Mental health care and cell overcrowding at a Cambridgeshire prison have been criticised for a second time. An inspection at Littlehey Prison, Perry, said “nothing had changed” since similar findings were disclosed last year.

A care assistant who covered an elderly dementia sufferer’s head with a plastic bag as a punishment has been convicted of ill treatment of a patient. Liudas Poderis, 35, attacked Stanley Kelly, 88, at Southfield nursing home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, last November.

Use of medicines to prevent disease may not prolong or improve life in elderly people, say doctors. Drugs such as statins, prescribed to combat heart disease, may simply switch the cause of death to cancer or dementia in older people, they warn.

Conditions at Pentonville prison are “a matter of deep shame”, according to a report published by the prisons watchdog. The independent monitoring board found evidence of “endemic squalour” and rat and cockroach infestations in the north London prison, which was built in 1842 and has the capacity to house 1,127 inmates.

While many people in the UK say they are scared by people with mental health problems, many also realise the positive qualities of people who suffer from mental illness, according to research commissioned by the Priory Group.

Campaigners are set to learn if they have won their High Court battle over the availability of Alzheimer’s drugs for people with early-stage disease. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) ruled donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine were not cost-effective in such cases.

{mosimage}But critics argue the decision process was flawed and did not take into account the benefits to carers. It is the first time a judicial review has been sought on a NICE decision.

Drugs company Eisai brought the case to the High Court with support from fellow drugs firm Pfizer and the Alzheimer’s Society. During the four-day hearing, which took place in June, lawyers representing Eisai said NICE and its appeal panel failed to assess properly the issues.

They argued that NICE did not properly evaluate the impact of the drugs on the quality of life of carers and that the figures on the cost of long-term care used in their analysis were too low. They also questioned the accuracy of the test used to determine the severity of a patient’s Alzheimer’s.

NICE guidance in 2001 recommended the drugs – which can make it easier to carry out everyday tasks – should be used as standard. But guidance published in November 2006, after months of appeals, stated that the drugs should only be prescribed to people with moderate-stage disease.

NICE said the drugs, which cost about £2.50 a day, did not make enough of a difference to recommend them for all patients and were not good value for money. Campaigners are angry that people suffering from Alzheimer’s have to get worse before they are eligible for treatment.

Nearly 2,000 people with learning disabilities are to be moved into their own homes from the NHS institutions where they have lived for years. Some £175m is being made available to rehouse inhabitants – who have spent at least a decade on the so-called “campuses” – within the community.

{mosimage}The campuses, many of which are former hospitals, will be closed by 2010. The Department of Health has insisted no-one would be left on their own to fend for themselves. Each person will be individually assessed and given their own care plan. “Whatever they need help with – from dressing and shopping to 24 hour care, they’ll get it. No-one will be left alone,” a spokesperson said.

The proposal is seen as a significant challenge as so many have spent so long institutionalised. The last referrals to campuses were made in the mid-1990s, so those within them have spent at least ten years on the site.

Campaigners have long argued that the lives of campus inhabitants have been far too limited: for example, all of their needs beside food and accommodation must be funded by £20 of hospital pocket money each week, and they have not been able to take part in simple every day activities like cooking for themselves.

Local authorities and Primary Care Trusts are to bid for a tranche of the £175m being made available to provide the required housing and day care facilities. “The funding provides the incentive for Primary Care Trusts, in conjunction with local authorities, to get on with closure plans, so people with a learning disability can live their lives the way they want, within their community,” said Dame Jo Williams from Mencap. “People with a learning disability should have the opportunity to make choices about where and how they live.”

Coping well with stress can cut the risk of a stroke by almost a quarter, research shows. A University of Cambridge team based their conclusion on a seven-year study of more than 20,000 people.

More than 60 per cent of mental health nurses say they are under excessive work pressure, according to a survey. A Royal College of Nursing survey of 577 of its members found 61 per cent agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I am under too much pressure at work”

A campaign has been launched to highlight the shocking problems faced by the ‘young olds’ – vulnerable, middle aged, former rough sleepers who have debilitating health problems more commonly associated with pensioners.