Urgent adult mental health crisis referrals in England double in a year

Urgent adult referrals to mental health crisis teams in England more than doubled between 2023 and 2024, according to a healthcare watchdog, which said people were becoming more unwell while waiting for help from overstretched services.The report, from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), found there were not enough beds or staff, and ward managers felt pressed to discharge the “least unwell” patients.Very urgent adult referrals to crisis teams increased to 3,063 in March 2024, from 1,400 the previous April.The report, published on Thursday, also raised concerns about the over-representation of black people detained under the Mental Health Act, finding they were 3.5 times more likely to be held than white people

Margaret Miles-Bramwell obituary

My friend Margaret Miles-Bramwell, who has died aged 76, was the founder and chair of the weight-loss organisation Slimming World.At the age of 21, after struggling with her weight, she hit upon the idea of forming a local weight-loss club. She set up Slimming World in early 1969 with the help of a friend and neighbour in Alfreton in Derbyshire, and by the end of the year the business had grown to 25 groups across the county and neighbouring Nottinghamshire. Today it employs more than 500 people at its head office in Alfreton, supporting a franchisee network across the UK and Ireland of about 3,500 self-employed consultants who run its weight-loss groups.Born in London and adopted soon after birth by Emma Selina and Samuel Birch, Margaret grew up in humble surroundings in South Normanton in Derbyshire

Dick Muskett obituary

My partner, Dick Muskett, who has died aged 82, was an organiser, socialist and entrepreneur who played a key role in setting up the Workers Beer Company, which runs event and festival bars to raise funds for progressive causes.Dick was a man with strong principles, energy and charm who used his experiences as a soldier, firefighter, trade unionist, event organiser and local government officer to make a difference. A firm believer in collective action, he never took the limelight for himself.Born in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, Dick was the eldest child of Joanie Davidson, a shopworker. He never knew who his father was and Muskett was a surname chosen for him by his mother

Cutting benefits won’t help disabled people into work | Letters

I doubt the government understands what disabled people need in order to work (Starmer decries ‘worst of all worlds’ benefits system ahead of deep cuts, 10 March). I have a mental health condition, physical disabilities and am neurodiverse. To do meaningful part-time work, I had to become self-employed, simply to work at my level of skill and experience. It costs me nearly £1,000 a month in various ways to remain well enough to work consistently – all post-tax.The NHS is merely keeping me alive – it isn’t interested in optimising my life, for example, by tackling the hideous side-effects of my medication – and the tax system refuses to recognise that anything more than keeping me alive is required

In good company for aches and pains | Brief letters

Regarding Adrian Chiles’s article (I twanged my achilles playing pickleball. Here’s what it taught me about tendons – and human nature, 12 March), now I am in my 70s, life does seem to be a succession of various aches and pains, which can be irksome to the spirit. Am I alone in feeling a little solace when hearing of others having similar afflictions?Michael FullerBedford A friend once thought a decades-old pullover of mine was new because she had not seen it before. Similarly, I suspect that the “new moons” orbiting Saturn are not new at all and that the planet has had the now known 274 moons for millions of years (Report, 11 March). Perhaps there are others still to be discovered by us earthlings?James FanningGreifswald, Germany Not everyone appreciates art in the same way (Letters, 11 March)

Teenager sentenced to life for south London murder of Elianne Andam

A teenager has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering a 15-year-old girl after a row over a teddy bear in south London.Hassan Sentamu was 17 when he killed Elianne Andam by stabbing her in the neck outside the Whitgift Centre in Croydon, south London, in September 2023.At his Old Bailey trial, Sentamu admitted manslaughter but denied murder, claiming his autism spectrum disorder had caused him to lose control during a meeting with Elianne. But in January a jury found Sentamu, of New Addington, near Croydon, guilty of murder by a majority verdict.On Thursday the judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, sentenced Sentamu to life in prison with a minimum term of 23 years as he had taken a knife to the scene