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NHS Health Scotland’s mental health improvement work has been developed to raise the profile of mental health improvement and support its application in Scotland.

Much of the work also supports the implementation of the Scottish Goverment's health improvement policy in relation to mental health (see Background and policy information for further details).

Topics on this page:

• Mental health indicators
• Scottish Public Health Observatory mental health pages
• Mental health and wellbeing training and learning
• Evidence for action
• WHO (world health organisation) Collaborating Centre – stigma work
• Implementing Mental Health Promotion Action – European Network on Mental Health Promotion and Mental Disorder Prevention (IMHPA)
• Policy review – mental health improvement / public mental health
• Mental health and wellbeing in later life
• Mental health in the workplace
• Choose Life

Mental health indicators

NHS Health Scotland is undertaking a programme of work to establish a core set of national, sustainable mental health indicators for Scotland. Adult mental health indicators were finalised in December 2007 and work is underway to establish indicators for children and young people. The indicators cover both mental wellbeing and mental health problems, and will provide a way of monitoring the state of mental health in Scotland at a national level.

For further information, including information on commissioned research and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS), a newly developed scale to assess positive mental health, visit our page on the mental health indicators programme.

Scottish Public Health Observatory mental health pages

The main website for public health information in Scotland is the new ScotPHO site, which aims to provide easy access to clear, and relevant public health information and statistics to support decision-making.

This website is run by the new Scottish Public Health Observatory (ScotPHO) collaboration, which brings together key national organisations involved in public health intelligence in Scotland, led by ISD Scotland (information services Scotland) and NHS Health Scotland.

The ScotPHO website provides information on some of the data and statistics available on mental health in Scotland, as well as links to key data sources. To access the data, visit the ScotPHO mental health pages (external link).

Mental health and wellbeing training and learning

NHS Health Scotland supports a range of training opportunities for mental health improvement designed to build capacity in several key areas. For further information, visit our page on mental health learning.

Evidence for action

NHS Health Scotland has a remit to advise those involved in health improvement policy and practice on what works to improve health, based on reviews of evidence from interventions research, policy and programme evaluation and implementation knowledge. For further information, see our page on mental health research and our pages on evidence for action.

WHO Collaborating Centre – stigma work

As part of the Helsinki declaration, Scotland was asked to take a lead on coordinating European work on stigma and discrimination. NHS Health Scotland led this work within our capacity as a WHO Collaborating Centre. We built on the work of see me (external link) Scotland’s national anti-stigma campaign to develop an international stigma toolkit (see the Publications panel, right, to download both these resources).

• Stigma: An international briefing paper
• Stigma: A guidebook for action

Implementing Mental Health Promotion Action – European Network on Mental Health Promotion and Mental Disorder Prevention (IMHPA)

NHS Health Scotland represents Scotland on the IMHPA network and will contribute to its work packages as appropriate.

IMHPA work packages include:

• European database of mental health improvement programmes
• European network of training
• developing indicators for mental health impact assessment of social polices
• developing implementation reports for policy development
• developing an economic model to assess costs and benefits of mental health improvement
• dissemination and implementation of IMHPA products.

For further information, see the Implementing Mental Health Promotion Action website (external link).

Policy Review – mental health improvement / public mental health

NHS Health Scotland's Policy Evaluation & Appraisal Division coordinates the evaluation of health improvement policies in Scotland, as set out in Improving Health in Scotland: The Challenge (2003) (external link).

As part of this work a policy review of action to improve mental health and wellbeing to date in Scotland (which has been facilitated by the National Programme since 2001) was completed in 2008.

NHS Health Scotland coordinated the policy review process, on behalf of the Scottish Government, and appointed an independent, expert Review Panel to conduct the review and make recommendations for the future.

Further information is available on our Policy Review pages.

Mental health and wellbeing in later life

NHS Health Scotland currently manages a programme of work aiming to support mental health in later life. For further information visit our mental health and wellbeing in later life programme page.

Mental health in the workplace

Healthy Working Lives delivers a range of services for workplaces in relation to mental health improvement including the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commendation Award (external link).

Choose Life

Choose Life is Scotland's national strategy and action plan to prevent suicide. For further information visit the Choose Life website (external link).

Reviewed 28 January 2010