Mental Health: Exploring the Current Landscape
As part of Centred's new strategic aim of developing the knowledge base on rural mental health, we released our first report looking at the current landscape of mental health and wellbeing, primarily in Scotland but also across the UK (see attached). The primary interest for Centred (formally Birchwood Highland) is rural mental health but for this first report, urban areas are covered too in order to contextualise the subject. The report reflects on the evidence in relation to different areas of the mental health landscape including the impact of continuing cutbacks to resources, ongoing issues with stigma and discrimination faced daily by service users, the lack of knowledge on rural mental health, the impact of COVID-19, increasing levels of inequality in the UK and the deep psychological impact that has occurred (both for existing service users and the wider population), and finally the current challenges faced by third sector organisations – in each of these areas the evidence presents a rather challenging picture, reinforcing the need for further research and action."
Recommendations: https://centred.scot/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Mental-Health-Exploring-the-Current-Landscape-Recommendations.pdf
Summary of key issues
- Issue: Stigma remains an ongoing issue
- Issue: Limited crisis support
- Issue: Limited knowledge on rural mental health
- Issue: COVID-19 has widened inequalities in mental health across gender and age groups, and exacerbated pre-existing inequalities.
- Issue: COVID-19 has been challenging for rural marginalised communities
- Issue: Poverty remains one of the most significant social determinants of health and mental health
- Issue: The impact of poverty on mental health is not well evidenced in rural areas
- Issue: Scotland has a serious problem with drugs and alcohol consumption
- Issue: living in deprived areas leads to significantly worse mental and physical outcomes, including shorter life expectancy. Third Sector
- Issue: Covid has put significant pressure on charities in terms of their financial viability
- Issue: There is a limited knowledge base on the voluntary sector in rural areas (?)
