Adult Mental Health

Unfortunately, some people can find it difficult to cope at times in their lives and may harm themselves or think of ending their life. We need to improve our responses to people in distress, both from services and the wider community, including action to prevent suicide and better support for people who self-harm.

If you are concerned about an individual’s mental health and wellbeing and feel they may be in distress, the GP should be their first point of contact, or contact NHS 24 on 111. If you feel the individual is in immediate danger, please call 999.

Resources

There are a range of suicide prevention and self-harm activities underway across Greater Glasgow and Clyde, visit the suicide prevention and self-harm pages to find out more.

• Suicide Prevention Resources – NHSGGC
• Self-Harm Resources and Supports – NHSGGC
• Suicide alert Resources: for staff working in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde area to support you if you are talking with someone who may be at risk of suicide. It explains the ‘ALERT’ model and provides some ideas for putting it into practice, as well as useful information about support services and suicide prevention resources. Resources include a briefing note and prompt sheet. A resource directory of mental health APPS, helplines and websites to support staff with signposting and sharing of information that is appropriate to need.
• Healthy Minds Pocket Guide – Our mental health and wellbeing card provides details for a mental health support organisation in each of the 6 Health and Social Care Partnerships; Glasgow City, Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire, East Dunbartonshire and West Dunbartonshire. It also provides helpful tips for looking after your mental health and wellbeing and who to contact if you feel someone is in distress.
• Healthy Minds Basic Adult Mental Health (1): A session from our Healthy Minds Resource that aims to raise awareness of mental health, what can impact mental health, what to look out for if someone is struggling with their mental health, and what we can do to help protect and support mental health.

Long-term conditions are defined as health conditions that last a year or longer, impact a person’s life, and may require ongoing care and support. People with long-term mental health problems have significantly poorer health outcomes with an up to a 20-year gap in life expectancy. Similarly, people with other long-term conditions are at higher risk of mental health difficulties.

It is important to promote holistic health for people with long-term conditions (“healthy body, healthy mind”), promote recovery approaches, and social inclusion. It is also important to include a focus on carers’ wellbeing as part of this agenda. The Healthy Minds Long Term Conditions (no. 6) session can help raise awareness of the impact that long-term conditions can have on mental health and explores strategies to help manage this.

Helplines

• Anxiety and Stress Disorders: NHS Living Life provides a free telephone based service for people over the age of 16 feeling low, anxious or stressed. Call 0800 328 9655 lines opened Monday to Friday, 1.00pm – 9.00pm.
• Asthma UK: Speak to an asthma expert nurse on their helpline 0300 222 5800. 
• British Heart Foundation: website which hosts a section on emotional support and wellbeing.
• British Lung Foundation: helpline available 03000 030 555, Monday to Friday, 9.00am – 5.00pm calls cost as local call.
• Diabetes Scotland: Call 0141 212 8710, Monday to Friday, 9.00am – 6.00pm or email helpline.scotland@diabetes.org.uk Confidential helpline (charges apply) that can provide information about the condition and take time to talk through and explore emotional, social, psychological or practical difficulties.
• Epilepsy Scotland: provide a free confidential helpline that provides information and emotional support to anyone affected by epilepsy. Call 0808 800 2200, Monday to Friday, 9.30am – 4.30pm.
• NHS Inform: provides information on a range of illnesses and conditions and helps people make informed choices about their health and wellbeing.

Resilience is a key factor in protecting and promoting good mental health and is defined as an individual’s ability to successfully adapt to life tasks in the face of social disadvantage or highly adverse conditions.

Being socially connected and resilient, both as individuals and communities, are now recognised to be powerful influences on mental health and wider wellbeing. This can be achieved through developing social connections, tackling isolation, building resilience, strengthening the use of community assets (including social prescribing), and strengthening self-care and peer support.

There are a wealth of initiatives happening across communities to help social connection and reduce loneliness and isolation. The Thriving Places is an example of how communities are bringing people together with a focus on delivering local services, making the best use of the local community assets, and improving quality of life.

Resources

• Healthy Minds Pocket Guide – Our mental health and wellbeing card provides details for a mental health support organisation in each of the 6 Health and Social Care Partnerships; Glasgow City, Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire, East Dunbartonshire and West Dunbartonshire. It also provides helpful tips for looking after your mental health and wellbeing and who to contact if you feel someone is in distress.
• Campaign to End Loneliness in Scotland: provides information and resources to help combat loneliness and isolation.
• Healthy Minds Loneliness and Isolation session (no. 7) aims to raise awareness of loneliness and isolation, their impact on mental health and what can be done to help tackle it.
• Resilience Poster: top ten tips to help develop resilience (available to download in different languages). Copies can be ordered free from the Public Health Resource Directory.
• Adult Mental Health Reading List: A reading list of books has been created to help people self-manage any mental health or wellbeing issues, gain more understanding of mental health and wellbeing, and help people to feel less alone.

Workplaces have a key role to play in improving our nation’s health and quality of life. Good quality work represents an important force in promoting positive mental health, while unemployment and poor quality work are toxic influences.

The business case for supporting the mental health and wellbeing of employees is a strong one. The benefits include:

• Fewer days lost to sickness and absence.
• Staff retention and lower staff turnover.
• Improved productivity.
• Improved team working and staff morale.

Healthy Working Lives is for employers in Scotland looking for workplace health, safety, and wellbeing information. This includes information on supporting the mental health and wellbeing of employees, what they can do, and access to resources to help with this.

Healthy Minds can be used by organisations and employers to raise awareness of mental health and issues that can impact on mental health such as sleep, loss and grief.

Despite supportive policy within Scotland, the experience of people with mental health issues in our communities remains poor. Mental health-related stigma and discrimination does not only occur within health and social care, but also within financial inclusion, employability, and education. This is in the context of the social determinants of health and equality issues predominantly amongst those with protected characteristics.

More than two-thirds (71%) of people with mental health problems in Scotland have experienced stigma and discrimination. In addition, 1 in 3 young people in every classroom will experience a mental health problem, and 3 in 4 say that they fear the reaction of their friends.

The impact of stigma and discrimination can be wide-ranging, including making someone’s mental health problems worse and stopping them from getting support.

Resources

Visit the Anti-stigma and discrimination page to find out more about some of the work being taken forward across Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

See Me is Scotland’s Programme to tackle mental health stigma and discrimination funded by the Scottish Government and managed by Scotland’s Association for Mental Health and The Mental Health Foundation.

Healthy Minds Stigma and Discrimination session (no. 15) aims to raise awareness of mental health stigma and discrimination and what can be done to help tackle it.

Health inequalities are the unfair and avoidable differences in people’s health across social groups and between different population groups.

To reduce health inequalities, action is needed to address the fundamental causes of social inequality which determine inequalities in income, employment, education and daily living conditions.

Action is required across a broad spectrum of policy areas, involving a wide range of organisations. Resources and actions need to be reallocated from interventions that are not effective to those focused on reducing health and social inequalities with the prioritisation of social equity and justice.

Resources

• Course: Breaking barriers to reduce inequalities (publichealthscotland.scot)
• Inequalities in poverty – The Health Foundation
• The link between money and mental health – Mind
• Scotland’s poorest areas suffer a devastating health divide
• Cost Crisis – Young Scot