listed.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Alcohol industry spokesperson denies marketing to young people.]]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17596</link><description><![CDATA[A representative of the alcohol industry in Ireland has today denied that drinks companies are not trying to sell their products to young people through sports sponsorship. Yesterday, Junior Minister for Health Roisin Shortall made it clear that she would like to see the practice banned here. She told her Dáil colleagues that contractual arrangements currently in place prevent the immediate implementation of a ban, but she also confirmed that she's working with national sporting bodies to agree a proposal on the phasing out of alcohol sponsorship.  Kathryn D'Arcy of the Alcohol Beverage Association of Ireland says that alcohol misuse is a serious problem in Ireland and needs to be tackled, but this initiative would not achieve that.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The ‘Jigsaw’ puzzle of mental health.]]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17597</link><description><![CDATA[I’ve heard many positive reports about Jigsaw, the community mental health service for young people. Among other places, it’s active in Galway city, and young people and students around these parts speak of it highly.   Jigsaw is an initiative set up by Headstrong, the organisation founded by clinical psychologist Tony Bates. Since it started, it has done immense work in the area of young peoples’ psychological health.   Now, in collaboration with UCD School of Psychology, Headstrong has carried out one of the most comprehensive studies of mental health ever undertaken in Ireland. What about drink and drugs? This is the first national study to track drinking behaviour and then link it to mental health.  Some 45 per cent of young people, from 12 to 25, have drinking habits that are problematic, harmful or even show dependency.  This increases to a worrying 61 per cent for young adults between 17 and 25.  And this excessive drinking is having serious effects on young people’s mental health, their levels of depression and stress.   We now know young people increase their drink consumption from age 13-14; they move outside the normal range of alcohol consumption at age 18-19 and remain above it until age 25. And for the first time we know, from evidence, that drink is impacting not just on young people’s physical health, but on their mental health too.   But over one-third of young people do not talk or seek informal help when they have problems. Those who know that they have emotional difficulties but who do not seek necessary formal help have the highest levels of distress and the lowest well-being.   Which brings us to what I consider one of the key aspects of the research: the concept that one ‘Good Adult’ is central to the mental health of young people.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Outreach Centre's Annual Report 2011.]]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17595</link><description><![CDATA[The Outreach Centre hosts both the Community Development Project, Priorswood and TravAct (formerly Northside Travellers Support Group). In recent years the Centre's involvement with TravAct has been extensive and a considerable expansion of its activities and services has resulted. In this Report we bring particular focus to TravAct's work.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Focus On...Loneliness and Physical Health]]></title><link>http://www.cardi.ie/node/10681</link><description><![CDATA[&nbsp;Loneliness is an important issue as it affects the physical and mental health of older people. The UK Campaign to End Loneliness, launched in 2011, states that while people are aware of the emotional problems of loneliness, few recognise the physical effects it may have. Understanding loneliness in public policy terms is difficult as it is a subjective state. Yet it is also an important issue for older people given the potential effects on mental health and physical well-being. This edition of CARDI&rsquo;s Focus on series concentrates on these issues and examines some potential policy approaches to tackling loneliness in the older population.Read the article here: Focus On...Loneliness and Physical Health  &nbsp;]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[2011 Report of Tallaght Local Drugs Task Force to the Drug Programmes Unit Department of Health.]]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17594</link><description><![CDATA[1 Overview of the drugs problem in TDTF area 1.1 Treatment statistics 1.2 Profile of drug use in TDTF area 1.3 Main issues addressed by TDTF in 2011 2 Progress in implementing local drugs strategy in 2011 3 Profile of TDTF funded projects 3.1 Analysis of the impact of TDTF projects,as a group, in addressing the local drugs problem and continued relevance to TDTF’s strategy 3.2 How TDTF projects relate to the NDS pillars and contribute to progress under each pillar 4 Governance 4.1 TDTF membership 4.2 Audited accounts (appended) 4.3 Task Force staff]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Minister to end alcohol sponsorship of sports.]]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17592</link><description><![CDATA[ALCOHOL SPONSORSHIP of sports events is to be ended, Minister of State for Health Róisín Shortall has pledged. “I am committed to phasing that out over a reasonable period of time,” she said in the Dáil. There is “no room for ambivalence in our approach”. Ms Shortall was responding to Fianna Fáil spokesman on children Charlie McConalogue, who asked if the Government was committed to banning “the advertising of alcohol in conjunction with sports events”. The Donegal North East TD raised the issue following research published yesterday which found young people who drank to excess were more likely to suffer from severe depression, stress or anxiety. The Headstrong/UCD survey of 14,000 people aged from 12 to 25 found 38 per cent had problematic or harmful drinking behaviour, and 7 per cent of those surveyed showed signs of alcohol dependence. Mr McConalogue highlighted an incident in his constituency last October when 26 students were checked into Letterkenny General Hospital’s emergency department on one night for alcohol poisoning. “That came as a result of a 99c drinks promotion.” Referring to the research, Mr McConalogue said “alcohol abuse has become a cancer in our society in recent years” and he demanded to know the Government’s response to the report and what it would do to address the problem. Ms Shortall, who has responsibility for primary care, stressed that “we as a society can no longer tolerate the level of alcohol abuse in this country, particularly among young people”. She said “there is no room for ambivalence in our approach”, adding that the Department of Health was working on “developing an action plan on alcohol based on the recommendations in the substance misuse strategy report”.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Minister wants alcohol sale rules to be passed.]]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17593</link><description><![CDATA[The Government should push through plans to limit the sale of alcohol, and alcohol sponsorship of sport and culture events despite Cabinet divisions, Kathleen Lynch, the junior health minister, said yesterday.   Ms Lynch was speaking after the launch of a major study on youth mental health which found a strong link between drinking and negative mental health.   The largest study of youth mental health ever conducted in Ireland, the My World survey shows that while the majority of young people were functioning well across a variety of mental health indicators, others were not, and that mental health difficulties peaked in the late teens and early 20s.   It found that:  * Gender was a risk factor, with males more engaged in risky behaviour and less likely to speak about their problems, while females are more likely to avoid problems as a coping strategy;  * Excessive drinking had very negative consequences for youth mental health, and depression and anxiety increased significantly in those who engaged in harmful drinking or were alcohol dependent;  * Young adults who did not speak about their problems had higher rates of suicidal thoughts and self-harm;   * Financial stress was also a growing factor in some young lives.  The high level of alcohol consumption was illustrated by the figure of just 52% of sixth years in the ‘normal’ drinking category.  Overall, it found that drinking peaked between the ages of 18 and 21.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Potentially inappropriate prescribing in older people]]></title><link>http://www.cardi.ie/node/10679</link><description><![CDATA[The Health Research Board (HRB) Centre for Primary Care Research (www.hrbcentreprimarycare.ie) in collaboration with the School of Pharmacy, at Queens University, Belfast, has recently published two population studies, examining the prevalence, predictors and costs of potentially inappropriate prescribing (PIP) in older people, in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland (NI). A summary of the findings can be found hereRead the reports: Bradley MC, Fahey T, Cahir C, Bennett K, O'Reilly D, Parsons C, Hughes CM. Potentially inappropriate prescribing and cost outcomes for older people: a cross-sectional study using the Northern Ireland Enhanced Prescribing Database. European Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 2012 Mar 25: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22447297Cahir C, Fahey T, Teeling M, Teljeur C, Feely J, Bennett K. Potentially inappropriate prescribing and cost outcomes for older people: a national population study. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 2010; 69(5): 543-552 : www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20573091]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Report on the Uptake of Benefits by Pensioners NI]]></title><link>http://www.cardi.ie/node/10678</link><description><![CDATA[Benefit-paying agencies do not have an accurate estimate of the extent of unclaimed benefit by people of pensionable age. The latest available figures suggested people of pension age here could be missing out on benefits in the range of &pound;31 million to &pound;197 million according to a report from the Assembly Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in Northern Ireland.&nbsp;Read the report here]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[GPs warned over patients seeking drugs.]]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17590</link><description><![CDATA[Doctors in Cork and Kerry have been warned in recent weeks to be "on guard" for new patients seeking sedatives and tranquillisers.   The warning was issued in both counties after a Cork city GP suddenly closed his practice to go on sick leave.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[One in five youths engage inself-harm.]]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17587</link><description><![CDATA[One in five 12- to 25-year-olds have engaged in self-harm, one in 14 have attempted suicide, and a third who seek formal state help feel it is very difficult to find, according to new data.   The findings come from a 14,306-person study on youth mental health, described as Ireland’s first comprehensive national examination of the country’s youth mental health issues, which will be published today.  According to the Government-backed My WorldSurvey study, the inability to talk about personal problems and the lack of a trusted adult to act as an anchor in their lives are putting young people at serious risk.  In addition, alcohol abuse bordering on addiction, and financial concerns, are playing an increasingly damaging role in young people’s mental well-being.  The study is the result of two years of research by the Headstrong national centre for youth mental health and the UCD school of psychology.  It is based on the views of 6,085 school-going 12- to 18-year-olds and 8,221 17- to 25-year-olds of varying backgrounds.  According to its authors, two out of every five young people have had suicidal thoughts, while one in 14 have made a suicide attempt.  One in five have engaged in self-harm — defined as serious, deliberate self-injury without the desire to take your life.  Fewer than half (47%) of those affected have sought help. Of these, one in three found it next to impossible to access support.  The study has also raised serious concerns over Ireland’s youth drinking culture, noting that almost half of all Leaving Certificate students and three in five 17- to 25-year-olds drink a "harmful" level of alcohol.  The issue, the report states, tends to begin at age 13-14, and by 18-19, one in every 10 young adults will be an alcoholic — a problem the researchers said leads to health and mental health problems today, not just in future years.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Pub owners ‘drowning under sea of regulation’.]]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17588</link><description><![CDATA[Pub owners are drowning under a sea of regulation and a glut of cheap alcohol being sold in supermarkets.  Landlords are counting on a boom during Euro 2012 this summer to keep their heads above water.  The Vintners’ Federation of Ireland (VFI) said research carried out among its members found that the introduction of minimum pricing for alcohol was the most important factor for the survival of the pub trade.  Speaking at the organisation’s annual conference in Kilkenny, incoming president Gerry Rafter said: "Publicans I represent from Dungarvan to Donegal have clearly expressed to me the urgency of reducing local authority rates, reducing red tape, and introducing a minimum price for alcohol."  He said consumer confidence was at "rock bottom" and urged the Government to take measures to stimulate spending and keep small and medium enterprises going.   Mr Rafter said research carried out among 4,500 publicans in the VFI, which represents the trade outside Dublin, found that nearly two thirds had reduced staffing levels in the past year and that a similar percentage had reduced working hours for existing staff.  "The evidence clearly shows that publicans are struggling and the regulatory environment is not conducive to encouraging small and medium-size enterprises to flourish."  Members were looking at "event-driven activity" to attract people to the pub, said Mr Rafter. A survey of 351 members found that 62% felt Euro 2012 would have the most positive impact on the trade.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[My world survey: national study of youth mental health in Ireland.]]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17589</link><description><![CDATA[Large-scale studies that capture the mental health profile of young people help us to understand their experiences and inform service provision. To date, there is a limited body of research on the prevalence of mental health difficulties among young people aged 12-25, particularly in the Irish context. Most published Irish studies provide data up to age 18, with a primary focus on negative factors. The MWS had two broad aims: to extend the age distribution up to 25 years, and to consider protective factors in conjunction with risk factors. Thus, this is the first national study of youth mental health in Ireland from age 12-25 years.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Seanad Debate: Protection of Children’s Health from Tobacco Smoke Bill 2012: Second Stage.]]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17584</link><description><![CDATA[.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Research shows minimum pricing 'can reduce alcohol consumption']]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17585</link><description><![CDATA[International research on drinking indicates that Irish society would benefit from a minimum price being set for alcohol. Yesterday, Scotland introduced new rules to tackle binge-drinking, setting the lowest price for alcohol at 50p (60c) per unit. It will make the cheapest bottle of wine there £4.69p (€5.86c), while a four-pack of lager would cost at least £3.52p (€4.40c). Junior Health Minister Roisín Shortall has said she hopes to introduce a similar bill here before the end of the year. Dr Bobby Smyth, a senior lecturer in Public Health and Primary Care at Trinity College, Dublin, said there is a body of research to back up such a bill. Mr Smyth said: "The World Health Organisation has identified it as one of the most effective strategies based on international research. "In Ireland, on the very few occasions when we have increased excise duty in the last ten years it has resulted in small, but definite, declines in alcohol consumption. It is patently obvious, it seems to me, that alcohol as a discretionary purchase is going to be linked to the amount of money that we charge people for it."]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Urges that drain the brain.]]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17586</link><description><![CDATA[Ex-smokers are found to show greater activity in the prefrontal cortex than in those who’ve never smoked as a result of all the exercising of control over the urge to smoke. So it appears that learning skills to combat drug desires actually changes the brain itself. A previous study, by Dr Liam Nestor, has demonstrated that conscious control is indeed very much a part of successful abstinence. Behan’s study will examine whether or not greater prefrontal activity is matched by decreased striatal activity and whether a lack of prefrontal control gives rise to impulsivity. There’s evidence of deficits in the prefrontal areas of gamblers and the obese also but these are not well researched yet, according to Prof Hugh Garavan, of the School of Psychology in Trinity College and the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Vermont. For example, obese women have been found to be poorer at delaying gratification in a test which offers a smaller financial reward immediately compared with a larger reward in the future. Research in the US has found that both drug addicts and the pathologically obese share a reduction in striatal dopamine receptors. It’s suggested that decreased levels of these receptors in the brain encourage subjects to search for reinforcers – in the case of drug addicts for a drug and food for the obese – as a means to temporarily compensate for this decreased sensitivity in this reward area of the brain.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[A 3 year national longitudinal study comparing drug treatment outcomes for opioid users with and without children in their custodial care at intake.]]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17577</link><description><![CDATA[The aim of this research was to measure the longitudinal effects of having children in a client's custodial care, on opioid treatment outcomes. A 3 year national, longitudinal study was implemented. Outcomes were measured using the Maudsley Addiction Profile, 404 clients (75% male) were recruited and 97% were located at 3 years. At 1 year significantly fewer of those with children in their care were using heroin, benzodiazepines and cannabis but having children in a client's care at intake was a significant and positive predictor of using other opioids at 1 year. Analysis also revealed that there was a significant reduction in the proportion using alcohol in the last 90 days and in the mean days alcohol was used among those with no children in their care. Results demonstrate that having children in a client's care improves outcomes for heroin use but also suggest the possible use of substitution substances.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[149. Deputy Seán Kenny asked the Minister for Finance the amount spent by the Revenue Commissioners on interpreters for each of the past five years to date in 2012; the top four languages in each of these years for which interpreters were used. [22925/12]]]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17578</link><description><![CDATA[.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[89. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Justice and Equality his plans for reducing the overcrowding in the prison system. [22610/12]]]></title><link>http://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/17579</link><description><![CDATA[.]]></description></item>
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