Editorial

Citation

Caan, W. (2016), "Editorial", Journal of Public Mental Health, Vol. 15 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-03-2016-0016

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Journal of Public Mental Health, Volume 15, Issue 2.

It takes trained and motivated human “resources” to improve mental health at the population level. Whenever I have observed effective public health action, it has involved collaborative activity. Frequently, collaboration includes members of the public – this is an area of training that was often neglected by academic and regulatory bodies, so that good practice had to be learned on-the-job.

In this country, the statutory body, Public Health England (PHE) formed in 2013. Developing a capable workforce is one of the roles of PHE, including providing support to local practitioners and planners. For its first two years of operation, mental health was not a high priority for PHE, but this year has seen some promising developments. For example, a variety of young people aged 10-24 were engaged in developing a national resource to support local initiatives in promoting mental resilience for youth (www.youngpeopleshealth.org.uk/public-health). One useful quote from that resource is: resilience requires relationships, not rugged individualism. Local government should be key partners in promoting mental health. PHE (2014) has issued guidance on building up multidisciplinary public health teams in local authorities:

As we work together to improve the public’s health it will be important to have an open mind about the breadth of skills that will be needed to deliver the transformation in health outcomes and reductions in inequalities to which we are all committed.

Gregor Henderson, the National Lead for Wellbeing and Mental Health at PHE, is a member of our Editorial Advisory Board. Thanks to him, I was able to attend a ground-breaking Public Mental Health Summit in London on 23 March 2016 (the Summit details are at www.phe-events.org.uk/hpa/frontend/reg/tOtherPage.csp?pageID=221009&ef_sel_menu=2013&eventID=568&eventID=568). The Summit was jointly organised by PHE and the Local Government Association, and brought together an unprecedented range of enthusiasts. Policy makers, public health specialists, practitioners from many communities and individuals who were experts-by-experience were all there. Many speakers related their public health perspectives to a recent health service strategy, the Five Year Forward View for Mental Health (Mental Health Taskforce, 2016). An interesting element of that strategy is the requirement for PHE to lead multi-agency collaboration to develop a prevention concordat. Within the Summit, there was an inspiring workshop on suicide prevention and a useful discussion on preventing stigma associated with mental illness. I would urge readers of JPMH during 2016 to suggest to PHE wider, upstream approaches to preventing the development of mental illness. For example, local authorities have strategic roles in both education and child protection, and readers may have suggestions around preventing or mitigating adverse events in childhood that could prevent mental illness, later on. Prevention of illness may be relevant to all ages, for example recently the Academy of Social Sciences identified promising approaches to preventing dementia in old age (Brayne and Richards, 2016).

At the Summit, it was heartening to hear of an initiative for champions for mental health in every local council. This development is already making progress. As someone interested in mapping and deploying “assets” for public health, it was good to hear about initiatives involving local volunteers, such as hairdressers and barbers.

One presentation in particular stood out for me. Previously, the children’s charity NSPCC had issued a report on prevention, and at the Summit they presented a model evaluation of teamwork. This involved an inter-disciplinary intervention by a Midwife and a Social Worker (Rosan et al., 2016) with new mothers and fathers who had been assessed to be at risk of developing perinatal mental illness. On average parents attended seven sessions, beginning in pregnancy and continuing after birth. The couple-focused intervention reduced both anxiety and depression by over 60 per cent, across a high-risk population of parents.

Rolling out such good ideas widely needs a capable workforce and clear planning. Dame Beulah Bewley has been an outstanding public health trainer and campaigner, following a career that included many aspects of both mental and physical health, across the lifespan (Bewley and Bewley, 2016). In 2016 low morale and loss of a sense of direction have undermined many developments in clinical care. Medical trainees seem to be especially frustrated, currently taking strike action (Iacobucci, 2016). Dr Bewley’s memoirs illustrate the value of flexibility in planning public health careers and the importance of encouragement from colleagues across many settings. In this country there needs to be more dialogue between people working at the national and community levels of practice. The National Clinical Director for Children, Young People and Transition to Adulthood has encouraged this collaboration (Cornish, 2016). Therefore in each community’s clinical commissioning group she stresses the need for local transformation plans to promote childhood resilience and develop the wider public health workforce.

Peter Byrne of the Royal College of Psychiatrists is another member of our Editorial advisory board. On 13 June 2016 Dr Byrne is hosting a Public Mental Health conference at the Royal College (www.rcpsych.ac.uk/policyandparliamentary/publicmentalhealthevent.aspx) to promote networking all across our workforce and to share priorities for action. Such networking can generate both encouragement and a sense of direction.

Pitch perfect

Cricket is a global game

Whose players field varied talents:

Bowling, batting, running, throwing.

Public health needs teamwork too –

In practice, diversity wins:

Building up, improving, growing.

References

Bewley, B. and Bewley, S. (2016), My Life as a Woman and Doctor, Bristol, Silverwood.

Brayne, C. and Richards, M. (2016), “Preventing dementia”, Dementia, Academy of Social Sciences, London, pp. 21-2.

Cornish, J. (2016), Future in Mind, March edition, Moderngov, Manchester, pp. 121-2

Iacobucci, G. (2016), “It’s the workforce, stupid”, British Medical Journal, Vol. 352 No. 8049, pp. 432-3.

Mental Health Taskforce (2016), “The five year forward view for mental health”, NHS England, London.

PHE (2014), “Public health in the 21st century. Organising and managing multidisciplinary teams in a local government context”, Public Health England, London.

Rosan, C., Brookes, H. and Coster, D. (2016), “Pregnancy in Mind”, NSPCC, London.