Prevention is at the heart of what we do. Our vision is good mental health for all. Our mission is to help people understand, protect and sustain their mental health.
Making Prevention Happen
Since 1949, the Mental Health Foundation has been the UK’s leading charity for everyone’s mental health. With prevention at the heart of what we do, we aim to find and address the sources of mental health problems so that people and communities can thrive.
Our approach
We take a public mental health approach to prevention, finding solutions for individuals, those at risk and society to improve everyone’s mental wellbeing.
The practical things we do
- In community and peer programmes, we test and evaluate the best approaches to improving mental health in communities and then roll them out as widely as possible.
- Research; we publish studies and reports on what protects mental health, the causes of poor mental health, and how to tackle them.
- In public engagement, we give advice to millions of people on mental health. We are most well known for running Mental Health Awareness Week across the UK each year.
- Advocacy; we propose solutions and campaign for change to address the underlying causes of poor mental health.
What we don’t do
- We are not an academic think tank or research institute. We generate and apply evidence in real-world settings.
- We are not mental health service providers when people are unwell.
- We don't only focus on individual actions and steps - we look at both the personal and societal changes that can improve and protect everyone’s mental health.
Embracing the challenge of prevention
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how health is not simply an individual medical issue. Good health is a collective endeavour which depends on each other and a society that supports people to thrive. Read how the Foundation embraced the challenge of prevention through our work.