Adult Mental Health Indicators
Final adult mental health indicator set
The initial focus has been on indicators for adults and the national indicators were finalised December 2007. These indicators cover both positive mental health (mental well-being) as well as mental health problems and are structured under constructs (categories) of two types:
- High level constructs of mental health status — outcome measures.
- Contextual constructs — covering the risk and protective factors and the consequences of mental health, which may be at an individual, community or structural level.
They provide a summary mental health profile in Scotland, and a way of monitoring the state of mental health and well-being in Scotland, at a national level and will help inform decision-making about priorities for action and resource allocation.
The final report sets out the background, objectives, process and achievements of this work. It also includes the rationale and an overview of the evidence-base for the indicators as well as the list of the indicators and their data sources Final report adult mental health indicators December 2007.
The final briefing paper December 2007 provides a summary of the final output from the work including the recommendations, the indicators, their measures and associated data source.
A rationale paper documents clearly the thinking and reasons behind, and constraints involved in, decisions that have been taken during the course of the work Rationale paper October 2007.
Process
The work has used a mixed approach taking into account current data, policy, evidence, expert-opinion and theory. It has drawn on expertise from across a range of sectors. Vital to this have been links with people who have either developed or are in the process of developing indicators in areas of relevance to the measurement of mental health and well-being. Notably this includes areas such as community development, sustainable development, social capital and quality of life.
There were six key stages to this project:
- Determine a desirable set of defined mental health and well-being indicators;
- Review relevant Scottish data currently collected nationally, to maximise the use of data already gathered;
- Identify and establish consensus on a set of practical indicators for which data are currently available;
- Identify additional data needs and recommend new data that should be collected to fill the gaps between the set of practical indicators and the desirable set;
- Explore approaches to collect the recommended new data, and work to develop the data collection systems for desired indicators where they do not currently exist through influencing data collection systems to ensure that these adequately cover mental health and well-being; and
- Ensure the sustainable collection of both current and new data for the indicator set.
Supporting documents from the work
A paper that set out preliminary thinking behind, and rationale for, proposed constructs under which the indicators for adults could be developed was consulted on in February 2006 Consultation paper February 2006 .
Comments received were used to move the indicators work forward. This included the production of the final Rationale paper October 2007.
Five seminar events were organised in partnership with NHS Boards or local networks/alliances across Scotland in March/April 2007. These were held to discuss progress on the development of the national mental health indicators in Scotland. These stimulated further debate around the final choice of indicators and led to further refinement of the final indicator list. The following report summarises these events and the feedback and discussion around specific issues posed to delegates for consideration Report on Dissemination Events March/April 2007.
An article in the Journal of Public Mental Health 2006 described the indicators programme in its entirety: JPMH 2006 (Volume 5 Issue 1 p42-48).
Initial documents to the work include a background paper and an options appraisal paper. The latter discusses the various options available to ensure that data required for the mental health indicators set are obtained from surveys sustainably.
Information summarising progress and future activities at various stages of the work are also outlined in the following:
Briefing note September 2005
Briefing note update March 2006
Briefing note update (overview of work) December 2006
Commissioned supporting work included:
* the development of the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) - a new scale to assess the overall positive mental health of the adult population
* a Review of scales of positive mental health validated for use with adults in the UK. Scales reviewed assess some of the elements of positive mental health and factors which may influence or be influenced by the level of an individual's positive mental health. Appendix E contains copies of the scales for which permission was obtained for reproduction in the review:
Appendix E Contents and Copyright
Appendix E Scales A-E
Appendix E Scales F-M
Appendix E Scales O-R
Appendix E Scales S-T
Appendix E Scales V-W
* a practitioners mental health improvement evaluation guide was also produced from the review of scales of positive mental health Guide 5: Selecting scales to assess mental well-being
Sub-national availability of data for the adult mental health indicators
Whilst having a national remit, the considerable interest in establishing local mental health indicators has been recognised. A briefing paper has, therefore, been prepared to help local areas in making decisions. This paper Monitoring of mental health locally: Sub-national availability of data for the national mental health indicators for adults August 2008 provides details on the main sub-national geographies at which the data for the national adult mental health indicators are availability.
Future
Analyses of existing data for the indicators is presently ongoing. A report on the state of the indicators including trends and equalities analysis for those indicators where data is currently available is being produced and will be available summer 2008 and will appear on the ScotPHO website.
Contact for the indicators work
If you have comments on the indicators project or require further information please contact Jane Parkinson – jane.parkinson@health.scot.nhs.uk.
Last update 14th August 2008