School nursing affected by rise in eating disorders

  • Latest data from NHS Digital shows the number of children and young people in England who urgently need eating disorder support has increased by 333% in six years.
  • During the first quarter of 2022-23, 230 children and young people in urgent need were on a waiting list. 102 of them waiting more than 12 weeks.
  • The Chief Executive of the School and Public Health Nurses Association has said that before Covid-19 nurses were already ‘at crisis point’ but the pandemic led to a “tsunami” of mental health, safeguarding and child protection issues.
  • For more on this story, visit the Nursing Times website.

Families with disabled children ‘struggling to survive’ in cost-of-living crisis

  • A survey has found that 9 in 10 families with a disabled child are struggling or falling behind on their regular household bills.
  • Conducted by the Family Fund, the survey found that 54% of parents and carers reported skipping or cutting the size of their meals in order to afford essentials for their disabled children.
  • 83% of families with a disabled child are in debt, with 40% reported that they will not be able to afford heating during the winter months.
  • ·For more on this, please visit the Belfast Telegraph website.

Twitter tests new Tweet view count

  • The social media platform has launched a public test of a new ‘Views’ count feature, in which users can see the amount of times their Tweet has been seen.
  • This is technically not a new feature, as users could already view their tweet impression via analytics.
  • However, there are concerns about how this new feature will affect self-esteem of users.
  • For more on this feature, visit the Social Media Today website.

Racist hate crimes pass 100,000 in England and Wales for first time

  • Offences against all minority groups rose by more than a quarter, the largest annual rise since 2017, with crimes against transgender people seeing the greatest rise.
  • Disability hate crimes rose by 43%, sexual-orientation related hate crimes rose by 41%, religious hate crimes were up 37%, while racist crimes increased by 19%.
  • The Home Office said there was evidence that some crimes reported were for “offence types which can be more challenging to investigate.”
  • For more on this, visit the BBC website.