What people have told us about mental health

For the past three years, mental health has been the number one health and social care issue for the Healthwatch network. Take a look to see what people have told Healthwatch about their experiences.

Since January 2016, over 34,000 people have shared their views and experiences of using mental health services with their local Healthwatch. Local Healthwatch have also produced 229 reports highlighting what people like and what could be better about mental health services.

This report from Healthwatch England forms part of our multi-year project and sets out what we know about people’s experiences of accessing mental health services and the wider support available.

Top six issues people share with us about mental health:

  • People struggle to find information about the support available

  • Mental and physical health needs are often treated in isolation
  • People don’t always get the same level of service
  • Long waiting times to access mental health services and receive a diagnosis
  • Non-mental health professionals don’t always have the right information and training they need
  • People often don’t feel listened to or involved in decisions that affect them

To support our work on people’s experiences of mental health, we commissioned a literature review of existing research. The literature review explored research that focuses on the experiences that people from underrepresented groups have while accessing mental health services.

Read the literature review here.

To find out more about Healthwatch work on mental health support, visit the Healthwatch England website and read their overview.

Downloads

If you need these documents in a different format, please email info@healthwatchsheffield.co.uk or call 0114 253 6688.

Read the report

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