Top picks for Mental Health Day 2022

Summary

This year, WHO's World Mental Health Day on 10 October will focus on the theme 'Making mental health and wellbeing for all a global priority'.

To mark World Mental Health Day, we’ve pulled together 10 resources, blogs and reports from the hub that focus on improving patient safety across different aspects of mental health services.

Content

1. Centre for Mental Health briefing: Poverty, economic inequality and mental health (26 July 2022)

This briefing paper by the think tank Centre for Mental Health explores the links between factors that worsen mental health. It highlights evidence showing that living in poverty increases people’s risk of mental health difficulties, and that more unequal societies have higher overall levels of mental ill health. It also highlights inequalities in access to primary care and mental health services across the UK and demonstrates how economic inequality combines with structural racism to undermine the mental health of marginalised groups in society.

2. Self-harm: assessment, management and preventing recurrence (NICE, 7 September 2022)

This new guideline from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) covers assessment, management and preventing recurrence for children, young people and adults who have self-harmed. It includes those with a mental health problem, neurodevelopmental disorder or learning disability and applies to all sectors that work with people who have self-harmed.

The guideline sets out some important principles for care and treatment. For example, it states that self-harming patients treated in primary care must receive regular follow-up appointments, regular reviews of self-harm behaviour and a regular medicines review.

3. People with eating disorders should not face stigma in the health system and barriers to accessing support in 2022: A blog by Hope Virgo

In this blog, Hope Virgo, an eating disorder survivor and mental health campaigner, looks at the barriers people face when they try to access support, and talks about her own experience of being told she was ‘not thin enough for support’. She calls for long-overdue action on funding, training and awareness of eating disorders within the NHS.

4. Commission on Young Lives - Heads Up: Rethinking mental health services for vulnerable young people (29 July 2022)

This detailed report by the Commission on Young Lives examines the state of children and young people's mental health in the UK, describing the current situation as "a profound crisis." It examines the impact of the pandemic on young people's mental health, as well highlighting the lack of capacity and inequalities present in children and young people's mental health services. It then looks in detail at factors that contribute to mental health issues in children and young people and prevent marginalised groups from accessing mental health support.

5. Rethinking doctors’ mental health and the impact on patient safety: A blog by Ehi Iden

This blog by Ehi Iden, hub topic lead for Occupational Health and Safety, reflects on the increasing workload and pressure healthcare professionals face, the impact this has on patient safety and why we need to start 're-humanising' the workplace. He highlights that, “It takes a safe healthcare worker to deliver safe healthcare to patients.”

6. Risk of suicide after dementia diagnosis (3 October 2022)

This research study looks at the association between a dementia diagnosis and suicide risk in the general population and identifies high-risk subgroups. The authors of the study found that dementia was associated with increased risk of suicide in patients diagnosed before the age of 65 years, those in the first three months after diagnosis and those with known psychiatric comorbidities.

7. Zero Suicide Alliance training

The Zero Suicide Alliance is a collaboration of NHS trusts, charities, businesses and individuals who are committed to suicide prevention in the UK and beyond. Their website offers free online training courses to teach people the skills and confidence to have potentially life-saving conversations with someone they’re worried about. They offer short online modules covering general suicide awareness, social isolation and suicide in veterans and university students.

8. Blog: Shifting the dial on mental health support for young black men (6 April 2022)

In this blog for NHS Confederation, Kadra Abdinasir talks about how mental health services have failed to engage with young black men, and describes how services need to change to overcome the issue. She argues that delivering effective mental health support for young black men requires a move away from a crisis-driven response, to investment in system-driven, community-based projects. 

Kadra looks at learning from Shifting the Dial, a three-year programme recently piloted in Birmingham as a response to the growing and unmet needs of young black men aged 16 to 25. A recent report on the project found that most young men involved in Shifting the Dial reported good outcomes related to their wellbeing, confidence, sense of belonging and understanding of mental health.

9. Running hot: the impact of the pandemic on mental health services (21 February 2021)

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on people’s mental health, and the knock-on effect is putting services and organisations under considerable pressure. In this briefing for the NHS Confederation, Paula Lavis outlines the case for change in mental health services and makes recommendations on how to address the increasing demand.

10. Blog: Why harmful gender stereotypes surrounding men’s approaches towards their feelings need challenging

This blog explores why men are reluctant to seek support when they are struggling with their mental health and why the suicide rate is so high. It looks at initiatives that exist to encourage men to seek help and highlights what more could be done to support mens’ mental health.