What do the public think about mental health and mental health services?

Yesterday was World Mental Health Day. It was a time to focus on raising awareness of mental health issues across the world, and provided a chance for us to ask questions that resonate beyond the day itself about the realities of mental health and what more needs to happen.

But how concerned are we, the public, about mental health as an issue?

It appears that the messages have not gone unheard. Concern about mental health as a public health issue is increasing. Just last year, around a third (32%) of us identified mental health as a concern, which was a 16 percentage point increase from 2014. This extensive increase in concern has not been seen across any other public health issue, and mental health is now considered the second most concerning public health issue after cancer.

Young people are more likely than older people to see mental health as a concern – four in ten (40%) 15 to 24 year olds say that mental health is one of the most concerning public health issues, compared with just two in ten (21%) people aged over 65.

We also want to see this concern translate into action and government investment. When we are asked about where any additional funding for health and social care should be placed, nearly three fifths (58%) of us say mental health services specifically. Investment in mental health services ranks second only to investment in urgent and emergency care services.

The government looks to be responding in many ways. In 2016 NHS England committed to transforming mental health care in England by 2021, with £1bn extra to be invested a year and one million extra people to be helped. In addition, on the eve of World Mental Health Day, the government announced the appointment of Jackie Doyle-Price as the first UK Minister for Suicide Prevention, with the role of ensuring each local area has a suicide prevention plan and reducing the stigma attached to seeking help.

However, a report this week from the National Audit Office (NAO) also confirmed that, while services for children and young people have improved, there is still a long way to go. This was a sentiment echoed by Matt Hancock the Secretary of State for health and social care about mental health services overall.

And the public agree. Only half (51%) of us think that mental health services are as much of a priority for the government as other NHS services, and around two thirds (64%) think waiting times for mental health treatments are currently too long.

Clearly there is more work to be done and World Mental Health Day provided a chance to look to the future in light of all of this.

Beyond this week, as the public place more emphasis on mental health, and the health and social care sector faces extra pressures, it will be interesting to see how the government utilises the opportunities, experience, and tools across all sectors to address the gaps and meet needs. For example, our evaluation for the Department of Education (DfE) on Community Learning Mental Health (CLMH) published yesterday highlights the potential for adult and community learning courses to help people develop the tools, strategies and resilience to manage, and aid recovery from, mild to moderate mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression.