Case Study: Mental Health Foundation

Listen to the experts says Mental Health Foundation

In March the Mental Health Foundation launched a groundbreaking report based on a three-year investigation of the ways in which people with mental health problems manage their own mental health. The Mental Health Foundation received a grant of �542,000 from the National Lottery Charities Board in 1997 for a three-year programme. The report is the culmination of the project.

Strategies for Living examines what people find most helpful in managing their own mental distress, and urges all mental health professionals and policy makers to recognise the expertise of mental health service users. More specifically it recommends that the Government establishes an Expert Patients Task Force in mental health to provide advice to the Chief Medical Officer on how to establish a nationwide programme of self-management on mental health problems.

In-depth interviews with 71 mental health service users highlighted that what people with experience of mental health problems find most helpful is not medication, but accepting relationships with other people. Interestingly this included relationships with mental health professionals as well as friends, family and other service users, but the key factor was the human relationship, and being able to talk to someone, rather than receiving structured services. An earlier study on what people need in times of distress indicated that only 6 per cent of people wanted medication while 66 per cent needed support and someone to talk to.

"This report poses a real challenge to the assumptions made every day by medical professionals," said Ruth Lesirge, Head of the Mental Health Foundation. "We need to start listening to people about what works for them, just as we would if they had diabetes and were managing their own condition. We must ensure that all mental health services understand and address the need for creative and flexible services which put a high value on human relationships rather than relying solely on medication."

Dr Phil Thomas, Consultant Psychiatrist with Bradford Community Mental Health Trust, commented: "At the heart of Strategies for Living is a message that everyone, especially our political masters, would do well to heed. Strategies for Living is the definitive statement about expertise by experience."

The report also highlights the importance of other strategies such as physical exercise, complementary and alternative therapies, creative expression and religious and spiritual beliefs. It shows that people with mental health problems are aware of what strategies will help them at different times, according to whether they are well, approaching a crisis or experiencing acute distress.

Despite the depth of knowledge that people hold on their own mental health and reactions to medication for example, one interviewee commented that she had never before been asked for her opinions on her care or treatment. "Nobody has ever sort of asked my opinion on anything like this before � how I feel about anything. It�s all within the psychiatrist�s room, and you have to agree with what he says, and that�s it."

The report was written by Alison Faulkner, programme manager in the Mental Health Foundation's Strategies for Living project, which is run by people with personal experience of mental health problems.

The Mental Health Foundation is the leading UK charity working to improve services for both people with mental health problems and people with learning disabilities. It is the only charity to fund and work with both service users and providers and plays an important role in funding research and new approaches to prevention, treatment and care. The Foundation�s work includes: allocating grants for research and community projects; contributing to the public debate; educating policy makers and healthcare professionals and striving to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness and learning disabilities.