Support for mental health issues

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The PANDAS Foundation is a UK-wide charity for families suffering prenatal/antenatal and postnatal mental health issues. The charity supports many parents, carers and their networks with support from free services, which are run by fully trained PANDAS volunteers (most of whom have themselves experienced a perinatal mental health issue, used the charity's services and recovered with support and advice). PANDAS supports parents from conception through to birth and beyond.

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The charity's aim is to listen, understand, empathise, advise and signpost where appropriate. As the leading perinatal mental health charity operating in England, Scotland and Wales, with no waiting list and no cost to the service user, PANDAS is very much in demand. The services provided are crucial in bridging the gap while the NHS is under extreme pressure, with long waiting lists for treatments for mental health issues (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2022).

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The 2022 survey

In 2022, PANDAS (2022) supported more than 10 000 parents and carers in need. Demand for our services is now 70% higher than pre-pandemic levels (PANDAS, 2022). There are many reasons for this sharp increase, which were highlighted in the charity's recent work investigating NHS waiting times for parents and carers in their networks (PANDAS, 2022).

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The analysis of over 1000 people who sought NHS support for pre- and postnatal mental health services showed that over a quarter (27%) felt that their concerns were not taken seriously. Four in 10 (43%) who were offered treatment said they had to wait too long to receive it, and 76% reported that their conditions worsened in that time, including intrusive thoughts (19%), anxiety (23%), being unable to bond with their child (7%) and suicidal thoughts (9%) (PANDAS, 2022). One in 10 said that their condition rendered them unable to leave the house.

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READING COMPREHENSION TASKS:

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Task 1:    What does the charity 'PANDAS' stand for?

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ask 2: Find examples of the following: 

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1. 3 Adjectives 

2. 2 Sophisticated Words 

3. 2 uses of high punctuation 

1. 2 Verbs 

1. 1 Statistic

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Task 3: Check the meaning of the following sophisticated vocabulary and find 2 synonyms (similar word meanings) to match each word.  This really helps you develop your vocabulary! 

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NOTE: You can either complete the tasks on a word document and send to your tutor, or complete the tasks in your purple book and hand in to your tutor to mark.

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