Mental health

Mental Health Key Facts:

• 30-50% of Primary Care workload is mental health related (especially depression)
• 70-80% of young men in prison/offenders have a mental health condition
• patients with mental health conditions who remain untreated suffer a 15-25 years’ reduction in their life expectancy and poorer quality of life
• Yorkshire and the Humber has a higher than average suicide level compared to other areas in the country and 78% of people who have completed suicide have seen their GP within a month prior to their death
• mental health has the largest disease burden in the UK (22.8%) compared to cardiovascular disease (CVD) (16.2%) and cancer (15.9%) and yet there is a (perceived) lower focus on it

(Source: King's Fund)

The Mental Health Taskforce note (1):

• one in four adultsexperiences at least one diagnosablemental health problem in any given year
  
  
• half of all mental health problems have been established by the age of 14, risingto 75 per cent by age 24
  • one in ten childrenaged 5 - 16 has a diagnosableproblem such as conduct disorder (6 per cent), anxiety disorder (3 per cent),attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (2 per cent) or depression (2 percent)
  • children from low income families are at highest risk, three times that ofthose from the highest
    
    
• one in five motherssuffers from depression, anxiety or in some casespsychosis during pregnancy or in the first year after childbirth
  
  
• physical and mental health are closely linked - people with severe andprolonged mental illness are at risk of dying on average 15 to 20 yearsearlier than other people- one of the greatest health inequalities in England
  
  
• suicide is rising,after many years of decline
  • suicide rates in England haveincreased steadily in recent years, peaking at 4,882 deaths in 2014
    • the rise ismost marked amongst middle aged men
    • suicide is now the leading cause ofdeath for men aged 15-49
    • men are three times more likely than women to taketheir own lives - they accounted for four out of five suicides in 2013
    • a quarterof people who took their own life had been in contact with a health professional,usually their GP, in the last week before they died. Most were in contact within amonth before their death

Reference:

• NHS. The Five-year Forward View for Mental Health - a report from the independent Mental Health Taskforce to the NHS in England
  February 2016