Mind & body, in brief

The UK's main counselling and psychotherapy bodies now ask for therapists to be regulated by law. [1]

Today anyone in the UK can call themselves a therapist, with no qualification at all. [1]

A therapist found to have done wrong can also keep on practising. [1]

The call comes from an independent review that began in October 2025. [1]

It is called the Commission for the Future of Counselling and Psychotherapy. [1]

About 1.8 million people are waiting for mental health treatment, the report estimates. [1]

Therapists told the review they could give over 370,000 more hours of therapy a week. [1]

But NHS and council buyers often cannot tell who is properly qualified, co-chair Phil Hope said. [1]

This is called a protected title: only people on the register may use it. [2]

Regulation costs money, Andrea Sutcliffe said, so the government asks for a compelling case first. [1]

People harmed by a therapist pay when no register can stop that therapist working. [1]

Nobody yet knows whether the UK government will agree, or when it would decide. [1]

Labour MP Sojan Joseph, who chairs parliament's cross-party mental health group, will raise it there. [1]

The bodies that run the UK's voluntary scheme for therapists now ask for a law, because a therapist found to have done wrong can keep practising.

Ella Janneh's therapist can still practise after she won a High Court case against him for rape and sexual assault. [1]

Most people assume a therapist is already regulated, Janneh said, so the gap is only noticed after someone is harmed. [1]

With no protected title, they can use the word therapist and keep working after misconduct. [1]

No register can strike the therapist off, so the person may treat others. [1]

Whether the UK government will bring in a law for therapists, and when.

The report only asks; ministers have not answered, and in 2011 the UK government decided against it. [1]

How many people have been harmed by therapists who were expelled or never trained.

The report speaks of a growing number of cases but no register exists to count them. [1][4]

Whether a law would shrink the 1.8 million waiting list, as the review hopes.

The 370,000 spare hours a week is what therapists told the review, not a measured figure. [1]

Guernsey's health committee may regulate people who inject Botox and fillers. [6]

Guernsey is an island that runs its own health committee. [6]

The idea is in the committee's work plan for this political term. [6]

The same plan names psychotherapists, counsellors and alternative therapists as people to regulate. [6]

It also wants rules for clinics that prescribe medicinal cannabis. [6]

No rules cover private or charity firms sending carers into homes, the committee says. [6]

It calls that gap a 'critical risk', because those carers are not registered. [6]

Deputy George Oswald, who leads the committee, said it means 'difficult choices'. [6]

The committee is most worried about unregistered carers working in people's homes. [6]

The plan gives no dates for any of these rules. [6]

Why anyone in the UK can call themselves a therapist

The law protects a job title, like doctor or midwife

Only people on an official register may use it

The register sets the training needed to join

It hears complaints and can strike people off

Struck off, a person loses the title everywhere

A voluntary body can throw out a therapist who did harm. It cannot stop that person working, because anyone may still use the title.

In the UK only the first title needs a place on a legal register. Anyone may use the second.

Beauty clinics inject filler with no rules at all, so a patient cannot check in advance who is safe.

Home carers there are not registered, so no list exists to bar a carer who harms someone.

A register only checks training and the complaints it hears. It cannot see what happens alone in a room, and it costs money to run.

The person looking for help, the therapist doing honest work and the NHS buyer each see only their own part of this.

What Guernsey's plan to regulate fillers, therapists and home carers will cost, and when it comes.

It is a work plan for the political term, with no dates or costs given. [6]

A cleft lip is a gap in the top lip that forms before birth. [7]

It affects 1 in every 700 babies born in the UK. [7]

Surgery closes it, usually when a baby is three to six months old. [7]

Some adults now have dermal filler injected to soften the scar. [7]

Amber Dorgan, 20, from Neath, gets free filler for life from the NHS in Wales. [7]

Others go to private beauty clinics, and there are no rules for that industry. [7]

Surgeon Neil Brierley said 'at the moment the entire field is unregulated'. [7]

He said patients cannot know in advance who is not following best practice. [7]

Researcher Nicola Stock said adults with a cleft were being 'deliberately targeted' by beauty firms. [7]

Filler in some places can rule out later surgery, Brierley said. [7]

Beauty clinics inject filler with no rules at all, so a patient cannot check in advance who is safe.

With no rules for the industry, any practitioner can offer it, including to people with cleft lip scars. [7]

Pew, a US research group, asked 3,488 US adults in June about AI in health care. [8]

78% are open to AI translating for a patient, alone or with a human checking. [8]

Only 3% are open to AI making a diagnosis on its own. [9]

Just 26% are open to AI translating with no human checking it. [9]

46% want AI kept out of insurance claim decisions entirely. [8]

60% would be uncomfortable if their own doctor used AI for diagnosis and treatment. [8]

Only 30% would be comfortable with it. [8]

Adults under 30 grew more doubtful since 2022: 45% now expect worse health from AI. [8]

58% have little or no trust in health insurers to use AI in patients' interests. [10]

55% say so of the US federal government, 50% of AI companies, 25% of doctors. [10]

Upper-income adults were far more hopeful: 55% expect better outcomes, against 25% of lower-income adults. [8]

Pew asks members of a standing panel, chosen to stand for all US adults. [8]

Whether AI help in health care will make patients healthier.

In Pew's survey 37% expect better outcomes and 36% expect worse, almost an even split. [8]

Radiologists are doctors who read scans to find and track illness. [11]

NHS Wales has 88 fewer radiologists than it needs, a 28% shortfall. [11]

The figures come from the Royal College of Radiologists, which represents these doctors. [11]

For the first time it reports patients getting worse while they wait for scans. [11]

North and west Wales are short by 42%, against 22% in the south. [11]

In February the college found 36% of UK radiology departments banned from hiring radiologists. [12]

NHS bodies paid private firms a record £241m in 2025 to read scans instead. [13]

That bill was £81m in 2018, £120m in 2021 and £216m in 2024. [13]

Beverly Scott, living with cancer for 14 years, said slow scans could let it spread unseen. [11]

The local health board says reporting times have improved since April with outside help. [11]

Each month's delay in starting cancer treatment can raise death risk about 10%, the college says. [12]

NHS bodies paid them a record £241m in 2025 because hospitals lack radiologists. [13]

A 42% shortfall of consultant radiologists means some get worse while waiting for scans. [11]

Emergency departments in England are adding a warning system for children who get worse fast. [14]

Staff check and grade signs like heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen levels. [14]

Worries from staff, parents or the child also trigger an urgent review. [14]

It is called PEWS, the National Paediatric Early Warning System. [14]

More than 90 hospitals in England already use it on children's wards. [14]

It follows a promise by Health Secretary Yvette Cooper to end corridor care for children. [14]

Two-year-old Finlay Roberts died in 2024 after hours in a London hospital corridor. [15]

The NHS will also bring Martha's Rule to all emergency departments in England. [14]

Martha's Rule is named after Martha Mills, 13, who died of sepsis in 2021. [14]

Children in busy A&E units in winter are the ones it is meant to protect. [14]

Emergency departments in England are bringing in one national early warning score for sick children, already used on children's wards in more than 90 hospitals.

A new report says families with learning disabilities were abandoned by planners in the pandemic. [16]

Learning Disability England led it, with researchers from two universities. [16]

About 1.5 million people in the UK have a learning disability. [16]

In England their Covid death rates were 4 to 6 times the average. [16]

People living with family, not in care homes, were often simply overlooked, it says. [16]

It asks for these patients to be put first in a future crisis. [16]

A national review in July found they die 19 years younger on average in England. [17]

That review found 39% of their deaths in 2024 were avoidable, down from 46% in 2021. [17]

Learning-disability nurses have fallen by a third since 2009, the Guardian notes. [16]

Staff can mistake a patient's reaction to treatment for a refusal of care, the Guardian says. [16]

Easy-to-read information or a carer to explain can prevent that; these are 'reasonable adjustments'. [16]

Families fear past progress is being undone as social care is cut, the Guardian says. [16]

They died at four to six times the average rate from Covid in England, and nurses for them have fallen by a third since 2009. [16]

The Happy Mums Foundation in Cumbria has won £70,000 in grants. [18]

It supports women with mental health problems after giving birth. [18]

It has helped more than 1,000 families since it began in 2015. [18]

Last month it said its face-to-face groups were at risk for lack of money. [18]

The Postcode Lottery gave £50,000 and the National Lottery £20,000. [18]

Director Lucinda Bray said a safe place to talk about suicidal thoughts helps prevent harm. [18]

Its groups are peer support: mothers who have been through it helping each other. [18]

Bray said it can now keep working on making the charity more sustainable. [18]

The in-person groups now continue instead of moving online. [18]

The Happy Mums Foundation in Cumbria, which supports mothers with mental health problems after birth, won £70,000 in grants and will keep its face-to-face groups running.

Connect Outdoors, a new charity on the Isle of Man, launched on International Men's Day. [19]

It offers archery, hill walks, cold-water swimming and other outdoor activities to men. [19]

About 80 people were expected at its launch event. [19]

Those attending will be asked which activities work best at drawing men in. [19]

Its chief executive, Kate Bergquist, says services were often designed without asking men first. [19]

Walk leader Gary Thomas says many men find it easier to talk outdoors than in counselling. [19]

The charity follows 'green and blue health': using forests, beaches and the sea for health. [19]

The surveys are meant to find out what works, which is not yet known. [19]

A stroke happens when blood flow to or inside the brain is cut off. [20]

US Senator Chris Murphy, 53, had one on Saturday; his office says he should recover. [20]

He felt numbness in one arm at his son's hockey game, his staff said. [20]

Other signs include a severe headache, confusion and numbness down one side. [20]

The American Stroke Association teaches the signs with six letters: BE FAST. [20]

They stand for balance, eyes, face, arm, speech and time. [20]

Time matters because brain tissue without oxygen can be damaged for good. [20]

Stroke killed more than 162,000 people in the US in 2023, the American Heart Association says. [20]

A concussion is an injury when a blow moves the brain inside the skull. [21]

A US trial tested home exercise for 210 teens still unwell after a concussion. [21]

They were aged 11 to 18, from four US states. [21]

It was published in JAMA Pediatrics, a US medical journal. [21]

Their injuries were about 73 days old on average. [21]

Chance put 104 teens on aerobic exercise and 106 on stretching, for six weeks. [21]

Coaches checked in by video call each week. [21]

After three months, the exercise group scored about three points better, from starting scores near 32. [21]

Faster recovery could keep teens from falling behind at school and with friends, Chrisman said. [21]

At six weeks and six months, the gap was too small to be sure of. [21]

Paediatrician Sara Chrisman led it; she said 'the brain heals by doing.' [21]

No harm from the trial was reported in either group. [21]

Whether exercise still helps teens whose concussion symptoms last more than three months.

Extra benefit showed up only in teens who joined within 90 days of injury. [21]

In a US trial of 210 teens still unwell after a concussion, those coached through home exercise by video call had fewer symptoms three months later, and no harm from the trial was reported.

In Finland, 51 adults sat in a 73C sauna for 30 minutes. [22]

The session had a cold shower halfway through. [22]

Straight after, their blood held more white blood cells, the body's germ fighters. [22]

Earlier studies linked frequent sauna use with lower pneumonia risk, the report notes. [22]

Half an hour later most of that rise was gone. [22]

The study appeared in the journal Temperature. [22]

Many people swear by saunas, yet evidence for that feeling is scarce, the report says. [22]

Researcher Ilkka Heinonen suggests heat moves cells from tissues into the blood. [22]

Nobody measured whether the change stops anyone getting ill. [22]

Whether the sauna's short rise in white blood cells protects anyone from illness.

Blood was measured only up to 30 minutes after the session. [22]

UCLA scientists gave 18 healthy women a small dose of endotoxin, part of a bacterium. [23]

Endotoxin sets off a short burst of inflammation, the body's defence reaction. [23]

Another 22 women got a salt-water dose, and nobody knew who had which. [23]

Two hours later, the endotoxin group felt less pleasure and less wish to chat. [23]

Psychologists split reward into 'wanting' something and 'liking' it once you have it. [23]

Four hours later the loss of pleasure had gone, though inflammation stayed high. [23]

The study is in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology. [23]

It helps explain one route from inflammation to depression, the authors say. [23]

The group was small: 40 women in all, aged 25 to 44. [23]