The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland has called on health and social services to improve their awareness and responses to the needs of people with alcohol related brain damage (ARBD). They have made a series of recommendations to health boards, local authorities and the Scottish Executive following an Inquiry into the case of a man with dementia brought on by long term alchol abuse. The man at the centre of the Inquiry, Mr H, had been allowed to live squalid conditions, with evidence of physical and financial abuse, despite having regular contact with social and medical services for over two decades.

A hidden epidemic of self-harm among older people exists in Scotland, with thousands of cases admitted to hospital each year and many more covering up their injuries, mental health campaigners have warned. Support groups for self-harmers report growing numbers of cases emerging among people in their 40s, 50s and 60s.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has been given approval for the new facilities in Barrhead and Renfrew. Tim Eltringham, of East Renfrewshire Community Health and Care Partnership, will oversee the development of the new Barrhead centre on the site of the former Carlibar primary school. He said: “The existing health centre no longer meets the needs of patients and staff. The new one will be larger and offer a wider range of services in a modern and attractive environment.”

A foreign dentist keen to carry on working in Scotland’s critically understaffed dental service is being forced to return to her own country because immigration officials do not consider her to be a “highly skilled” migrant. Despite having the offer of a permanent job from her current employers in Fife, officials have told Siddhika Sathyamoorthy that because, among other criteria, she did not earn more than £27,000 last year or have a highly- qualified husband or partner, she will not be allowed to remain in Scotland.

Deafblind people in Scotland face a “postcode lottery” of services, it has been claimed. Glasgow man Michael Anderson, who has the condition, said there was a shortage of trained professionals, known as guide communicators. They are funded by local authorities and are available for between two and 25 hours per week in different areas. The Scottish Executive said it was working on a number of initiatives to help people and respond to their needs.

Hospitals in Scotland are facing a new “superbug” crisis after it emerged yesterday that a form of the Acinetobacter bacterium, never before found north of the Border, was discovered in

A specialist court set up to tackle the menace of Scotland’s “booze and blades” culture has led to a massive reduction in serious knife crime. An official evaluation of violence in Inverclyde over the first year of its dedicated weapons court – launched by ministers in June last year – has revealed a 9% fall in the number of slashings and stabbings involving knives and blades.

The number of beds at Carstairs hospital is to be cut by a third as dozens of patients are moved to lower-security institutions.New policy guidance on mental health facilities for offenders shows the high-security hospital is to be dramatically reduced in size as more medium and low-security beds are introduced. Women will also no longer be sent to Carstairs, after experts concluded that high-security psychiatric care for female criminals was not required in Scotland.

A convicted rapist who terrorised hospital staff keeping him alive has been jailed for nine months. But Donald Gibson, dubbed Hannibal Lecter by medical workers, will continue receiving vital kidney dialysis treatment at the hospital where he abused his carers. Gibson, 37, admitted assaulting a male nurse and was found guilty of racially abusing a German security guard while receiving treatment at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

Plans for a crackdown on prostitution, aggressive begging, drunkenness and other anti-social crimes in Aberdeen were unveiled yesterday. Grampian Police is to join forces with the city council, the Grampian Fire and Rescue Service and the Aberdeen Community Safety Partnership to take a hard line against a range of crimes afflicting the city centre.