About Mental Health

Mental Health affects us all. How we think and feel about ourselves and our lives impacts on our behaviour and how we cope in tough times.

It affects our ability to make the most of the opportunities that come our way and play a full part amongst our family, workplace, community and friends. It’s also closely linked with our physical health.

Whether we call it well-being, emotional welfare or mental health, it’s key to living a fulfilling life.

What are Mental Health Problems?

Mental health problems range from the worries we all experience as part of everyday life to serious long-term conditions. The majority of people who experience mental health problems can get over them or learn to live with them, especially if they get help early on.

Mental health problems are usually defined and classified to enable professionals to refer people for appropriate care and treatment. But some diagnoses are controversial and there is much concern in the mental health field that people are too often treated according to or described by their label. This can have a profound effect on their quality of life. Nevertheless, diagnoses remain the most usual way of dividing and classifying symptoms into groups.

Most mental health symptoms have traditionally been divided into groups called either ‘neurotic’ or ‘psychotic’ symptoms. ‘Neurotic’ covers those symptoms which can be regarded as severe forms of ‘normal’ emotional experiences such as depression, anxiety or panic. Conditions formerly referred to as ‘neuroses’ are now more frequently called ‘common mental health problems.’

Less common are ‘psychotic’ symptoms, which interfere with a person’s perception of reality, and may include hallucinations such as seeing, hearing, smelling or feeling things that no one else can.

Mental health problems affect the way you think, feel and behave. They are problems that can be diagnosed by a doctor, not personal weaknesses.

Mental health problems are very common. About a quarter of the population experience some kind of mental health problem in any one year.

Anxiety and depression are the most common problems, with around 1 in 10 people affected at any one time. Anxiety and depression can be severe and long-lasting and have a big impact on people’s ability to get on with life.

Between one and two in every 100 people experience a severe mental illness, such as bi-polar disorder or schizophrenia, and have periods when they lose touch with reality. People affected may hear voices, see things no one else sees, hold unusual or irrational beliefs, feel unrealistically powerful, or read particular meanings into everyday events.

Although certain symptoms are common in specific mental health problems, no two people behave in exactly the same way when they are unwell.

Many people who live with a mental health problem or are developing one try to keep their feelings hidden because they are afraid of other people’s reactions. And many people feel troubled without having a diagnosed, or diagnosable, mental health problem - although that doesn’t mean they aren’t struggling to cope with daily life.

10 Ways to Look After Your Mental Health

Anyone can make simple changes that have a huge impact on their mental health and wellbeing. We've come up with ten practical ways to take care of yourself and get the most from life.

Mental health is about the way you think and feel and your ability to deal with ups and downs. Making simple changes to how you live doesn't need to cost a fortune or take up loads of time. Anyone can follow our advice.

Talk About Your Feelings

Talking about your feelings can help you stay in good mental health and deal with times when you feel troubled. Talking about your feelings isn’t a sign of weakness. It’s part of taking charge of your wellbeing and doing what you can to stay healthy.

Eat Well

There are strong links between what we eat and how we feel – for example, caffeine and sugar can have an immediate effect.  But food can also have a long-lasting effect on your mental health.

Keep in Touch

Friends and family can make you feel included and cared for. They can offer different views from whatever’s going on inside your own head. They can help keep you active, keep you grounded and help you solve practical problems.

Take a Break

A change of scene or a change of pace is good for your mental health. It could be a five-minute pause from cleaning your kitchen, a half-hour lunch break at work or a weekend exploring somewhere new. A few minutes can be enough to de-stress you.

Accept Who You Are

Some of us make people laugh, some are good at maths, others cook fantastic meals. Some of us share our lifestyle with the people who live close to us, others live very differently. We’re all different.

Keep Active

Experts believe exercise releases chemicals in your brain that make you feel good. Regular exercise can boost your self-esteem and help you concentrate, sleep, look and feel better. Exercise also keeps the brain and your other vital organs healthy.

Drink Sensibly

We often drink alcohol to change our mood. Some people drink to deal with fear or loneliness, but the effect is only temporary.

Ask for Help

None of us are superhuman. We all sometimes get tired or overwhelmed by how we feel or when things go wrong. If things are getting too much for you and you feel you can’t cope, ask for help.

Do Something You're Good At

What do you love doing? What activities can you lose yourself in? What did you love doing in the past? Enjoying yourself helps beat stress. Doing an activity you enjoy probably means you’re good at it and achieving something boosts your self-esteem.

Care for Others

Caring for others is often an important part of keeping up relationships with people close to you. It can even bring you closer together.

Mental Health Issues

This study examines mental health issues among women of different sexual orientations. An anonymous survey was administered at 33 health care sites across the United States; the sample (N = 1304) included lesbians (n = 524), bisexual (n = 143) and heterosexual women (n = 637). Not only did sexual orientation influence the probability of experiencing emotional stress, but also whether a bisexual woman or lesbian had disclosed her sexual orientation (was “out”) impacted the likelihood of having or having had mental health problems. Bisexual women and lesbians experienced more emotional stress as teenagers than did heterosexual women. Bisexual women were more than twice as likely to have had an eating disorder compared to lesbians. If a bisexual woman reported being out she was twice as likely to have had an eating disorder compared to a heterosexual woman. Lesbians who were not out and bisexual women who were out were 2-2.5 times more likely to experience suicidal ideation in the past 12 months. Lesbians and bisexual women who were not out were more likely to have had a suicide attempt compared to heterosexual women. Lesbians used psychotherapy for depression more commonly than did heterosexual or bisexual women. This is one of the few studies that compares lesbians, bisexual and heterosexual women. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Services for older people

A recent report by the Audit Commission surveyed 850 carers and 1005 general practitioners by visiting 12 areas of the United Kingdom and conducting face to face interviews.2 The results showed that the range of services in health authorities was patchy and varied between the different authorities; in addition, coordinated care between health and social services was lacking. Individual components of old age psychiatry services have been evaluated and described in the literature. Memory clinics, for example, improve significantly the quality of life in carers of people with dementia because of the treatment and advice they offer.3,4 In dementia, there has been a particular emphasis on earlier and more open diagnosis to enable individuals to make choices and decisions about their future care at an earlier stage and to offer possible opportunities for treatment.5 Considerable interest has also been shown about improving care for people with established dementia—for example, using the person centred approach advocated by Kitwood.6 Effective liaison services at the interface between old age psychiatry and old age medicine lead to workable models, with some early indications of good efficacy.7

Mental health problems

Specialist mental health services for older people have grown rapidly and successfully over the past two decades, aiming to offer services that are comprehensive, accessible, responsive, individualised, multidisciplinary, accountable, and systematic. As with all mental health problems, the burden falls on primary care (where minor morbidity often goes undetected) and specialist services tend to be reserved for those conditions and patients where diagnosis and management is problematic. The total cost of caring for people with dementia in the United Kingdom is estimated at £6bn ($9bn) a year¹—a figure whose impact is diluted by the fact that it combines both health and social services. We outline the current evidence of benefit in four areas: services currently available; interventions that have been shown to be effective; rating scales that should be recommended to clinicians for detecting common mental health problems; and the needs of carers.

Summary points

• Recent reports have highlighted the needs of older people with mental health problems
• Mental health problems are underrecognised and undertreated in primary care
• The use of guidelines and standardised screening instruments may improve this
• Caring for a person with dementia is stressful, and carers' needs are being increasingly recognised
• Carer interventions in people with dementia have been shown to be effective in randomised controlled trials
• Depression, the commonest mental health disorder in later life, is eminently treatable, but psychological therapies are underused

Removal of categories of mental disorder

(1)Section 1(2) of the 1983 Act (key definitions) is amended as set out in subsections (2) and (3).

(2)For the definitions of “mental disorder” and “mentally disordered” substitute—

““mental disorder” means any disorder or disability of the mind; and

“mentally disordered” shall be construed accordingly;”.

(3)The following definitions are omitted—

(a)those of “severe mental impairment” and “severely mentally impaired”,

(b)those of “mental impairment” and “mentally impaired”, and

(c)that of “psychopathic disorder”.

(4)Schedule 1 (which contains further amendments to the 1983 Act and amendments to other Acts) has effect.