What people have told us about mental health

Summary

Since January 2016, over 34,000 people have shared their views and experiences of using mental health services with us.

Local Healthwatch have also produced 229 reports highlighting what people like and what could be better about mental health services.

This report 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:

1. People struggle to find information about the support available
2. Mental and physical health needs are often treated in isolation
3. People don't always get the same level of service
4. Long waiting times to access mental health services and receive a diagnosis
5. Non-mental health professionals don't always have the right information and training they need
6. 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 underepresented groups have while accessing mental health services.