Mental Health Indicators
Health Scotland is developing a core set of national Mental Health and Wellbeing Indicators for Scotland.
Background
Mental health is a national public health priority for Scotland. To date, there has been no assessment of the overall mental health of Scotland’s population, without which it is difficult to determine whether mental health is improving in Scotland or to track progress.
NHS Health Scotland was therefore commissioned by the Scottish Government’s National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing to establish a core set of national, sustainable mental health indicators to support the Scottish Government’s drive on mental health improvement. Committment has recently been reaffirmed in the Scottish Government's new action plan on mental health improvement, Towards a Mentally Flourishing Scotland: Policy and Action Plan 2009-2011.
A list of all the outputs available on the mental health indicators pages is available in mental health indicator outputs, September 2008
Adult mental health indicator set
A set of adult mental health indicators has been established and was finalised December 2007. These indicators cover both positive mental health (mental wellbeing) as well as mental health problems.
Information on this work and the outputs are available on the Adult mental health indicators page.
Children & young people's mental health indicator set
A programme of work has now begun to establish children and young people's mental health indicators. This will fulfill Commitment 4 of the Scottish Government's new action plan on mental health improvement, Towards a Mentally Flourishing Scotland: Policy and Action Plan 2009-2011.
Information on the progress of this work and the outputs are available on the children and young people's mental health indicators page.
Measuring positive mental health (mental wellbeing):
The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS)
To obtain an assessment of the overall positive mental health of the adult population, a new scale was developed in the course of the mental health indicators programme - the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (WEMWBS).
Information on this new 14 item scale, the scale itself and details on using WEMWBS are available on the Measuring positive mental health page.
The validity of WEMWBS with children of secondary school age is now being tested as part of the work to establish children and young people's mental health indicators.
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 3rd June 2009