Measuring Mental Wellbeing

measuring mental wellbeing Cello Wellbeing Conference 27.04.2010

Clare Perkins, Deputy Director of the North West Public Health Observatory Claire Wood, Senior Planner, Leith Philip McNaughton, Research Director Rachel Cope, Regional Director, CELLO mruk research Suzie Vestri, Campaign Director of ‘see me’

large scale quantitative project to measure mental health and wellbeing in England online & offline qualitative research to understand and explore the impact of the stigma attached to mental ill-health

“ It’s like trying to explain to somebody what a broken leg is like. You can talk about the pain till you’re blue in the face but until you actually snap the thing, you have no idea.” Male, 51, Lanarkshire, April 2010

1. Can it be quantified?

2. Can people be honest?

3. Making it meaningful

Measuring
Truth
Insight

North West Mental Health & Wellbeing Survey “ to fill an identified gap in available data on well-being including aspects of lifestyle likely to impact on mental health”

Measuring mental health quantitatively – the challenges
Gaining honest responses and building trust
Representativeness of respondents
Question comprehension issues
Respondent becomes distressed by questions

Question areas Satisfaction with area Feeling safe WEMWBS Contact / interaction with others General health Life experiences Caring Physical activity / leisure Smoking, alcohol & drug use Financial worries Day-to-day difficulties Belonging

Your Mental Wellbeing

WEMWBS – Interpreting the Results Low wellbeing Moderate wellbeing High wellbeing

Mental Wellbeing Distribution
Gender – there is no difference between men and women;
Age – high mental wellbeing is highest among 25-39 year olds, but then decreases and is significantly lower among 40-54 year olds;
Deprivation – mental wellbeing reduces as deprivation increases.
Ethnicity – lower amongst white than non-white;

Low, moderate and high wellbeing

Five Ways to Wellbeing
‘ Connect’ - regularly meeting friends and neighbours
‘ Be Active’ - reporting recommended levels of physical activity
‘ Take Notice’ - strong feelings of belonging in the immediate neighbourhood
‘ Keep Learning’ - having the time to do things you enjoy
‘ Give’ - regularly participating in local groups and organisations
All five ways to wellbeing are strongly associated with the WEMWBS categories.

Investment in effective mental health promotion;
Tackle health inequalities;
Aligned wellbeing policy;
Resilient communities;
Sustainable employment;
Five ways to wellbeing;
Mental Wellbeing Impact Assessment;
Further research and analysis.
“ achieving a small change in the average level of wellbeing across the population would produce a large decrease in the percentage with mental disorder, and also the percentage who have [low levels of mental wellbeing]”. (Foresight) Recommendations

The brief To explore awareness of and attitudes towards mental health problems amongst 16 to 25 year olds in Scotland

we built an online community of 40 young people aged 16-25 which run for 3 weeks 20 of them had no direct experience of mental health conditions or problems 20 of them did – either personally or through close friends and family

perceptions, attitudes and experience around mental health and wellbeing mixed with communal forums to share views private diary work for personal opinions multi-media to allow participants to bring their own perceptions of mental health to life

with some clear benefits trust & openness built over time anonymity for honesty hear real unmediated language

I found other people to be particularly unhelpful ... I wished that someone would say something because it was always whispers but no actual talk of it. Some people eventually stopped calling and visiting and if they did speak to me then they would criticise and tell me to just snap out of it I did tell my best friend at the time who at first seemed happy I had told him but then he started to hang about with other people and exclude me and eventually not talk to me at all Raving mad loonies, schizophrenics and the like. Mad paranoid men in straight jackets and padded cells A guy in a room with padded walls The guy that’s got a split personality on Hollyoaks SSssshhh we don’t talk about things like that

and some interesting areas for analysis of difficult issues exploring gaps between privately held views & open ‘posturing’ around mental health encourage participants to ‘peer review’ their own entries and views explore differences between immediate response & more considered views

from the outside - perceptions of mental health are negative and centred around ill-ness rather than wellness people don’t consider and think about mental health or wellbeing existing on a spectrum sense of isolation from those suffering – and rejection from those around them main challenge to shift attitudes of young people towards an understanding and awareness of different degrees of mental wellness at the right time

The sad thing was that after a year of so, she had beaten the condition but along the way she had lost all of her friends due to her acting out and acting weird around us, now we are no longer close friends but we do talk from time to time Courtney Flynn, 18, secondary experience

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Measuring Mental Wellbeing

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