By John GrahamStick Your Neck Out is a comprehensive and practical guide to the skills, qualities, and strategies you need to make a difference, covering every aspect of working for change-from choosing an issue to mapping out a plan, creating a vision of success, organizing a team, building trust, resolving conflicts, working with the media, moving through bureaucracies, setting legal strategies, and more. Filled with practical tips and inspiring examples, this book provides the missing link between ideas and ideals on one hand, and effective action on the other.

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A unique ‘snapshot’ study in Bristol has shown that on a single day earlier this year, 171 people were supported by organisations in the city after being subjected to physical, emotional, sexual, or financial abuse. The survey, the first of its kind carried out in the city, was commissioned by the Safer Bristol Partnership on behalf of the Bristol Domestic Abuse Forum.The study took place over a 24-hour period – on March 10th – across the city. It was conducted by Professor Marianne Hester and Nicole Westmarland at the University of Bristol and funded by the Government Office for the South West. In all, 33 organisations supplied information for the survey including the police,Victim Support, the city’s Primary Care Trusts, Bristol City Council and a range of voluntary organisations. It will be repeated next year.

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A vision of mental health policy in 2025 is set out today in a report that claims that in twenty years time maintaining good mental health could be as important and popular as keeping physically fit. ‘Mental Health in the Mainstream’, published by the Institute for Public Policy Research predicts that there will be far less stigma attached to mental health problems.The report suggests a future where policy on the issue is no longer dominated by measures to protect the public from a small number of dangerous mentally ill people. It says the use of medication will be drastically reduced and those who have problems will be able to access drop in services in their neighbourhood.

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