after yesterdays agm statement the share price has risen 50% how much upside is left or is this another false dawn?
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/thewellnessshop.co.uk
womans hour link below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/04/2008_08_mon.shtml

looks like it how are you today Cynic..........;-)) were you been down 0.030p today and no kiss on the cheek from bluelady not a good day..

Oops sorry micky was it my fault for lighting those White Marubozu candles. They did throw up an interesting glow when I put a match to them, lol. To be truthful I knew I was safe in offering a hug and kiss on the cheek as I never really expected it to reach 2p today. And if it did, then it would have been worthwhile to track you down to keep my side of the bargain!!!

been in london ...... f'ing traffic jam on M40 ..... solid between Northolt and Savoy Circus and no news report ...... took me over an hour to do that little section ..... an hour and a half later, found out there had been a broken down bus! .... thank goodness i walk to my office!

as for me, my portfolio is performing better than i would have hoped over the last days, with special plaudits to CSR (see thread!)

csr looks nice wt was the buy in performing well over the last 3 weeks.........As for the traffic jam on M40 welcome to london .......lol

don't quite understand your comment re CSR .... as you can see, used to hold, then sold, and have bought back in at 756 on 28 june

why would you buy IN at 756 cynic......... you would have to put in 10,000 for a good retrun. you could buy something much better WITH THAT like (mcr)

as i deal in CFDs, my 3000 CSR shares required a deposit of only 6000 ...... i am currently showing a clear (paper) profit of 2000, which after 10 days i reckon is pretty respectable!

i see that MCR is a very minor gold miner, so you cannot equate the one with the other ...... they are totally different in all respects.

that does not mean i do not have a few spivvy stocks in my portfolio, one or two of which will possibly or even probably turn out to be winners, but it is poor strategy to be overloaded with same.

looks like a positive move.
Change of adviser

The Company announces that it has appointed Insinger de Beaufort as
nominated adviser with effect from 11 July 2007. Marshall Securities
Limited continues as broker and financial adviser.

For further information please contact:


Nigel Brabbins 020 7566 3900
Ultrasis plc

www.ultrasis.com

Is ULT going to bumble along near 1p forever ?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

News
CEO News Letter Customer News Corporate News RNS Announcements Topical Issues Ultrasis in the Media Whats New
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02/Aug/2007
CEO Newsletter August 2007
National Health Service
We were pleased when the former Secretary of State, Patricia Hewitt MP confirmed the requirement at the MIND annual conference on 28th March 2007 and again at the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) National conference on 10th May for the National Health Service (NHS) to implement Beating the Blues.

This announcement and press release by the Department of Health generated lots of coverage in the press, the World Wide Web and specifically on a number of sites that were created by the NHS to inform patients of their rights to the best treatment available. NHS Choices for instance, the patient advice website now clearly states; "Since April 1 2007, all primary care trusts (PCTs) (bodies responsible for improving the health of the community) in England have had to make available computerised Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT). It is called 'Beating the Blues'. Ask your GP for more details if you're interested."

Unfortunately there appears to be a disconnect between policy directives and PCT uptake, in that the only Strategic Health Authority (SHA) to have commissioned a collective purchase and provision of Beating the Blues to date is the East Midlands. Interestingly though one of the two PCTs which didn't purchase in this collective was Leicester City - the PCT in Patricia Hewitt's constituency!

We were of course delighted that the East Midlands SHA has taken the lead in implementing Beating the Blues as recommended by NICE and the Department of Health. We are also confident that the NHS management would not be the cause of further 'post code lottery' problems and allow a National Policy Directive for the treatment of Depression and Anxiety to benefit only a small proportion of the population. We are actively discussing similar engagements with other PCTs and regional collectives and have made contact with the new Secretary of State Alan Johnson MP, to appraise him on the position.

I took the opportunity recently, via our website, to ensure all interested parties were clear on the current position since the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommendation and Secretary of State's commitment with an invitation for you to write to your local MP and raise the fact that the Government and the Department of Health were saying this was now implemented when clearly any patient interested in receiving treatment was finding this not to be the case. It is the patient who is suffering for this unfulfilled commitment and I thank those of you who made the effort to follow through on this - for those that haven't it is not too late for your voice to be heard!

Innovation in Health Care
We were very proud of our team when Beating the Blues was identified as one of the decade's leading innovations in patient care.

New technological innovations, which transform patient care, improve diagnosis and deliver benefits for patients, clinicians and the taxpayer, were showcased as part of the Department of Health's Hi Tech Healthcare week (21-27 May 2007).

The Department of Health asked England's leading healthcare experts to identify the innovations from the past decade which they believe have resulted in the greatest benefits for patients. In mental health the development of computerised cognitive behavioural therapy was heralded as transforming services for depression and anxiety.

Proof that all our belief, hard work and investment was justified.

Sales
Notwithstanding the aforementioned slow uptake, the completion of the East Midlands contract and continued strength in license renewals has resulted in a very strong final quarter for the company.

We are confident that the NHS will eventually fulfill their commitment and implement Beating the Blues nationwide. We now have our National Sales Manager, Graham Hall, in post and have recently advertised for sales/account managers to increase the regional sales resource in anticipation of further implementation.

I am pleased to confirm that we have maintained our relationship with MHN in the US and renewed our contract to supply the American version of 'The Relief Series' plus 'Drink and Drug wise' and of course the commercial terms are confidential.

Strategic Partnerships
We have announced some significant strategic partnerships recently that will enable us to capitalise on service delivery offerings to PCTs, Pathways to Work and Condition Management Programme:

Turning Point
Turning Point is the UK's leading social care organisation with an income in excess of 55 million per annum. It provides services for people with complex needs, including those affected by drug and alcohol misuse, mental health problems and those with learning disabilities. You will recall that we commenced a service provision of Beating the Blues in the North West (Liverpool and East Lancashire) last year under the Condition Management Programme (CMP) assisting people on incapacity benefit back to work. The 'face to face' element of this service was delivered by Turning Point employees so that people using the service were adequately supported.

This model of working has been a great success and has now resulted in a more formal arrangement between Turning Point and Ultrasis. The intention of this partnership is to provide PCT commissioners with the option to commission a fully managed service as a way of delivering the NICE guidance. We will be providing this service on a 'per head' basis and believe that we can deliver both a clinically beneficial and more cost effective service to the NHS by working in this way. It is also worth noting the policy of the government to encourage more provision of services by charities and voluntary organisations.

ICAS
We announced earlier this year the contract with ICAS, the leading employee assistance program provider in the UK to provide their corporate clients with access to Beating the Blues. We also commented that we would explore the possibility for further initiatives together.

In partnership with ICAS we have just launched CMP Direct, a service that brings together the skills and infrastructure of ICAS including 24 hour telephonic support with the leading edge treatment provided by Beating the Blues to create an offering to those companies and organisations currently bidding for work under the Department of Work & Pensions Pathways to Work Programme to help people off incapacity benefit and return to work.

With mental health being one of the most cited reasons for people being on incapacity benefit we believe that this service will be seen as a cost effective way of providing people with treatment and support to manage their anxiety and depression.

City AM
Further to a recent interview by Ainsley Thomson an article appeared in the Financial newspaper "City AM" on Tuesday 31st July 2007.

Kind regards

Nigel Brabbins
Chief Executive
2nd August 2007

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probably not ...... more likely to worth even less!

ULT is yoyoing a bit today. Early gains shed off and now seems to be regaining.
sp held well during the last few turbulent weeks, relenting a bit but regaining ground seemingly as fast. No RNS's since the 8th Aug, which was to confirm compliance with AIM rule 63, so what is the sp movement about? Is it a recovery play .... ?

EDIT - spread is still a bit (comparatively) though

next results due end of sept/oct if positive these will tell what progress has been made.

http://www.city.ac.uk/news/archive/2007/08_august/16082007_5.html


City releases research into computerised cognitive behavioural therapy

CCBT can treat depression in those with physical illness according to City research.

Despina Learmonth of City's School of Social Sciences has authored research into computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (CCBT).Her research shows thatit can be an effective way of treating depression in individuals who suffer with physical illnesses and disabling physical symptoms (referred to as "physical co-morbidities").



Learmonth studied 504 service users using "Beating the Blues" [1], an established interactive multimedia CCBT programme, in a NHS specialist CBT unit [2]. A control group, a standard intervention group, and a physical co-morbidity group were compared before and after using "Beating the Blues" on a depression outcome measure called the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II). Those in the physical co-morbidity group suffered from illnesses ranging from irritable bowel syndrome and asthma to diabetes and Parkinson's [3].



Seventy per cent of service users in both the standard intervention group and the physical co-morbidity group completed all eight sessions of "Beating the Blues".



Statistically significant differences on the BDI-II were found between the control group and each of the intervention groups, but not between the intervention groups themselves. Only two per cent of the control (waiting list) group showed reliable and clinical change over time, whilst 25.2% of the standard group and 26.8% of the physical co-morbidity group showed reliable and clinical change in their therapy outcomes.



For those who did not complete their course of CCBT, there was still a similar pattern: 20.8% of the standard intervention group and 21.6% of the physical co-morbidity group demonstrated reliable and clinically significant change. "Beating the Blues" is traditionally used to treat those suffering with depression, but not necessarily those who also have physical co-morbidities. CCBT is a popular method of treating mild to moderate levels of depression because it is a less therapist-intensive form of intervention enabling service users to self-administer cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).



These results are significant because they present compelling evidence that CCBT may be useful in treating those presenting with a wide variety of physical co-morbidities and depression. However, according to the researchers, those with diverse physical co-morbidities are not usually treated with CCBT - when in fact this could be another effective way of providing treatment.



Learmonth says: "These findings are significant because besides the obvious fact that alleviating depression is important for individuals' well-being, physical illnesses and symptoms are known to be made worse by mental ill health. Pain can become worse, immune functioning can be lowered, and stress levels can be increased - leading to further potential health risks."



"This frequently leads to deterioration in suffers' physical health and to a greater strain on carers at home (who may in turn become ill mentally and/or physically) as well as to a greater strain on NHS resources."



The findings have particular ramifications for sufferers of illnesses such as fibromyalgia (characterised by musculoskeletal pain and fatigue), chronic fatigue syndrome, and ME, which are believed by some practitioners to have a large psychological component contributing to their perpetuation. As Learmonth says: "Managing these individuals' depression could in some cases assist their physical recovery."



This research project was supervised by chartered health psychologist Dr Catherine Sykes.


Date of Article:16/08/2007

offer here just jumped from 1.05 to 1.12 (evolution securities adjusted their position to 1.13 from 1.05 sell) ...... something about to happen? jondoug - have you any new news?

EDIT - as I posted sell adjusted to 1.13 (without any trades going thru) ........... Hmmm

http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a781239017~db=all~jumptype=rss
Pragmatic evaluation of the viability of CCBT self-help for depression in higher education
Authors: Nicky Mitchell a; Kate Dunn a

Affiliation:
a University of Portsmouth, UK
DOI: 10.1080/14733140701565987
Publication Frequency: 4 issues per year
Published in: Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, Volume 7, Issue 3 September 2007 , pages 144 - 150
Subjects: Counseling; Psychotherapy;
Formats available: HTML (English) : PDF (English)
Purchase Article: 14.00 plus VAT - buy now add to cart [ show other buying options ]
Abstract
This study explores the potential of a computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (CCBT) self-help programme for depression within the context of a Higher Education Counselling Service. It seems timely to consider the place of evidence-based alternatives to the face-to-face counselling traditionally provided in higher education with user choice in mind. There is also a need to cater for increasing numbers of students experiencing a wide range and severity of emotional difficulties, sometimes resulting in long waiting periods for help. In the study twelve depressed students used the CCBT programme 'Beating the Blues'. Ten (83.3%) participants completed the programme. Initial credibility of and expectancy-for-improvement from the intervention was high. Significant reductions in depression scores were found following completion, whilst anxiety scores changes were not significant. Feedback on the programme was largely positive. CCBT was clearly preferred to face-to-face counselling by some participants, supporting the need for a choice of interventions for students. These results suggest that CCBT may be an acceptable and effective intervention for a number of depressed students. It is argued that CCBT may be a viable addition to current provision in Higher Education Counselling Services and that further studies are required to investigate this further.

Keywords: Self-help; CCBT; depression; stepped-care; higher education

view references (30)

http://www.hi-mag.com/healthinsurance/homepage.do
http://www.hi-mag.com/healthinsurance/article.do?articleid=20000099721
Canada Life adds 'Beating the Blues' service

August 2007Breaking News

Canada Life Group Insurance has added a computerised cognitive behavioural therapy service to its employee assistance programme (EAP) for sufferers of depression and anxiety.

The service - called Beating the Blues - is provided by EAP supplier ICAS and will be available to new and existing customers as an extension of Canada Life's group income protection scheme.

It involves eight self-help treatment sessions designed for use by people with no previous computer experience and aims to teach people life-long skills that can be used to prevent a recurrence of symptoms of depression in the future.

Marion Ware, head of marketing at Canada Life Group Risk, said: "Depression and anxiety-related illness costs companies large amounts of money each year in lost productivity, so a [National Institute for Clinical Excellence] NICE recommended treatment such as this will be beneficial to not only the employee but the employer as well. It is therefore important for intermediaries to remind their clients that this service is available."

http://www.citywire.co.uk/News/NewsArticle.aspx?VersionID=96283&MenuKey=News.Home
Canada Life offers push-button blues beater
Published: 14:14 Thursday 13 September 2007

By: Michelle McGagh, News Reporter

Canada Life is offering computerised treatment to group income protection policyholders who are affected by anxiety and depression.

The programme is based on cognitive behavioural therapy, an approach that encourages patients to change the way they think and focuses on immediate problems rather than causes of the symptoms from the past.

Called Beating the Blues, it is available as part of the employee assistance programme and has been created by ICAS, an independent employee support supplier. It will be available to all customers who present symptoms relating to depression and respond to online therapy.

The treatment is set out in eight self-help sessions that tackle the problems that the person is having at work and give suggest practical tips to help them overcome the feelings they are having. The sessions are supported by a telephone counselling service, where they have access to 50 counsellors, and also a 24-hour helpline.

Dawn Mellor, manager of the ICAS telephone counselling centres, said: Beating the Blues is beneficial to those employees that are having problems in or out of the work place and have mild to moderate depression or anxiety issues. We help them work through those issues practically so they do not return. As the sessions are completed at a computer it is also beneficial for those who are not physically mobile or may be off work for this reason.

http://www.city.ac.uk/news/archive/2007/09_september/18012007_1.html
Extended use of computerised therapy could increase NHS capacity by 25 per cent
City University London researchers have found that computer-aided therapy at mental health treatment centres can cut NHS waiting times.

Researchers from the School of Social Sciences at City University London have conducted research into the use of computer-aided therapy at mental health treatment centres and found that it can cut NHS waiting times for anxiety and depression treatment by as much as 25 per cent.



The research team assessed the impact of computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (CCBT) in an NHS cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) specialist centre using Beating the Blues (BtB) - the interactive multimedia CBT programme recommended by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (2006) as an important treatment choice for mild to moderate levels of depression in primary care.



Working with the NHSs Chelmsford and Essex Centre, the researchers collected data for 60 months, assessing 555 service users waiting for treatment between May 2001 and April 2006.

After completing all eight sessions of Beating the Blues:



64 per cent of service users were successfully discharged
18 per cent were referred on for face-to-face CBT
1.5 per cent went for group therapy
1.8 per cent were referred on to Community Mental Health Services (CMHT).



Of the 18 per cent referred on for face-to-face treatment, the average number of sessions required before service users were successfully discharged was 3.7; reducing the total number of combined computerised and face-to-face sessions to 11.7 from the standard 15 face-to-face sessions.



Between 2000 and 2006 the Chelmsford and Essex CBT specialist centre saw a 50% increase in referrals. By using the BtB as an integral part of the specialist service treatment pathway, the service managed to maintain waiting times despite this increase; increasing the capacity of the Centre by the equivalent of 1.1 of a CBT nurse.



Lead researcher on the project, Despina Learmonth of City University London, says:

This research provides compelling evidence that the extension of a computerised therapeutic intervention, such as Beating the Blues, could be of significant value to service users in secondary/tertiary mental health centres, alleviating current burdens on public health and therapeutic resources. The Beating the Blues programmes should never replace the mental health practitioner, however, in the case of common mental health problems it can offer rapid access and clinically significant benefit as a supported self-help intervention.



According to the Psychiatric Morbidity Survey Report (2000) there are some six million people suffering from depression or anxiety disorders, or both. That is almost one in six of the UK adult population. At the same time a shortage of trained therapists has led to waiting lists for treatment stretching to over nine months long; in some areas there are simply no therapists available at all.

Computerised cognitive behavioural therapy dramatically reduces the need for human therapists with interactive computer packages that enable service users to self administer CBT with minimal therapist support. This method of treatment is currently only recommended for use in primary care practices.

Date of Article:18/09/2007

Any reason for today's jump ?
Is it going to continue ? !!