Public Health England and the NHS have launched Every Mind Matters a platform to provide resources to help people look after their mental health, improve their mental wellbeing and support others.
The new platform has been endorsed by the Royal College of General Practitioners and enables people to create personalised action plans, recommending a set of self-care actions to deal with stress, boost mood, improve sleep and feel in control.
The launch follows 18 months of planning process developed with clinical and academic experts, national mental health charities and input from people with experience of poor mental health.
This new resource is available for the public and for GPs to advise their patients to use. It includes a range of resources and apps for people to use including:
- The My Possible Self app: aims to help you take control of your thoughts, feelings and behaviour. Use the app to help manage fear, anxiety and stress, and tackle unhelpful thinking.
- Thrive: Feel Stress Free helps you manage stress, anxiety and related conditions. Use the app to relax before a stressful situation or as part of your regular routine.
- Use HealthUnlocked to find and connect with people with mental health conditions, including low mood, panic and anxiety.
- Feeling Good uses the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy to help improve thoughts and feelings, self-esteem and self-confidence.
- Cypher (formerly Silent Secret) is an anonymous peer-to-peer social network. It’s a space to share your feelings and secrets, give and receive support, and connect to other support organisations.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said “Our health – both mental and physical – is an asset that needs to be nurtured. We’re all aware of the benefits of looking after our physical health and the steps we can take to keep ourselves healthy, but many of us are not as knowledgeable or proactive as we could be when it comes to our mental health.”
“Every Mind Matters will benefit us all with an accessible tool to help manage our wellbeing at the click of a button. It will offer vital support to those living with a mental health condition and give each of us valuable and personalised tips on how to better cope with life’s daily struggles, while contributing to tackling the stigma that can still surround mental health.”
Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, said “We all have mental health just as we all have physical health, and it can vary from good to poor. Most people know how important it is to look after their physical health and more and more people are understanding the need to look after their mental health as well, but lots of us don’t know where to start.”
“That’s why Mind has been helping develop Every Mind Matters, to empower people with the tools they need to deal with everyday causes of stress, anxiety, low mood and trouble sleeping. Taking proactive steps like increasing physical activity and connecting with others can help prevent these issues developing into more serious mental health problems further down the line.”
“At a time when only a third of people with a mental health problem get access to any kind of help and support, it’s important to do whatever we can to help people take steps to stay well and try and prevent mental health problems developing in the first place.”
“We hope that this campaign will help increase public awareness of how we can all stay as mentally well as possible.”
The announcement also said over a quarter (27%) of people who experienced signs of poor mental health waited at least 6 months before taking action to manage their mental health, with three quarters (74%) of those who waited this long wishing they had done so sooner.
