Shining examples

Mental Health Nursing,  May 2003  

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Depression Alliance, the leading national charity for people affected by depression, is seeking entries for this year's lundbeck Award for Best Practice in Depression', a UK-wide initiative that recognises excellence in the management of depression and rewards outstanding achievement with prize money totalling L19,000.

The award was developed in 2002 to acknowledge the often unrecognised work that goes on within primary care to improve services for patients affected by depression and to spread best practice. Depression Alliance would like to hear from members of the practice team who feel their practice excels in its approach to depression.

Jim Thomson, Director of Depression Alliance and co-judge of the Lundbeck Award said, "We are looking for best practice covering everything from development of local protocols for depression and improvement of patient access to services and information, to multi-disciplinary teamwork and commitment to staff training. The winners will become exemplars within the primary care setting."

The Lundbeck Award will enable the overall UK winning practice team to gain national recognition for their work and win L10,000 to drive further improvements in local mental health services. The three runners up each receive L3,000.

The Lundbeck Awards are now open for applications and will close on 29th August. For further information or to order an application pack please phone the Lundbeck Awards Secretariat at Munro & Forster Communications on 020 7815 3956, email

lundbeckawards@munroforster.com or visit the Lundbeck Website (www.Lundbeckpsychiatry.org) or Depression Alliance Website (www.depressionalliance.org) to download an application form.

Management styles

Nearly half of respondents to a Nursing and Midwifery Council survey showed a negative view of an acute mental health trust's management style. Forty seven per cent considered it to be 'too formal and autocratic' The study, by NMC professional officer Joe Nichols, also found that benefits such as pay and career development tended to be less important to the respondents than doing their job well and having a good relationships with their colleagues.

A questionnaire was sent to 75 nurses at a selected inner city trust. Staff were asked about their attitudes to issues including how a manager evaluates their performance, how often they saw a member of the management team and ideas on how the service should attempt to retain staff.

Copyright Community Psychiatric Nurses Association May 2003
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