Evidence suggests there are 5 steps you can take to improve your mental health and wellbeing. Trying these things could help you feel more positive and able to get the most out of life. Self-help suggestions from NHS website.
Acne Support provides expert, impartial information from consultant dermatologists on the treatment, causes and prevention of acne, as well as advice on how to access emotional support. Includes information about different treatments available (both on prescription and over the counter/through beauty clinics), how they work etc.
Age UK is a charity that provide help for older people in numerous ways. They have a telephone friendship service for people experiencing social isolation, an advice line to help with information about benefits and finances. Their website has information about power of attorney and living wills, pensions, carers, health conditions, loneliness and remaining active. Age UK also provide help with local help at home, gardening and handyperson services, as well as social events, dementia meeting services and day cares.
Impartial advice about equipment to help make daily living easier. You fill out a questionnaire that comprehensively takes you through activities you may struggle with (e.g. breaking down 'preparing drinks' into the steps involved), and then recommends aids that you may find helpful as a result.
Asthma and Lung UK is the UK's leading lung charity. Their website contains a host of information about different lung conditions including asthma, COPD, asbestos related lung conditions, bronchiolitis, bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis, pulmonary fibrosis, lung cancer, sleep apnoea and more. They run a helpline and can provide advice on many aspects of living with a lung condition. This includes advice on how to manage a lung condition, information about specific conditions, information about medication and treatment, lifestyle advice, managing flare-ups, and information on government financial help and funding.
Louise Newson is a GP and menopause specialist and holds an Advanced Menopause Specialist certificate with FSRH and the BMS. She has created a website of information about the menopause and HRT, with resources for patients and healthcare professionals.
The balance app is designed by Dr Louise Newson (GP and menopause specialist). Allows patients to track their menopause symptoms, get access to specialist information, and join a community of like-minded people to share experiences.
British Pregnancy Advisory Service - patients can self-refer to BPAS if considering an abortion. Resources on the website give information about termination of pregnancy including medical vs surgical management. Phone number on their website to contact and arrange treatment. BPAS provide pre and post-abortion counselling and discussion.
Information leaflets about skin conditions and their treatments. This includes actinic keratosis, acne, balanitis, eczema, leg ulcers, viral warts, vulvodynia, lichen sclerosus, SCC, BCC, melanoma, hidradenitis and more. This website also has a section containing guidelines for clinicians (although they are presented as journal articles and are quite lengthy).
Information about conditions affecting the cardiovascular system, such as aneurysm, angina, arrhythmias, atrial fibrillation, hypertension and others. There is also information about cholesterol, blood pressure, and lifestyle advice about management. As well as helpful information leaflets, there is a free helpline run by cardiac nurses who can provide advice on diagnoses, lifestyle advice and information about medications.
Calcium calculator to work out whether people with osteopenia/osteoporosis are getting enough dietary calcium. This can then guide whether calcium supplementation required.
Suicide prevention helpline and webchat (both 5pm-midnight). No longer for men only, they support anyone who needs to talk about life’s problems. They have a crisis helpline. They also support people who have been bereaved through suicide. Their website also contains information and resources about specific concerns and worries, including abuse, anger, anxiety, alcohol and drugs, bullying, depression, erectile dysfunction, hair loss, homelessness, sexuality, relationship breakdown and more.
Gov UK information leaflet about colposcopy as part of cervical screening program - what's involved, what results mean, what treatment involves and the risks.
Bereavement support and counselling. They have a helpline, an online chat service, and local support groups. They can arrange 1:1 support, counselling and also support for children experiencing grief or bereavement.
Specialist dementia nursing charity that is there for the whole family. The nurses, known as Admiral Nurses, provide free, life-changing support and advice to anyone affected by dementia. There is a free helpline and you can also book virtual-online appointments with the nursing team to ask for advice and go through any questions that you may have.
Diabetes UK a leading charity. Their website provides information about all aspects of diabetes (Type 1 and Type 2) including information about the prevention of type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, lifestyle advice, living with diabetes, information about treatments and the condition itself. They run a dedicated helpline with advisors who have an extensive knowledge of diabetes. They can provide information about the condition, take the time to talk things through and explore emotional, social, psychological or practical difficulties. There are also local support groups that patients can get involved in, and an online support community too.
Information leaflet from Patient UK about advice during pregnancy. Includes information on food and drink to avoid, vitamins and supplements, smoking. alcohol, sex, drugs, working, and more. Useful when trying to conceive or during first pregnancy call.
Diet information sheet for the management of raised triglycerides.
Eczema Care Online will help you to keep your skin healthy and live well with eczema. The website has been developed by people with eczema and a team of health experts using the most up-to-date research evidence. Includes information for parents about caring for children with eczema - including info about treatments, itching, bathing, showering and washing clothes.
Eczema Care Online will help you to keep your skin healthy and live well with eczema. The website has been developed by people with eczema and a team of health experts using the most up-to-date research evidence. Includes information about treatments, diet, allergy, cosmetics, itching, and how to manage impact on life/school/work.
EMC contains information about medicines licensed for use in the UK. All documents have been checked and approved by either the UK or European government agencies which license medicines. Contains summary of product characteristics (SPC) and patient information leaflets (PIL). SPCs contain useful information about prescribing, dosage, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, prescribing in specific circumstances, pregnancy, breastfeeding, hepatic and renal impairment. Contains side effects (listed by frequency).
Designed for in-hospital ENT SHOs, this website can provide helpful overviews of acute ENT conditions. While it has a secondary care focus, it can still provide a useful guide for GPs in the assessment of conditions such as sudden sensorineural hearing loss, otitis externa, periorbital cellulitis, tonsillitis and more.
This fact sheet provides some practical strategies for dealing with the troubling behaviour problems and communication difficulties often encountered when caring for a person with dementia.
A charity that supports people affected by smell and taste disorders across the world. They provide direct support, advice and a signpost to potential diagnosis and treatment to people affected by such conditions.
FLOWS is a legal support service, designed to help protect women against domestic abuse. They can provide advice on things such as injunctions (e.g. non-molestation orders), divorce, or what happens to somebody's home if leaving a partner.
Gloucestershire NHS trust information sheet for FODMAP diet for IBS with dietary recommendations and guidance
Guidance for prescribing contraception in women over 40yrs. Includes when to safely stop contraception, how to co-prescribe with HRT, and safety considerations.
A leaflet created by OUH advising on a method of topical steroid use for eczema to reduce likelihood of recurrent flares. Details how to use steroids during a flare, and then how to use as 'weekend treatment' to keep control. N.B. Leaflet is written aimed at parents of children with eczema, but this method is also useful in adults.
Gingerbread is a charity providing support and advice to single parents, so that they have the tools to support their children and themselves. This includes information about benefits, bereavement, child care, child maintenance, contact arrangements, cost of living, housing, parental responsibility and more. They also have a supportive online community where people can meet other single parents and support each other. They have an advice helpline as well as online information.
Asthma UK website, videos and instructions about how to use different inhalers with and without spacers. The Asthma and Lung UK website more broadly has a lot of information about different lung conditions, and a helpline with trained staff who are able to provide advice about management of different lung conditions.
Listen to Specialist NHS Gastroenterology Dietitians giving the most up-to-date and accurate advice on first-line dietary treatment for adults with Irritable Bowel Syndrome, including information on dairy, lactose, gluten and the low FODMAP diet and whether allergy testing is useful in IBS treatment.
Information about cervical screening for transgender men and non-binary people. Discusses what cervical screening is, what to expect, tips to help if you find it distressing.
A charity for victims and survivors of honour based abuse in the UK. Honour based abuse can take many forms, including child marriage, virginity testing, enforced abortion, forced marriage, female genital mutilation, as well as physical, sexual and economic abuse and coercive control. For some communities, the concept of ‘honour’ is prized above the safety and wellbeing of individuals. To compromise a family’s ‘honour’ is to bring dishonour and shame – which can have severe consequences. This is sometimes used to justify emotional abuse, physical abuse, disownment and in some cases even murder. Honour Based Abuse is more prevalent within communities from South Asia, the Middle East, and North and East Africa. Reports come from Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Orthodox Jewish and occasionally traveller communities. It is not determined by gender – both perpetrators and victims can be male or female.
Visual summary of primary and secondary prevention lipid management NICE guidelines.
Resources for patients to help towards better self-management of their long term pain. Offers knowledge, tools and resources to help patients become clearer about their needs, manage or cope with their pain well and be more effective in their use of health care. There are also resources for doctors to support patients living with chronic pain.
Living Made Easy is brought to you by the DLF, the charity previously known as the Disabled Living Foundation. Free impartial advice and information on solutions, gadgets, adaptations and aids to make life easier. Combine with Ask Sara, where you fill in a questionnaire and they make recommendations on aids which may help you around the house. Living Made Easy directs you to places where you may be able to purchase the aids you need.
Mankind is a charity supporting male victims of domestic abuse. They have a helpline that offers emotional support and practical help, including signposting to support services and making an escape plan.
Medicines for Children provides practical and reassuring advice to empower parents/carers to give medicines correctly and with confidence to their children. Leaflets are written by practising health professionals, who provide practical advice that complements information in the British National Formulary for Children. The website is partnered with WellChild, Neonatal and Paediatric Pharmacist Group (NPPG) and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH).
*Needs a login* - free subscription for a certain number of views per month. Table of different brands of HRT, detailing what each one contains, form of HRT (e.g. sequential vs continuous combined), and how to take. Useful particularly when starting HRT, deciding between patches etc.
Provides health professionals with accessible, evidence based, condition specific information to help give advice on physical activity at all stages of children, young peoples and adults treatment pathways. The "share benefits" section of each conversation gives condition specific benefits of exercise which may help motivate patients to improve their fitness.
The National Breastfeeding Helpline offers friendly, non-judgemental, independent, evidence based breastfeeding support and information to anyone in the UK who needs it. 9:30am-9:30pm daily. 0300 100 0212
Created by the Dementia Change Action Network, Next Steps provides information for people who have been referred for a memory assessment. It gives information about what to expect at a memory assessment. It also provides tools and resources to help people begin thinking about how they can continue doing what matters to them, and connects people to available sources of support.
Help for NHS front-line staff. Phoneline or text support, access to counselling, bereavement support, directory of other resources.
Information leaflets and self-help guides for mental health conditions.
Self-help leaflets for mental health conditions.
NHS service for mental health and wellbeing support for veterans, service leavers and reservists. Patients will be speaking with people who are either from the Armed Forces community or highly experienced in working with serving personnel, reservists, veterans and their families. Services include providing care and treatment for mental health problems, including therapeutic treatment for psychological trauma, and intensive emergency care in crisis. They also work with charities and local organisations to support patients with their wider health and wellbeing needs, such as housing, relationships, finances, employment, drug and alcohol misuse and social support.
Information about medications used for mental health. Includes information leaflets for patients and also information for doctors, including: medications in pregnancy, comparing different medication side effect profiles, management of drug specific side-effects, switching medications or formulations.
Information about how to check your peak flow and how to complete a peak flow diary. The Asthma and Lung UK website more broadly has a lot of information about different lung conditions, and a helpline with trained staff who are able to provide advice about management of different lung conditions.
A small volunteer led charity that aims to provide support and information about Pelvic Girdle Pain. Their website has good practical suggestions for things such as pain management, and approaches to tasks such as sitting, bathing, driving, sleeping, etc.
24/7 National domestic abuse helpline for women experiencing domestic abuse. The helpline provides emotional and practical support. They can help with planning an escape, financial and legal advice, and can help find a refuge vacancy for people leaving an abusive situation.
Rock My Menopause was set up to give women the confidence to recognise and discuss their symptoms and equip families, friends, employers and the wider public with information about the menopause to support women at this time of life. Rock My Menopause is a campaign of the Primary Care Women’s Health Forum (PCWHF), providing expert medical guidance, direction and information about the menopause.
A resource created by NHS Scotland: self help resources for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Contains suggestions of strategies to manage issues with time management, anxiety, impulsiveness, attention, frustration, home management, problem solving, sleep etc.
Shout 85258 is a free, confidential, 24/7 text messaging support service for anyone who is struggling to cope. It is a de-escalation, volunteer-driven service, working with people in immediate distress to take them to a calmer moment and empower them with support and techniques to take their next steps to feeling better and handle future issues, as well as possibly signposting someone to further support services or their GP so that they can get continuous and long-term support. It is not a service that can provide regular, ongoing support.
An organisation offering peer-to-peer support to all those over the age of 18, impacted by suicide loss in the UK. They help those bereaved by suicide to support each other, at the time of their loss and in the months and years that follow. They offer peer led support groups, online virtual support groups, a national telephone helpline, online community forum and email support.
App designed to help with pelvic floor exercises. There is information for both men and women with pelvic floor dysfunction. Particularly helpful for women post-natally, the app guides you through an exercise plan and you can set reminders on your phone.
NICE guidelines for lipid management in people who are intolerant to statins.
Resources to support teenage mental health. Includes information leaflets and also links to four free mental health apps: Calm Harm (resisting self-harm impulses), Clear Fear (managing symptoms of anxiety), Move Mood (to help with low mood and depression), and Combined Minds (aimed at helping families and friends to provide mental health support). Resources on the website have sections aimed at teenagers, at schools, at healthcare professionals, at families and also at friends of somebody struggling with their mental health.
BMJ article that compared effect of tai chi versus aerobic exercise for fibromyalgia: comparative effectiveness randomized controlled trial. Outcome was a reduction in symptom score that was greater in those who did tai chi exercises. Article may be used to facilitate discussions with patients around tai chi or other stretching exercises as a pain management strategy in fibromyalgia.
A youtube video that goes through some tai chi exercises for patients with fibromyalgia. Involves a number of seated exercises and low intensity exercises. A randomised control trial demonstrated evidence that exercise such as tai chi may be helpful for pain management in fibromyalgia; this video is one example of some exercises that they may find helpful.
Educational tool that aims to inspire research-based action in the treatment of chronic pain. Animated and written information about understanding chronic pain, and learning to overcome it. Useful resource links about understanding pain and moving towards recovery.
The Children's Society is a resource for children who are living in difficult situations. The website provides signposting to places where they can seek help. It also has information about mental health, abuse, and practical advice about things such as household bills and finding a job.
The Sleep Charity produces a wide range of evidence-based information on all aspects of sleep from triggers to treatments. This includes advice sheets and suggestions for people of all ages, with specific information for children, teens and adults. They also have a helpline where they can discuss recommendations and strategies.
Charity with free helpline, advice, information and support for anybody suffering from tinnitus. They have summarised evidence on treatments for tinnitus (including complimentary ones) with advice on their efficacy and evidence base.
Information leaflets about gout, its treatments, and dietary advice
Versus Arthritis is a charity that raises awareness and supports people with arthritis. Their website has information about arthritis and its various treatments, and other rheumatological conditions such as fibromyalgia. They also have a helpline for further information and advice. This page in particular has exercises to keep joints healthy and to help with arthritis related pains.
Really great website of resources for parents and doctors. Developed with the NHS and RCPH, resources for both healthcare professionals and parents about maternal and child health. Includes: Information on common childhood illnesses, symptoms in pregnancy, postnatal health, maternal mental health, child safety, healthy living. For healthcare professionals there are also resources to support discussions about healthy living such as childhood obesity.
Information and support for women experiencing domestic abuse. Contains a survivor's handbook with advice about how to safely leave an abusive relationship. The website directs to other agencies for support including the Refuge domestic abuse helpline.
Detailed factsheets on the most common gynaecological conditions and sexual health. Helpful information and infographics for HRT including a factsheet on risk factors for breast cancer (putting HRT into context).
Mental health resources for children and teenagers. Includes advice and a helpline for parents, and advice written for teens.