Cross-cutting data gap theme

Description

Data Gap 1:

Mental health literacy

Limited data availability on mental health literacy restricts the ability to comprehensively monitor six outcomes in the Strategy. Monitoring these outcomes currently relies on a limited set of data sources, many of which were not designed to assess mental health literacy directly and therefore offer only partial measures.

Available data on mental health literacy mainly covers help-seeking and knowledge of how to access services, but this is largely limited to people already in contact with mental health services. There is little to no current data capturing wider population understanding of mental health, including knowledge and understanding of mental health and wellbeing, awareness of what affects mental health and how to care for self and others, use of a shared language on mental health, and confidence in asking for help and being listened to.

Data Gap 2:

Stigma and discrimination

Three outcomes address this area, which cover the experiences of people with mental health conditions in relation to stigma and discrimination, the role of communities in reducing stigma and discrimination, and ensuring support and services are compassionate.

Available measures focus primarily on individual experiences of discrimination or compassion within a narrow range of settings. There remain gaps in understanding how stigma and discrimination are experienced across wider community contexts, across support and services, and specifically among people with mental health conditions.

Data Gap 3:

Mental health condition prevalence

Tracking the prevalence of mental health conditions is particularly relevant for one outcome that focuses on improving the mental health of the population. A lack of robust, population-wide data on clinically diagnosed mental health conditions remains a limitation.

Data Gap 4:

Equalities data

There are three outcomes in the strategy that directly mention equalities. These focus on reducing mental health inequalities and improving equitable access to support and services. While only a small number of outcomes in the Strategy explicitly reference inequalities, having access to robust equalities data could significantly enhance the ability to monitor progress across multiple outcomes.

Current data sources support monitoring of some elements of mental health inequalities, particularly by age, gender, and area deprivation. However, there are limitations in the availability of data on other characteristics such as ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, and religion. Where these are collected, sample sizes are often too small to support meaningful reporting, or data is not published at a sufficiently detailed level.

Data Gap 5:

Data on a range of mental health support and services

Ten outcomes in the Strategy relate to mental health support and services. These outcomes span a wide range of areas, including awareness of how to access services, timely access to support, person-centred approaches, patient outcomes, referral pathways and transitions, a no wrong door approach, and compassionate care.

Available data provides relatively strong coverage for some clinical services such as CAMHS, Psychological Therapies and Primary Care, particularly around timely access. However, data is limited for other areas, including compassionate care, outcomes for service users, and access to non-clinical supports. There are several types of support and services that are underrepresented in current datasets including peer support, community-based care, third sector provision, perinatal services, services supporting neurodivergent people and forensic mental health.  

Data Gap 6: People with mental health conditions – health and lifestyle data

Nine outcomes in the Strategy focus on improving the health, wellbeing, and daily life of people with mental health conditions. The key areas covered by these outcomes include improving the physical health, quality and length of life, ability to self-manage care and feel supported in daily life and reducing experiences of stigma and discrimination for people with mental health conditions.

While some physical health and clinical outcomes for people with mental health conditions can be partially tracked, there are gaps in understanding the broader, non-clinical aspects of their lives.

Data Gap 7: Mental Health in all policies

Four outcomes in the Strategy focus on areas related to mental health in all policies including whether policies across all areas are intentionally designed to support mental health, whether cross-policy actions are taking place, or how they affect social and economic determinants of mental wellbeing. These outcomes are not suited for quantitative monitoring and may be more suited for qualitative insights to understand progress. 

Data Gap 8: Lived experience involvement

Two outcomes in the Strategy focus on lived experience involvement including how lived experience and practitioner insight are used in shaping policy and services. These outcomes are not suited for quantitative monitoring and may be more suited for qualitative insights to understand progress.

Data Gap 9: Evidence-informed policy and practice

Three outcomes in the Strategy focus on evidence-informed policy and practice including how decision-makers and practitioners’ access, interpret, or apply evidence in mental health policy and services. These outcomes are not suited for quantitative monitoring and may be more suited for qualitative insights to understand progress.