Society daily 15.12.11

Sign up to Society daily email briefing Today's top SocietyGuardian stories • Cameron puts £400m into helping families out of 'responsibility deficit' • Housing benefit cuts defeated by Lords • Lansley orders assessments of NHS boards • Labour promotes NHS 'plan B' • One in five children is obese by the end of primary school • Zoe Williams: Obesity is about poverty and cheap food • Milburn: Job applicants' social class should be monitored • Alcohol misuse 'significantly higher' in armed forces • How can rising suicide rates be reversed in the face of cuts to mental health services? • James Munro and Kate Ebbutt: Beware of the pitfalls of rating care homes All today's SocietyGuardian stories Other news • BBC: Finance woe 'will prompt major NHS revamp' • Children & Young People Now: Loughton confirms abolition of national eCAF system • Community Care: Financial abuse of dementia sufferers is rife, warns charity • Independent: Huge rise in potentially fatal allergies • Inside Housing: Changes to London Housing Strategy revealed • Localgov.co.uk: 'Cut Whitehall first', council leaders claim • Public Finance: Councils 'need bond guarantees' • Telegraph: Dementia patients in one in four hospital beds • Third Sector: All voluntary sector staff 'should get 40 hours of professional development' On my radar ... • How not to do social networking . This post on the always excellent Not So Big Society blog by Zarathustra looks at health professionals' use of social media and includes some eye-opening examples of "venting", which concludes: One thing I learned from [previous blog] Mental Nurse was that so long you maintain certain parameters (don't breach confidentiality, don't get in touch with your own patients or former patients, don't slag off co-workers or patients) then social networking can be used by professionals as a force for good. It really isn't complicated stuff. Be nice. Be responsible. Show you care about your job. Don't talk about your patients' camel-toes. • Telecare. In his latest Health Matters blogpost, former Labour health adviser Paul Corrigan summarises the findings of the Department of Health's Whole Demonstrator Programme on telehealth and telemedicine : They are unusually resounding, "They show that if delivered properly telehealth can substantially reduce mortality, reduce the need for admissions to hospital, lower the number of bed days spent in hospital and reduce the time spent in A and E" (Whole System Demonstrator Programme page 1) Given that the NHS desperately needs: Reductions in mortality Reductions in admissions to hospital Reductions in bed days spent in hospital and Reductions in the time spent in A and E this is really good news. The next sentence in the report is the crucial discriminator, "The key is to integrate these technologies into the care and services that are delivered" New kit, however brilliant, does nothing on its own. The key is to develop a new patient pathway that integrates it into great patient care. • The Guardian Christmas charity appeal 2011 . Speak to your favourite journalists this Saturday and raise money for our Christmas appeal. Alan Rusbridger will be among staff from the Guardian and Observer answering calls and taking donations from readers for eight charities that specialise in turning around the lives of disadvantaged young people. Call 0203 353 4368 on Saturday to speak to the editor and writers including Tim Dowling, Polly Toynbee, Lucy Mangan, Zoe Williams, Simon Hoggart, Grace Dent, Jon Ronson and many more. Find out more about this year's appeal here • The Guardian/Mixmag drug survey , which closes in eight days' time. Already nearly 15,000 people from all over the work have completed the survey, which asks people about their use of drugs (from cocaine to pain killers), and the health, social and criminal justice consequences of their drug use. It is set to become the biggest survey of people's real experiences of drugs. More details about the survey here and you can fill in the survey here • Defining the big society . Yesterday's Society daily included a challenge from the Comment is free team to sum up the big society project in 140 characters. Cif's Jessica Reed has put together this Storify collection of responses . One response, too late for inclusion in the collection, came from this tweet from Creative Corner Cafe Whole point of Cameron's BS (lol) is so we do it 4free! We should do it, not for them, despite them • Artists Tracey Emin, Christopher Kane, Wolfgang Tillmans, Mary Katranzou and Antony Gormley, who have donated pieces to charity Art Against Knives' fundraising auction. The charity, which organises art projects as a way of diverting young people from involvement in gang culture , holds its dinner and auction at the Town Hall Hotel, in London this evening. On the Guardian Professional Networks • Live Q&A from 1pm: What does 2012 hold for your social enterprise - and for you? • A project in Stoke-on-Trent to encourage unemployed people to become care workers has seen a 94% success rate and is transforming lives • Public sector staff have nothing to fear from transparency , says Anne Gibson, president of the Public Sector People Managers' Association Events and seminars The Guardian Public Services Summit 2012 2 and 3 February, Sopwell House, St Albans A new landscape for public services Debate new models, challenge opinions and celebrate innovative thinking with a range of esteemed speakers, including Sir David Normington, Geoff Mulgan, Ben Page, Dame Mary Marsh and many more… Register before 31 December for 15% early bird discount SocietyGuardian blogs Patrick Butler's cuts blog Joe Public Sarah Boseley's global health blog SocietyGuardian on social media Follow SocietyGuardian on Twitter Follow Patrick Butler on Twitter Follow Clare Horton on Twitter Follow Alison Benjamin on Twitter SocietyGuardian's Facebook page SocietyGuardian links SocietyGuardian.co.uk Guardian cutswatch - tell us about the cuts in your area Public Leaders - the Guardian's website for senior managers of public services The Guardian's public and voluntary sector careers page Hundreds of public and voluntary sector jobs SocietyGuardian editor: Alison Benjamin Email the SocietyGuardian editor: [email protected] SocietyGuardian.co.uk editor: Clare Horton Email the SocietyGuardian.co.uk editor: [email protected] Interested in education policy and news too? 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