The project aimed to examine mental health and care inequalities affecting residents in the East of England using secondary datasets, primarily the Understanding Society dataset. Guided by a stakeholder group consisting of local organisational and public patient involvement representatives, key mental health and care inequalities were identified for examination.
Background
The project aimed to find out if there are people living in the East of England who are more likely to experience mental health or care inequalities. For this research, the inequalities we looked at included i) being in need of mental health support, but not receiving it, and ii) not having a mental health need, but being diagnosed as having mental health need. We worked with local organisations and people with lived experience of accessing or using mental health services to guide the research we did to make sure that it is relevant to the people of the East of England.
To address our aim, we used national data collected by the Understanding Society Study. To find out if mental health and care inequalities effect specific groups of people in the East of England, we characterised people by protected characteristics, as defined by the Equality Act 2010. We also considered how other wider factors known to effect mental health, such as income, might influence mental health and care inequalities.
Our research question were:
- Are protected characteristics associated with risk of experiencing mental health and care inequalities?
- Do the impacts of wider determinants of health vary between populations with protected characteristics?
Project Aims
- Explore whether mental health inequalities effect East of England populations with protected characteristics and the impact of wider determinants of health.
- Identify different trends between local and national data.
- Promote collaboration between local community representatives and University of Essex researchers.
Project Activity
Project activity to date:
- Established a stakeholder group for mental health inequalities comprising local organisations and patient public involvement representatives.
- Dissemination of relevant research via a bi-annual stakeholder newsletter
- Publication of blogs
- Data analysis of secondary data.
- Training provided for postdoctoral researcher in advanced data analysis techniques, familiarisation with a large national dataset and analysis.
Papers/resources associated with this project
Understanding Society The UK Household Longitudinal Study
Outputs
Click here to download journal paper titled 'Are protected characteristics associated with mental health care inequalities in the adult UK general population? a cross-sectional study'
Click here to download blog titled 'Mental health culture” has not gone far enough – long term failures in mental health policy'
Click here to download blog titled 'Are mental health conditions overdiagnosed in the UK? Two experts go head to head'
Click here for Recommendations Report produced for local community titled 'Working towards inclusivity in mental health care. Evidence-based recommendations for addressing mental health inequalities in Essex'
Who was involved?
- Principle Investigator: Professor Susan McPherson
- Professor Meena Kumari
- Dr Cara Booker
- Dr Antonella Trotta
- Dr Claire Wicks
Contact:
