Location: United Kingdom
- Fonagy Review recognises that “mental distress and common mental health conditions have increased substantially, particularly among children and young people” and brings opportunity to move past unhelpful debates.
- Mental Health Foundation welcomes the Review’s calls for a more preventative approach to poor mental health
- Upcoming Mental Health Strategy for England must build on review and deliver a fully funded, cross-government approach to tackling levels of poor mental health.
The UK government have published the independent review into mental health conditions, ADHD and autism.
Alexa Knight, Director of Policy and Influencing at the Mental Health Foundation, said:
“The Fonagy review findings could not be clearer - there has been a real, observable and substantial increase in mental distress across the UK. This crisis was never down to overdiagnosis. We now must move past unhelpful arguments about whether levels of poor mental health are real, and instead focus on preventing the suffering people are experiencing.
“These findings show that the UK government needs to change its approach to tackling poor mental health. Instead of only treating us when we get to crisis point, the government should focus on preventing mental health problems before they occur, whether we are diagnosed or not. This is the only way we will reduce the numbers of people experiencing mental health problems.
“The report is clear that government has to focus on prevention and make sure everyone has access to the building blocks of good mental health. Policies to achieve this can be as simple as better access to green spaces or help for people to get active. Or they can be more targeted, like support with finances or anti-bullying programmes in schools. This is why it’s so important the UK government has recognised the need for a cross-government approach to addressing poor mental health – this mission stretches across every area of society.
“We warmly welcome these findings and recommendations. We look forward to working with the UK government to make sure they are delivered in full. This will only be achieved, through a fully-funded, genuinely cross-government mental health strategy for England. The broader lessons of this review must also influence policymaking across the UK.
“This must herald the end of the UK’s mental health crisis, and the beginning of a country where poor mental health isn’t accepted as inevitable."