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What would you do to make mental health support better?

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Around 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health concern every year, according to Mind.

Mental health conditions take many forms, including anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, phobias, and personality disorders. Some people will experience more than one condition at a time, and they will manifest themselves differently from person to person.

Mental health challenges often develop early. One in nine children between the ages of five and 15 has a mental health condition. Half are established by the age of 14, and three quarters by age 24.

Getting the right support at the right time is critical to helping people manage mental health conditions. For children and young people, prompt access to appropriate support is essential to helping them maximise their prospects for a happy and healthy life.

The quality and availability of help around the country is currently mixed, with some people left in need of more support than they can get.

This is why the NHS has included mental health in the NHS Long Term Plan. It’s listed as one of the core areas the NHS wants to improve, to make sure people get the support they need, when they need it.

The NHS wants to make care better in a number of ways, including: better support for children and young people, new mums and their partners, and at-risk groups, such as people experiencing homelessness, helping people manage their own mental health through better use of technology, and improved support for people experiencing a mental health crisis.

Now local NHS services need to hear from local people about how they want changes to look where they live.

Have your say. What would you do to make mental health support better where you live? Complete our survey 

Complete the survey and have your say. Share your views

 

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(Author)

Apart from five years studying in Oxford I’ve lived most of my life in London where for many years I was Head of English in a prestigious girls’ school, but since taking early retirement and heading West to be nearer to my two daughters - settling in Torbay with my wife, Anna, in 2011 - I’ve worked in the voluntary sector. I took on the role of Service Provider, for example, promoting the Red Cross Torbay Navigators Project, while now I’m a Trustee and part of the Media Team for our local Healthwatch. I’m a governor at Torquay Academy, too, giving me the chance to stay up to date with what’s happening in the world of education. Other interests, aside from friends and family, include art and art history, reading - from contemporary fiction and poetry to Elizabethan/Jacobean literature - history, politics, cooking, walking, and music, in particular Bob Dylan, the blues, and early Elvis. I love writing, too, with one novel published so far – Elvis in Wonderland – and another, Who’s There?, that still needs plenty of work!