A new collection of evidence-led policy articles on mental health and wellbeing was launched on World Mental Health Day by Policy@Manchester, the University’s policy outreach and engagement team.

The collection – Open Minds: mental health and wellbeing in policy and practice – combines insight and analysis on the causes, impact, and solutions to poor mental health and wellbeing. Drawing on research from across the University, this piece provides evidence-led policy recommendations on issues such as adolescent mental health, new treatments for mental health conditions, inequalities in service access and outcomes, and more.

Open Minds explores how policymakers at all levels, alongside public health bodies, can address the causes and impacts of poor mental health.

It has already been welcomed by Members of Parliament, including Dean Russell MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health, who said: “Open Minds brings together a wealth of expertise and insight, giving policymakers valuable tools to understand further the challenges of poor mental health.”

Some of the policy recommendations made in the collection include:

• the urgent need for action on loneliness and poor wellbeing in children and young people, through school- and community-level interventions;
• a call to reschedule psychedelic substances to enable research into their efficacy as mental health medicines;
• and the introduction of new training pathways to improve the standard of Mental Health Act assessments for people without English as a first language.

Find out more:

• Read Open Minds on the Policy@Manchester website.
• To find out more about the collection, please email Callum Wood.