How can research tackle the mental health crisis?
Keele University’s Professor Carolyn Chew-Graham reflects on a recent workshop which discussed potential research opportunities to tackle the current mental health crisis.
Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean for the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Professor Pauline Walsh, suggested that the Research Institute for Primary Care and Health Science’s Mental Health Group deliver a workshop in response to the announcement of Wellcome’s £200 million funding for mental health research.
The workshop, which took place on the 6th March 2019, welcomed anyone from across the university with an interest in mental health research, and we were delighted to be able to have contributions from four members of our Research User Group.
Why mental health?
Wellcome identified that although over 615 million people suffer from anxiety and depression worldwide, it is often poorly treated or not treated at all.
They highlighted that at present, mental health research is fragmented, with researchers often working in silos and hope that this funding will bring together different groups of researchers to collaborate and share knowledge.
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Wellcome have announced a considerable amount of funding towards mental health research, with a particular focus on treatments for anxiety and depression.
Professor Carolyn Chew-Graham resonated Wellcome’s priorities at the workshop, with some basic, yet vital, statistics;
1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem in any given year.
75% of people with a mental health problem will develop it before the age of 24.
By 2030, mental health problems are predicted to be the main cause of global mortality and morbidity.
1 in 5 people receive appropriate treatment for depression and anxiety in high-income countries, and 1 in 27 in low and middle income countries.
Professor of Psychiatry, Athula Sumathipala, went on to explain the different themes within the Research Institute’s Mental Health Programme, which includes studies funded in Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan. He also highlighted the importance of our lay applicants and members of the Research User Group, who have made invaluable contributions to grant applications, completed studies, and dissemination activities (such as peer-reviewed journals).
How can we, as researchers, tackle mental health?
The workshop allowed us to bring together researchers with different areas of interest and expertise from across the university, and opened up discussions which will be used to write a report which will launch the collaborative work across the university.
By opening up these discussions, we were able to begin to address the following questions;
- What is mental health?
- What are Keele University doing already?
- What opportunities are there to develop inter-disciplinary/inter-faculty grant applications?
- What might be the challenges of working together?
- What are the important mental health research questions that we might wish to take forwards together?
Research Ideas
It was clear from this workshop, that we have an immense breadth of expertise across all methodologies and across all faculties. This enabled us to begin to generate some important research questions, including;
How do we ensure a person gets the right treatment at the right time?
What is the role of art in the treatment of people with mental health problems?
How do we intervene early? What should be done in schools?
We hope that this workshop will launch collaborations across the university, and inspire plenty of future discussions, with the aim to create some successful grant applications.
