My partner bought me a Fitbit but I’m a couch potato – is it worth trying?

Every week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper.

This week’s question:

I’ve been given a Fitbit Flex by my partner. I’m a bit of a couch potato and reckon I won’t use it that much. Should I try and take it back and swap it for something else, or can other Fitbit users convince me it’s worth keeping? Did it work for you?

Do you have a problem readers could solve? Email your suggestions to money@theguardian.com or write to us at Money, The Guardian, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU.

My partner bought me a Fitbit but I’m a couch potato – is it worth trying?

12 Medicinal Plants Worth Your Garden Space & Grown Easily

Plants have been used for thousands of years for medicinal purposes. The medicinal plants including flower plants and herbs are easy to grow at home. They can treat a wide range of illnesses without any major side effects. It is very important to have medicinal plants around the house cause you never know when you might need them.

12 Medicinal Plants You Can Grow In Your Medicinal Garden

Lemon Balm

A relative of mint, lemon balm is a versatile medicinal herb that helps relieve anxiety, insomnia, wounds, herpes, insect bites, flatulence, and an upset stomach. It also speeds the healing of cold sores.

Thyme

The active principle in thyme, thymol, is a strong antiseptic. If you suffer from coughs, congestion, indigestion, or gas, consider using this medicinal herb.

Aloe Vera

It can be gown under normal conditions because it just needs moist soil and sun exposure. It can cure burns, wounds, eczema, skin allergies naturally. Its juice useful for digestive problems and appetite.

Peppermint

Pepeprmint are naturally high in manganese, vitamin A and vitamin C. Its leaves help soothe and relax the muscles. Infused peppermint leaves are used to reduce irritable bower syndrome, against upset stomachs, inhibit bacterial growth and treat fevers

Echinacea

Medicinal herbs echinacea has the capacity to raise the body’s resistance to bacterial and viral infections by stimulating the immune system. It also has antibiotic properties that helps relieve allergies.

Basil

You must have used basil lot many times in food but have you ever tried it to heal flatulence? It has the power to treat cuts, lack of appetite, stomach gas and scrapes.

Calendula

It grows in almost any type of soil condition. It doesn’t matter whether soil is nutritionally poor, very acidic or very alkaline, just as long as it’s moist. It is useful in skin disease, bites, sore eyes, sprains, fevers and chronic infections.

Coriander

Coriander has many medicinal properties and is known for very good digestion. It has anti-diabetic and antibacterial properties, good for Anemia and menstrual irregularities.

Rosemary

Rosemary is the great reviver. This perennial woody herb stimulates energy and optimism and sharpens memory and concentration by bringing more oxygen to our brain.

Pot Marigold

It grows in almost any type of soil condition. It has no problem with nutritionally poor, very acidic or very alkaline soils, just as long as it’s moist. It is useful in skin problems, the deep-orange flowered pot marigold variety is applied externally to bites, stings, sprains, wounds, sore eyes and varicose veins.

Lavender

Lavender is well-known for its fragrance, it also has anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties. In ancient Greece, Rome and the Middle East, lavender was used as an antiseptic. It has also been used to treat anxiety, migraines, insomnia and depression.

Sage

Sage-infused tea is an effective herbal remedy to reverse greying of hair, reduce fever, and calm anxiety from brain and nervous disorders. It can also be used to treat gastric ailments, stress, treat infections of the mouth and throat.

Sources:

1) http://theselfsufficientliving.com/list-of-medicinal-plants-to-grow-in-your-garden/

2) http://nurserylive.com/32-medicinal-plants-to-keep-at-your-home-always

3) http://www.naturallivingideas.com/medicinal-herb-garden/

Read:

12 Medicinal Plants Worth Your Garden Space & Grown Easily

The female strength on display in Rio is worth getting excited about | Van Badham

It’s not only Leslie Jones who’s having an emotional Olympics experience. While the Ghostbusters star has achieved a happy notoriety for her pro-Games enthusiasm – and fellow actor Samuel L. Jackson impressed for something best described as tweet-length joyous fury – the intensity of peak international sporting competition seems to provoke in the famous and unknown, supporters and detractors, a collective psychological thrall both of some mass and diversity.

— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) August 8, 2016

Most MUTHAFUKKA OF A LEG by AquamanPhelps!!! Hella swim by All!! Go USA!!!!

The tender instrument of social media has exposed to me those spectators who tremor with an unexpected patriotism in moments of national victory. And that others are moved to Scrooge-sized humbug of the expense, the scale, the spectacle, the sponsorships. And yet others whose habitual stoicism crumbles amid the sporting narratives of personal triumph and disappointment.

Related: Rio Olympics: Phelps v Lochte in the 200m individual medley – live!

I write this as one among many surprised at the depth – and the type – of my own emotional reaction to the Games, for they’ve inspired in me a sudden, confusing contradiction in my feminist politics. Watching female athletes sweat and jostle, leap, thrust, charge and tear in sporting competition, I am, for the first tangible time in my adult life, consumed with female body envy.

I am short, bespectacled and – otherwise happily – a little plump. As a teenager I was never quite sincere in any expressed admiration for the willowy models, actors and popstars that contemporary pop culture encouraged me to ape.

It always struck me as odd – when it was, more than once, suggested to my face in change rooms – that to remedy a dress that didn’t stretch over my breasts I should cut myself to fit the garment rather than, you know, alter the material.

When the late-teenage realisation dawned that a little plumpness was no disincentive at all to the attentions of young gentlemen, I dispensed self doubt entirely, and helped myself to many pies.

Egypt’s Doaa Elghobashy controls the ball in front of Canada’s Kristina Valjas during a women’s beach volleyball qualifying match. Photograph: Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP/Getty Images

But I gaze at today’s Olympian women, like the extraordinary Simone Bines, and I suddenly regret almost all my physical choices in life, longing to have worked out, toughened up, added muscle. Perhaps it is a combination of Bines, as well as the inclusion of women’s rugby this Olympiad, the harder competition demanded of those working to break records on the track or in the pool, the exposure given the brutality of women’s cycling, the singular physical adeptness of Caster Semanya or the refreshing recontextualisation given beach volleyball by the Egyptian women who took proudly to the sand to play their game well covered up, but this year like no other have I been attuned to the Olympics as a showcase of growing pride in female bodily strength.

It could just be me; I’m hitting my 40s, one of my knees is a little wobbly, and the demands of mid-life domestic duty has left me more than disappointed that I’m strained and out of breath. But it could be a silent zeitgeist of feminist realisation that one of the final great taboos restricting the agency of women – the social policing of femininity – is finally, finally starting to wither.

In the west, we inherit terrible, powerful messages that disassociate what it means to a woman from what it means to be physically strong. The New Testament’s insistence that women should be desired for being “weaker vessels” obliging men to dominate and steer them is an example of what’s created if we perform gender as one of only two cultural options, defined in opposition. As Australian gender theorist Jamila Rosdahl puts it: “that men should be strong, aggressive and in control and women should be weak, passive and powerless.”

It’s why the Victorians found erotic appeal in the corset for fetishising womanly “physical weakness and vulnerability … juxtaposed with man’s strength.” It’s why in the second world war, the American military purposely excluded “masculine” women from service in the belief that physically strong women performing in traditionally male roles would “produce lesbians” and destabilise the social order. Ooh, imagine.

Serena Williams of the United States in action against Elina Svitolina of Ukraine during a women’s singles third round match. Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Related: Mack Horton has set something in motion. Is this the line in the sand on doping in sport? | Caroline Riot

And it’s informed an outspoken sexism that persists in sport: like in 1999, when Martina Hingis described a teenage Amelie Mauresmo as “half a man”, or in 2012 when Dominika Cibulkova said playing Sam Stosur was “like playing a man”, or 2014, when a Russian tennis official referred to Serena and Venus as “the Williams brothers”. And that’s just in the sport of tennis where, by the way, Tomasz Wiktorowski, the coach of Agnieszka Radwanska, boasted – in 2015! – of a decision to keep his player “as the smallest player in the top 10.” Why? “Because, first of all she’s a woman, and she wants to be a woman.”

But maybe it’s the sport of tennis that’s also helped to de-lace the cultural corset of the old gender binary, because when I think of the woman I want to be, it’s Serena Williams’s example to which I aspire, not Agnieszka Radwanka’s.

Because while Williams may be leaving Rio after a shock upset to the Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, the cultural victory is already hers. As one of the most decorated athletes, of either gender, in any sport, of all time, her example is proudly one amid the many women of this Olympic generation unafraid to define what it means to be a woman, free from the old traditions that oblige weakness – and entirely on her own terms. And that, more than any race, heat, triumph, loss or medal in this Olympics, is worth being excited about.

The female strength on display in Rio is worth getting excited about | Van Badham

Assisted dying plan like telling disabled "it"s not worth being alive" - Tanni Grey-Thompson

But in a separate intervention, 1 of Britain’s prime psychiatrists, argues nowadays that due to the fact of the troubles of determining people’s state of mind, there are “no achievable safeguards” which could adequately safeguard the vulnerable if the law is transformed.

Baroness Hollins, a former president of both the British Medical Association and the Royal University of Psychiatrists, explained the strategy would amount not only a significant modify to the law but to the “principles that underpin health-related practice” itself.

Below the 1961 Suicide Act, it is at present a crime carrying up to 14 years in jail, to support a person to get their very own life.

But prosecution tips now make clear that individuals who allow loved-ones to travel abroad, such as to Switzerland, to end their lives are probably to escape costs, in specified conditions, if they are obviously acting out of compassion.

Supporters of Lord Falconer say a adjust in the law is urgently necessary to finish uncertainty and enable people to die in dignity at a time and spot of their deciding on.

But opponents declare that safeguards written into the bill could be swept away in practice.

The letter – also signed by Baroness Campbell of Surbiton, who suffers from a degenerative illness, Dr Alice Maynard, chair of the disability charity Scope, and the actors Liz Carr and Mik Scarlet between other people – argues that the bill would reinforce inequality towards disabled and older individuals.

It argues: “Why is it that when people who are not disabled want to commit suicide, we consider to talk them out of it, but when a disabled individual needs to commit suicide, we emphasis on how we can make that attainable?

“We think that the campaign to legalise assisted suicide reinforces deep-seated beliefs that the lives of sick and disabled folks are not well worth as a lot as other people’s that if you are disabled or terminally sick, it is not well worth being alive.

“Disabled individuals want assist to live – not to die.”

The bill was published last yr but did not go by way of the Parliamentary procedure for timetabling reasons. Right after currently being launched in the Lords it is anticipated to have its first complete debate prior to the summer recess.

If it clears the Lords it would then pass to the Commons the place MPs say support has grown in current years.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg, who each personally oppose the adjust, have nonetheless promised MPs and peers a free vote and some ministers have signalled they would do so.

In an article on telegraph.co.united kingdom, baroness Hollins asks: “How robust is the idea of a settled intent?

“I suggest that this is rather a fluid notion. And how can it be established by a doctor who has been launched to the patient solely for the purpose of supplying lethal drugs?

“People do change their thoughts.

“This took place to a pal dying of motor neurone ailment who advised me 6 months prior to his death, that he would gladly consider a lethal prescribed drug if it was available. A lot closer to his death, when he was very frail and incapacitated, he confided that it had been a treasured journey and he had so valued the closeness and closure that this time had brought him.

“He died gently and peacefully getting learnt to allow go.”

Assisted dying plan like telling disabled "it"s not worth being alive" - Tanni Grey-Thompson

Eye-monitoring engineering that tends to make "life worth living"

^{The RNH employs the Tobii eye tracker (above)}

This permits a particular person with locked-in syndrome to manage a pc cursor with just their eye, simply by seeking at a distinct stage on the display. The patient can navigate the web utilizing an internet browser, and talk by spelling out words and sentences on a virtual keyboard.

“It’s a small bit of an unnatural way of using your eyes in some facets, because natually your eyes are often dotting around, checking what is going on, and in this case you happen to be possessing to maintain them fixed on certain items, and it will take a minor acquiring utilised to,” stated Marc Viera, occupational treatment technical instructor at RHN.

“The very first time folks use it, you possibly are not going to go far more than 20 minutes, due to the fact you just need to recondition these muscle tissue. But for most people, by the 2nd or third time they’ve utilized it, individuals muscle groups are completely conditioned for its use and off you go.”

Viera stated that the technological innovation has transformed the lives of numerous people who would would previously have been completely incapacitated.

He referenced one particular of his individuals who started making use of eye gaze technologies after many years of staring at the tv with no the ability to even modify the channel. Within weeks if starting up to use eye gaze engineering he had written a book, and had started out contacting friends that he hadn’t spoken to in months.

“It modified his planet from that little globe to everything, so it can make a massive variation to someone’s daily life,” stated Viera.

Yet another person whose existence has been transformed by eye gaze technology is Steve Thomas, a former personal computer programmer who is living with Motor Neurone Ailment and is virtually totally paralysed, apart from his eyes. Thomas uses the engineering to talk, enagage on social media, e mail close friends, read through, blog, pay attention to music and Skype his loved ones.

“Just before I had eye gaze I could talk and use a mouse. Now, however, it really is the difference among a life worth living or not. It really is completely essential for me now,” he mentioned.

Viera stated the only thing he would modify about the engineering would be to make it operate outdoors. The amounts of infrared light employed are reduced that, even on a cloudy day, the infrared light from the sun entirely floods the sensors generating it unusable.

“Probably in the potential, there will be a way for it to use such a certain frequency of light that it would be capable to inform it was coming from the device rather than the sun, kind of like a ‘blu-ray’ situation. But that is a huge request at this stage,” he said.

Eye-monitoring engineering that tends to make "life worth living"

Is Great Health Worth Paying out For?

by Geraldine Bright

You can’t get it with you when you go, but it can make you feel much better when you are alive. Yes, I’m talking about cash. I believe folks think about what they have to shell out for their well being and health insurance coverage to be fairly costly.

To have to pay out out-of-pocket is usually a choice made with a lot imagined.  You can get lifestyle-changing aid from natural therapists and they are not usually covered by insurance coverage.

Nevertheless, your physique is outfitted to heal every thing that comes its way.  What is crucial to overall health is that blood flows to and from your organs, muscle tissue and all tissues so that your joints and nervous method can function.

Yesterday I saw a 14-month-outdated youngster with an ear infection.  Throughout the assessment I observed that his nasal bones did not move well and asked if he had a runny nose a good deal of the time.  I also felt that his proper eye had stress about it. His mom explained he virtually usually had a runny nose and that his appropriate eyelid drooped when he was tired.

Additional evaluation showed that his hips were not lined up correctly and that his pelvis was misaligned.  Once again mom confirmed that he was a breech baby with his feet by his ears in utero and that the doctor said he had a hip problem at birth, but that it was much better now. But to a qualified cranial sacral therapist it was evident that his hips have been not entirely greater.  These are things cranio sacral therapy can treat.

A 45-12 months-outdated male came to me for a checkup and I observed that the upper lobes of his lung did not inflate effectively and that his nasal location was extremely locked up as had been his cranial bones, the result of fracturing his nose and having a concussion.  He was frequently tired and his dyslexia was worse since the accident.  Cranio sacral therapy can enhance these factors.

Yet another patient, 50 year previous male, had discomfort in the side of his chest for above a month which had been so unpleasant that he last but not least went to his doctor who checked him really completely for any heart problems and reflux, which was a really very good point to do.  Obtaining eradicated those situations, there was practically nothing far more the medical professional could do for him, so he came to see me.

I found that he had a couple of ribs out of line and his diaphragm was tight because of it. I worked on his ribs and did cranial perform on his head to balance the bones and tissues there also, as this will assist the rest of his body. He manufactured a full recovery following two remedies.

A 25-year-old female with significant period soreness for above two many years grew to become pain totally free following three treatment options and is ache totally free a 12 months later on.

A girl with recurring bladder infections didn’t get them anymore after treatment method.

A girl with scoliosis contributing to her mid-back ache received great relief following 1 treatment method.
If you require therapy and your insurance covers massage then your pay a visit to to me may be paid by your insurer.  If not, maybe having greater wellness is well worth the price.  Please phone me if you would like to examine your issue or to make an appointment and I will be extremely happy to aid you.

Is Great Health Worth Paying out For?

Although ObamaCare Delivers Far more Rewards, Employees See Worth "Erode"

At a time when a lot more Americans are getting entry to broader advantage packages below the Cost-effective Care Act, a new analysis exhibits “the perceived worth of workplace benefits” for those who have wellness coverage via their employers is “starting to erode,” in accordance to a new evaluation.

The outcomes of the new survey from the huge employee benefits consultancy Mercer were “alarming” to the firm’s consultants who mentioned employers are even now offering rich benefit packages, but a decade of increasing costs pushed onto workers is starting to consider its toll on worker psyches. Mercer is a subsidiary of Marsh &amp McLennan Marsh &amp McLennan Organizations (MMC).

Among the motives employee attitudes are shifting toward their rewards consist of the trend of employers to push far more out-of- pocket fees onto their employees, a trend that started lengthy before the Reasonably priced Care Act was signed into law in 2010. Employers are moving to greater deductible, consumer-directed strategies although raising co-payments, which pushes much more costs onto staff.

“Employee out-of-pocket charges are going up,” explained Beth Umland, Mercer’s director of study for wellness and positive aspects. “Their coverage is not eroding . . . but they are having to pay much more for it. The worth of the benefit is significantly less than when they have been getting 1st dollar coverage.”

For illustration, the Mercer survey showed the percentage of employees beneath the age of 50 who described their advantages as “definitely worth it” in terms of what they are paying out of their personal pockets dropped to just 30 percent final year from 45 percent in 2011. This kind of ideas by this group of workers is probably due to the reality that they are paying far more and much more for overall health care nevertheless they are young and healthy sufficient where they haven’t utilised the advantage considerably.

“It would seem like what they are paying out out of their paycheck isn’t purchasing them considerably,” Umland stated. “It’s truly to not appreciate insurance until you need it.”

Meanwhile, workers are continually hearing damaging publicity about the overall health law and its possible adverse affect on employers. Though the new law isn’t harming advantages for these with employer coverage, it isn’t undertaking considerably for staff both, Mercer consultants said.

“The overall health law is not helping employees who currently have coverage,” Umland said. “There’s a lot of unfavorable press about the ACA and that can increase alarms.”

Regardless of what staff see as increasing expenses, 93 percent of people surveyed agree that their well being advantages from their employer are as crucial as their salary. This comes despite the opportunity of staff to depart their jobs with positive aspects and consider to public exchanges in which personal well being strategies like Aetna Aetna (AET), Cigna Cigna (CI), Humana Humana (HUM), UnitedHealth Group UnitedHealth Group (UNH) and Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans offer policies.

“That’s type of the bottom line,” Umland explained. “(The Inexpensive Care Act’s) public exchanges offer an selection for people who really do not have the selection of coverage . . . but it is not anyplace near the deal you are getting through your employer.”

The Mercer survey, launched earlier this week, included interviews with much more than 1,500 personnel from organizations across the country. The survey was carried out in May possibly and June of final yr.

Offered the deteriorating perception of the value of benefits, Mercer mentioned employers need to consider stepping up their training of staff about their wellness coverage.

“Employers provide advantages to employ and hold the greatest personnel,” Umland stated. “If you are obtaining considerable grumbling (from personnel), that is trigger for alarm.

“They need to be greater communicated to. Get particular. Demonstrate people the worth.”

Although ObamaCare Delivers Far more Rewards, Employees See Worth "Erode"

Top ten Marathons Worth Traveling For

If you’re going to set a large purpose like operating a marathon, you may as effectively make it as easy to obtain as possible. And anything you can do to make sure the 26.two-mile run is as painless as feasible is a wise tactic. So why run by means of the ho-hum streets of your hometown when you can race through beautiful scenery in a far-flung locale? It is constantly considerably more interesting (and distracting) to run a race in a city you aren’t as well acquainted with or even one particular that you have in no way explored. As top marathon season commences in just a number of weeks, consider this list of the world’s ideal marathon places to inspire you to lace up and get instruction.

Planning an approaching trip? Check out out the 2014 Forbes Travel Guidebook Star Award Winners.

Boston Marathon, photo courtesy photorun.net

Napa Valley Marathon
Race day: March 2, 2014
With a smaller sized discipline than most—organizers accept only two,300 racers annually—the Napa Valley Marathon permits runners some elbowroom. The route runs along the Silverado Trail on the east side of the valley, and winds south from Calistoga down to Napa. The scenery? It’s simply stunning, with views of the valley, fruit trees and dormant vineyards flanked with gold-colored mustard flowers. Except for the final stretch into Napa, this is a rural race—just you, the street and Wine Nation. It is a excellent race for newbies, as the bulk of the course is downhill (with the exception of the oh-so-gorgeous rolling hills in the initial six miles). Keep in mind that you can not use headphones, but the picturesque surroundings make up for the lack of tunes. Even though this yr is sold out, registration for the 2015 race opens on March 3.

Check in here: Forbes Travel Manual 4-Star Calistoga Ranch features a 4-Star spa with bath therapies employing water from regional scorching springs. Situated about four miles from the commence, guests can consider advantage of the resort’s Mercedes-Benz Drive Plan and go for a spin (to the start line) in the newest model.

Schneider Electrical Marathon de Paris
Race day: April 6, 2014
Some say there’s no much better way to see the City of Light than by entering the Paris Marathon—the program runs beside the banking institutions of the Seine and past some of the city’s best internet sites (Place de la Bastille, Location de la Concorde and the Louvre, and across the river, you will spot the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral). In between 35,000 and forty,000 racers begin on the Champs-Élysées and run a winding loop via the city finishing close to the Arc de Triomphe. It could be 1 of the largest marathons in the world, but it is also a single of the coolest to run. You get to see parts of the city that you’d never ever believe to venture into as a tourist (believe Bois de Vincennes), as effectively as just about all of the staples. This year’s marathon is complete, even though some specialized travel companies are even now offering packages that consist of race entry.

Examine in here: The grand Four Seasons Hotel George V, Paris is a quick stroll from the Champs-Élysées start line, and features guest rooms with traditional Parisian flair and vivid Louis XVI décor. Loosen up with a remedy in the Versailles-esque spa ahead of savoring a difficult-earned dinner at venerable Le Cinq.

Virgin Funds London Marathon
Race day: April 13, 2014
The race route passes the most iconic landmarks of England—Big Ben, the Tower of London, the London Eye—and runs along the River Thames and across the Tower Bridge at mile twelve (a highpoint—literally—for racers). Although you’ll get a whirlwind of a history lesson, you will also be plenty amused (and hopefully distracted) by the crazy costumes and entertainment along the way. Practically 40,000 individuals run in the London Marathon each yr, creating it a single of the biggest in the planet. Rivals begin at Greenwich Park and zigzag via the city right up until they cross the finish line at Buckingham Palace. Celebrate in British vogue by popping into a nearby pub for a pint. Registration for the 2014 London Marathon is closed, but mark your calendar to signal up for 2015.

Verify in here: For a quintessential London expertise, book a area at Forbes Travel Guidebook 5-Star The Savoy, which is acknowledged for hosting the wealthy and renowned. It’s much less than a mile from the finish line, allowing you to make a beeline for a submit-run celebratory drink at the beloved American Bar—it was here that the bartenders’ bible, The Savoy Cocktail Guide, was born.

Boston Marathon
Race day: April 21, 2014
As the oldest and most prestigious race in the United States, operating in the Boston Marathon is a lifelong goal even for veteran runners. Racers need to qualify with a time (based on age and gender) from yet another marathon run in the past yr and a half in order to participate. The Patriots’ Day occasion starts outside of Boston in rural Hopkinton and winds via several New England towns right up until it ends on Boylston Street in the center of the city. Soon after you’ve conquered the infamous Heartbreak Hill among miles twenty and 21, it’s all downhill from there. In the wake of 2013’s events, you can count on this year’s Boston Marathon to be much more meaningful and emotional to the complete discipline of runners and people 1000′s of spectators cheering them on the whole 26.two miles.

Check out in right here: Forbes Travel Guidebook Five-Star Mandarin Oriental, Boston is just measures away from the finish line, so you can swiftly retreat to the luxury hotel to recuperate. We recommend reserving a massage at 5-Star The Spa at Mandarin Oriental, Boston. And if you’re towards the front of the pack, you can refuel with lunch at Four-Star Asana, although watching your fellow runners continue to race by.

Top ten Marathons Worth Traveling For

Care not Custody is a promise worth maintaining | @guardianletters

We welcome the announcement of the government’s determination to hold its Care not Custody guarantee (Hopes mental overall health nurses in courts will reduce reoffending costs, four January). Nevertheless, we note that the first commitment for delivery of national liaison and diversion companies by 2014 will not now be met. For too lengthy individuals with a mental health want or understanding disability, who need to be diverted from police stations and courts into treatment method or social care, have ended up in prison as a default choice, while others are left with no the help they need as they continue by means of the justice process.

Higher numbers of individuals in prison have mental health wants, and practically half of all women in prison and more than a fifth of guys have attempted suicide at some level in their lives in contrast with 6% of the common population. The Care not Custody initiative was inspired by the tragic suicide of a youthful man with schizophrenia in Manchester prison, the son of a WI member.

The Care not Custody Coalition, representing up to two million folks across the health, social care and justice sectors and wider civic society, was convened in 2011 to help the government in trying to keep its guarantee and to hold it to account for successful delivery. Although the dedication to fund an extension of liaison and diversion trial web sites in police stations and courts and a company program to roll out nationwide services by 2017 gives a very good basis for alter, this revised timeframe should now be kept.

Marylyn Haines-Evans Public affairs chair, Nationwide Federation of Women’s Institutes
Juliet Lyon Director, Prison Reform Believe in
Steve Williams Chair, Police Federation of England and Wales
Dr Peter Carter Chief executive and common secretary, Royal School of Nursing
Nicholas Fluck President, The Law Society of England and Wales
Sue Bailey President, Royal School of Psychiatrists
Eoin McLennan-Murray President, Prison Governors Association
Peter McParlin National chairman, Prison Officers Association
Sue Hall Chair, Probation Chiefs Association
Javed Khan Chief executive, Victim Support
Paul Farmer Chief executive, Thoughts
Laurie Clarke Chief Executive, British Association for Counselling &amp Psychotherapy
Paul Jenkins Chief executive, Rethink Psychological Sickness
Sean Duggan Chief executive, Centre for Mental Overall health
Nigel Lithman Chairman, Criminal Bar Association
Vicki Helyar-Caldwell Director, Criminal Justice Alliance
Sarah Clarke Vice-chair, Instruction and Accreditation Committee, Advocacy Training Council
Karyn Kirkpatrick Chief executive, Keyring Residing Help Network
John Graham Director, Police Foundation
Jackie Russell Director, Women’s Breakout
Chris Bath Chief executive, Nationwide Appropriate Adult Network
Rachel Halford Director, Females in Prison

Care not Custody is a promise worth maintaining | @guardianletters