There are a multitude of reasons to conduct more research in the field of preventative mental health care. The primary reason is of course to help reduce the distress felt by people, by understanding what works. By identifying how we can support people to access and benefit from early care, individuals are more likely to achieve better outcomes.
It is both important and timely to focus upon preventative mental healthcare, with the government and health minister calling for NHS reforms, including a shift from ‘sickness to prevention’ and a focus on ‘care in the community’. Effective improvement requires both innovation and expanded knowledge of effective methods.
However, prevention is not just a health problem, it is also a financial one. By 2026, the cost of mental health problems for the NHS is expected to become unsustainable. The Mental Health Foundation reported that poor mental health costs the UK £118 billion per year, with £1.4 billion being costs to General Practice, much of which could be preventable. Reactive spending threatens the sustainability of public services, necessitating a shift to a preventative mindset.
'The Framework for Mental Health Research' (Department for Health and Social Care, 2017) highlights a concern that despite the urgency and scale of the challenge, mental health research is lagging behind many other areas, meaning that improvements in prevention are progressing too slowly.
Mental healthcare has traditionally been more reactive, addressing issues once they reach a point of ‘caseness’, rather than being proactive or preventive. In contrast, significant amounts of money are spent on preventing physical health problems (Mind., 2015). Preventative mental health care is much further behind and attracts much lower levels of funding.
