Mental Health Indicators
Find out about NHS Health Scotland's core set of national Mental Health Indicators for Scotland, including indicators for adults and children & young people. You'll also find details of a new scale to measure mental wellbeing - the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS).
Background
Mental health is a national public health priority for Scotland. Until recently, there had been no assessment of the overall mental health of Scotland’s population and its context, without which it is difficult to determine whether mental health is improving in Scotland or to track progress.
NHS Health Scotland was commissioned in 2004 by the Scottish Government’s National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing (external link) to establish a core set of national, sustainable mental health indicators to support the Scottish Government’s drive on mental health improvement. Committment has was reaffirmed in the Scottish Government's 2009 action plan on mental health improvement, Towards a Mentally Flourishing Scotland: Policy and Action Plan 2009-2011 (external link).
View all the mental health indicator outputs available (2011)
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. A data report on these indicators was published February 2009.
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 to establish children and young people's mental health indicators began in April 2008. This will fulfill Commitment 4 of the Scottish Government's action plan on mental health improvement, Towards a Mentally Flourishing Scotland: Policy and Action Plan 2009-2011 (external link). These will be completed by Autumn 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). This was initially validated for use with those aged 16 and over but has since been validated for use with children of secondary school age (13 to 16).
- Information on this new 14-item scale and details on using WEMWBS.
- A short 7-item version, Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (SWEMWBS), is also available.
Contact for the indicators work
If you have comments on the indicators project or require further information please contact Jane Parkinson – jane.parkinson@nhs.net
Reviewed 14th January 2011