Sunday, October 06, 2013

Mental Wellbing and HIV

New research by Positively UK, presented in their States of Mind Report, shows that three quarters of all HIV positive people experience mental health issues.  

For more about this, see:  
Positive Nation 
Mental Health Today
 
Mental health can impact on treatment, as people can miss doses of their meds as a result of depression and other mental health issues. 

The report highlights the need for mental health support for people living with HIV.  However, mental health services are shrinking due to budgetary constraints.  

This report may not be telling us anything we don't already know.  But as people of African heritage are already over-represented within mental health service users, and HIV is still spreading rapidly in areas where there are large numbers of African people, such as inner-city London, this is something we need to be very concerned about.  

Click here for a short audio on the benefits of meditation.  Meditation can have a very powerful effect on our wellbeing.  

 


Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Alzheimer's and Dementia in UK-Based Black People

Further to my blog on the fact that African Americans are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease, the Alzheimer's Organisation produced a report in July of 2013 on the impact of Alzheimer's and dementia on BAME ("Black and minority ethnic") communities in the England and Wales.  

Based on census data, there is an estimate of nearly 25,000 people with Alzheimer's from BAME communities in England and Wales. 


This number is expected to grow to nearly 50,000 by 2026 and over 172,000 people by 2051. This is nearly a seven-fold increase in 40 years, as compared with a doubling of the figure for the overall population.  

These figures reflect the ageing  BAME population.,  


Alzheimer's and dementia cause a lot of suffering.  However, they are not inevitable.  We routinely eliminate Alzheimer's and dementia using Spiritual Response Therapy (SRT).  For  more about this, see Freedom from Alzheimer's and Dementia