Latest news from the Human Givens Institute

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>> The proposed Mental Health Bill 2004 still fails to acknowledge or promote the importance of meeting emotional needs

The Mental Health Bill 2004 still has some serious flaws. The Government needs to go back to the basic principles of primary care: helping people get their innate physical and emotional needs met. These needs, the human givens, are each individual's genetic inheritance (our biology determines that we cannot avoid needing food, water, attention, status, friends, being stretched in life etc.). How well our needs are met clearly depends on the quality of physical and emotional nourishment provided by the environment.

Human givens are intertwined. That is to say, if we are prevented from getting our physical needs met — by famine, accident, illness or ailments — our emotional life is affected. And when our emotional needs are not met and we suffer emotional distress — such as anxiety, anger, depression or psychosis — it can affect our physical health too.

Primary care with sufficient resources and training to act proactively in the mental health domain is not currently available. Too many people fall through the cracks, and with this Bill, they could be imprisoned and given drug treatments against their will.

Compulsion within a resource-constrained mental health service will focus attention on minimising treatment and put pressure upon clinicians to prescribe drug treatments rather than focus on human needs and individualised therapy.

The HGI believe that if society imposes an obligation of treatment on an individual, it should impose a moral obligation on itself to ensure that treatment is appropriate and available.

Posted 27.11.06

>> New HGI e-newsletter

The Human Givens Institute has recently started a regular email newsletter, designed to keep everyone interested in the human givens approach up to date with the latest developments and news as well as interesting case histories etc. To sign up, simply click here. (We do not pass on your email details to any third parties.)

Posted 20.9.06

>> Launch of new project to take the 'emotional temperature' of the UK

The Human Givens Institute has just launched the Emotional Needs Audit (ENA), an online survey of the emotional well-being of the UK's population based on human givens principles.

The simple questionnaire, developed by the HGI, has already proved an invaluable diagnostic tool for health and welfare professionals (as it rapidly shows where the potential problems in someone's life might lie) and the new online version now means that individuals can find out for themselves which areas of their lives might be problematic.

The associated website also includes lots of useful information about our innate emotional needs, as well as the human givens approach, and provides useful links which they can follow up.

In only a matter of days, the project is already providing fascinating and useful information about our overall emotional health, but to provide a fully representational picture it needs to be completed by as many people as possible, from a broad cross-section of people of all ages and backgrounds.

Please, therefore, take a moment to fill it in (it's totally confidential and only takes a few minutes to complete) by visiting: www.enaproject.org and then email the link to your friends, neighbours, family and clients for them to fill it in too.

To view the current emotional temperature of the UK, click here. For more information see: www.hgi.org.uk/ena/

Posted 21.7.06

>> Austistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) 'more common than thought'

A new study released to the press today shows that autism affects about 1 percent of children in the U.K., three times more than previously estimated.

As many as 116 children out of 10,000 suffer from autism and related disorders, according to a study published in The Lancet medical journal this week. Gillian Baird of Guy's and St Thomas's Hospital in London and her colleagues studied 56,946 children ages 9 and 10.

Autism is a developmental disability that changes the way a person communicates and relates to others, and it affects more than 500,000 families in the U.K., according to the National Autistic Society. The study didn't seek causes for the rise in autism and other problems it measured, known as autism-related spectrum disorders.

"Whether the increase is due to better ascertainment, broadening diagnostic criteria or increased incidence is unclear," Baird wrote.

Autism symptoms include regression in speaking skills and may develop after children are given vaccines, leading some to link the events. Just last week, a Canadian study found that use of mercury in vaccines didn't cause autism among school-aged children. Experts say the increased autism rate may be tied to changes in the definition of the disorder, greater awareness of the condition and rising numbers of services for patients.

[Above news report from Bloomberg.com]

MindFields College's workshop: Demystifying autism and Asperger's syndrome, gives participants a greater understanding or ASD and offers practical solutions for parents, carers, teachers and other professionals. The tutor, Angela Austin, has worked for many years as the Principal of Hillingdon Manor School, a specialist school for pupils with autism and Asperger's syndrome which is run along human givens lines. She is also a Trustee of Austic Care and Support, a charity which supports families with children, young people and adults with ASD.

For more information about the report released today, also see the BBC's news report: click here.

Posted 14.7.06

>> All Party Parliamentary Group on Depression

A new All Party Parliamentary Group on Depression has been announced to coincide with National Depression Week in April. The Chair is Laura Moffatt MP and the Vice Chair is Boris Johnson MP.

The HGI has recently written to them both (enclosing information about the HG approach to treating depression and the emotional needs audit) suggesting that they need to tackle provision via GPs so that referrals and waiting times can be addressed.

It has also argued for opening up the playing field to include the human givens approach to psychotherapy, rather than restricting provision to the NICE guidelines recommended CBT.

Posted 15.3.06

>> New training and filming facilities for Human Givens Diploma Post Graduate Qualification

Feedback from delegates at Mindfields College events in London has led the London Human Givens Centre to consider providng some workshops this year for HG.Dip graduates who wish to complete their Part 3 training.

These will include practical sessions: setting up audio visual equipment, annotation of recorded sessions, how to find willing clients for filming etc., as well as critique of existing taped sessions or live sessions on the day. The format is not yet set in stone so suggestions from potential delegates are welcome.

If anyone is interested in attending this type of workshop then please contact Stuart Coulden on 0207 467 8521 (Mobile: 07712 650681). If there is enough interest we will be looking to put these events on later in the year.

Posted 15.3.06

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