Helen Sloan
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helenscan.bsky.social
Helen Sloan
@helenscan.bsky.social
Researcher and patient and public representative in health and social care (interests - mental health, dementia, social care). Independent advocate for mental health, mental capacity and social care. Former curator in interdisciplinary arts
Reposted by Helen Sloan
England facing drastic measures due to extreme drought next year.

Country surrounded by water has water shortages.
2024: 1trn litre of lost to leaks.
Sewage dumped in rivers for 4m hours.
No new reservoirs.
Investment neglected, £85bn paid in dividend.
Record high water bills.

People fleeced.
England facing drastic measures due to extreme drought next year
Government and water companies are devising emergency plans for worst water shortage in decades
www.theguardian.com
November 8, 2025 at 11:06 AM
Peter Watkins, film director, changed my outlook and the way to think about film. Total genius and a sad day.
www.bfi.org.uk/features/pet...
Peter Watkins obituary: radical British filmmaker behind The War Game and Punishment Park
The maverick filmmaker and pioneer of the docudrama, whose anti-establishment works redefined political cinema and challenged the very language of mass media, has died aged 90.
www.bfi.org.uk
November 1, 2025 at 7:15 AM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
The @greenparty.org.uk is now the most popular party amongst voters under 50 years old

We need to keep working and growing but I believe a change is gonna come
October 28, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
Note that the anti-migrant propaganda’s aim is not only to scare non-migrants of migrants but also vice versa. It makes migrants feel that almost everyone around them hates them and wishes them harm. Feeling terrified tends to make you behave in a defensive or disconnected way. Understand the game.
October 29, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
Reading Thiel, Yarvin, Peterson et al. makes you realise what passes for intellectual iconoclasm these days is all absolute bollocks. Why anyone gives any of these people the time of day let alone credibility is baffling.
October 12, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
Chris Packham, "This country voted in a party with a massive majority and a mandate for change"

"All we see is Labour kowtowing to the far right. This causes me enormous concern"

"I'm frustrated, I'm angry, and I've frightened"

"And I get more scared every single day"
October 13, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
Academics and university staff being put on leave because of coordinated campaigns by right wing groups accusing them of criticising Charlie Kirk. I must admit I find the hypocrisy under the current US administration re free speech utterly outrageous.
US professors facing threats, firings and harassment over Charlie Kirk posts
As many as 40 academics have been dismissed in aftermath of shooting, allegedly without due process
www.theguardian.com
October 11, 2025 at 6:21 AM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
Only three local authorities in England have air quality better than the World Health Organisation's guideline pollutant level, while Tower Hamlets has the lowest air quality.

Explore the data for your area on our newly updated Local Authority Dashboard ⬇️

https://bit.ly/4pNdG1w
October 6, 2025 at 7:30 AM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.
October 8, 2025 at 10:29 AM
October 9, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE
nyti.ms
October 8, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
Scientists are encouraged to produce science that responds to policy priorities but it’s crucial to also produce science that challenges policy priorities, and I feel UK research funders and universities have lost sight of that a bit.
September 26, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
Public health shouldn’t be centred around individual behaviour change. It should be focused on changing the wider commercial, social, environmental & ultimately political determinants of health. Behaviour change will naturally come when healthy behaviours are facilitated by those structural changes.
September 19, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
Looks like we are now live-broadcasting Reform events on mass deportation plans on major TV channels including the BBC. We've just published a study showing that this type of coverage moves public opinion in an extreme direction & normalises those ideas further: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...
August 26, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
My jaw repeatedly dropped watching South Park's brutal roast of Trump AND Paramount, the company that just forked over $1.5 billion to stream it—and that canceled Colbert after he accused them of bribing Trump. Here's me making sense of it all: www.wired.com/story/paramo...
Paramount Has a $1.5 Billion ‘South Park’ Problem
The White House says the show is “fourth-rate” after it showed Trump with “tiny” genitals. The controversy comes just as the FCC has greenlit Paramount’s merger with Skydance and promised to end DEI.
www.wired.com
July 24, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
Watch my question today to the Minister of State for Security arguing why we shouldn't use anti-terrorism laws to ban the direct action protest group Palestine Action.
July 2, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
For 80 years, since Nagasaki and Hiroshima, nuclear weapons have not been used. An amazing tribute to humanity. And to diplomacy. Because that is what kept us safe. Rational diplomacy. The era of irrational autocrats is the real threat now
June 23, 2025 at 7:27 AM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
I will be damned if I allow a bunch of Confederate-waving January 6th apologists give the American people a lecture on flag waving.

There is ZERO reason to enter an argument about patriotism with people who still worship traitors to America 150+ years later.

They. Are. Breaking. The. Law.
June 11, 2025 at 1:21 AM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
People need to see what’s happening.

ICE just took a dad while his teenage son watched, crying and powerless.

Trump is ripping families apart—and some folks still say, “That’s what I voted for.” If that’s your take, that sentiment says more about you than it says about any undocumented immigrant.
June 11, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
🧵 Our new analysis estimates the funding required for social care in England over the next 10 years to meet the needs of people living longer and improve their care. 

Read thread ⬇
May 15, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
April 13, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
Well done Lee-Ann (Our Social Care Research lead) and Mel @buresearch.bsky.social going to Westminsters to talk Tech and Social Care and Mel on seldom heard voices

www.bournemouth.ac.uk/news/2025-04...

@basw-uk.bsky.social @hantsconnect.bsky.social @nisreenalwan.bsky.social @rorycj.bsky.social
Academics represent BU at two Parliamentary events
www.bournemouth.ac.uk
April 4, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Reposted by Helen Sloan
An immigration crackdown in the United States is rattling the global research community, with high-profile detentions and deportations of academics stoking fears even for travellers with valid entry documents.

https://go.nature.com/3FG63rf
‘Anxiety is palpable’: detention of researchers at US border spurs travel worries
Nature - Several high-profile incidents in the past month have scientists on edge.
go.nature.com
March 30, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Here are the NIHR commitments to working with the public in health and social care research. They are encouraging researchers to put these great points into practice
www.nihr.ac.uk/why-have-the...
www.nihr.ac.uk
March 25, 2025 at 12:46 PM