Mental health data and analysis: a guide for health professionals

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) brings together data and analysis on mental health and wellbeing from across the health and care system, and produces resources to help improve services and outcomes.

This guidance is for commissioners, public health professionals and others involved in the local planning and provision of services that support people with mental health conditions. It should support them to use these resources to make or influence decisions about local services.

Understanding mental health locally

OHID has created mental health profiling tools and guidance to help commissioners and other health professionals understand the mental health needs and services in their local area.

The tools bring together a wide range of publicly available data. The data is grouped by clinical commissioning group (CCG) or local authority. This means the tools can be used to benchmark one area against another. They can also be used to see trends and compare indicators.

OHID also analyses available mental health data and produces intelligence resources (detailed below) to support health professionals with using the data to make or influence decisions about local services.

Population mental health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 mental health and wellbeing surveillance report presented close to real time intelligence on the mental health and wellbeing of the population in England during the COVID-19 pandemic. It compiled routinely updated indicators from multiple sources and summarised important findings from a pre-defined set of studies. Its aim was to inform policy, planning and commissioning in health and social care and it was designed to assist stakeholders at both national and local level.

The report was produced regularly and aimed to include the latest available data and intelligence. It enabled the identification and consideration of changes in mental health and wellbeing during the pandemic. The final version was published on 12 April 2022.

Severe mental illness

The severe mental illness profiling tool shows the prevalence and risk factors of severe mental illness (SMI). It can also be used to find out more about early intervention, assessment and treatment locally, as well as the outcomes and costs of these services.

The tool includes a set of indicators that relate to psychosis care.

The psychosis data report explains the variation in numbers of people with psychosis and their access to care and support across England by CCG or local authority. It also highlights where there are quality issues or gaps in current data relating to psychosis, meaning extra data collection might need to be organised.

Physical health of people with a mental health problem

The premature mortality during COVID-19 in adults with severe mental illness report investigates premature mortality (deaths in those aged 18 to 74) during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic (January 2020 to March 2021) in people with SMI.

It looks at premature mortality from all causes in people with SMI during the pandemic, how this differs across subgroups or regionally in England, and how this compares to premature mortality in people without SMI.

The premature mortality in adults with severe mental illness report presents analysis of the geographical variation in the premature mortality and excess premature mortality for adults aged 18 to 74 years with severe mental illness (SMI) in England.

The data is provided to:

• help local areas better understand the needs of their population

• assess if the interventions they put in place are helping to reduce premature mortality in the population with SMI

The report is the first in a series that analyses variation in premature mortality in adults with SMI.

The severe mental illness and physical health inequalities report uses a sample of primary care data to examine:

• the recorded prevalence of SMI by age, sex and deprivation in England

• the proportion of people with recorded SMI experiencing one or multiple physical health conditions in England

• inequalities in the co-morbidities and multi-morbidities between SMI and all patients by age, sex and deprivation in England

It includes a technical supplement which provides detail on methodology that enables local areas to replicate this analysis.

The inequalities in cancer screening uptake report examines differences in the uptake of bowel, breast and cervical screening by people with and without SMI. These are the 3 national cancer screening programmes in England. This report is based on an analysis of a sample of primary health care data.

Mental health and wellbeing: JSNA toolkit

Supports health and wellbeing boards and others interested in producing local mental health joint strategic needs assessments (JSNAs). It helps people to consider factors that affect mental health and wellbeing and to identify some of the key data, information and knowledge that local areas may use to build a picture of need.

The toolkit combines:

• the mental health and wellbeing (MHW) JSNA profile providing access to metrics on prevalence, risk and protective factors, and activity in and quality of support and care provision

• the MHW JSNA knowledge guide providing links to policy, guidance and evidence relating to understanding and meeting mental health need

Children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing

The children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing profiling tool can be used to understand the prevalence of children with, or vulnerable to, mental illness and what the risk factors are. It shows the range of health, social care and education services that support these children and information on the cost of these services.

OHID publishes a routine report on the proportion of children living with at least one parent reporting symptoms of emotional distress.

Guidance on how to use available information to assess and develop interventions which improve the mental wellbeing of children and young people is available in the measuring the mental wellbeing of children and young people briefing.

Perinatal mental health

The perinatal mental health profile shows data on mental health in pregnancy, the postnatal period and babies under 1 year old. It shows data on the demographics, risk and related factors, prevalence, and identification and access, during the perinatal period. It includes metrics at local authority, CCG and acute trust level.

The perinatal mental health catalogue is a source of perinatal mental health datasets and indicators available at a national level and at CCG, local authority, GP practice and provider level. This data can be used to find out more about perinatal mental health and services locally and nationally.

Suicide prevention

The suicide prevention profiling tool brings together a range of data on suicide to show how often it occurs, the risk factors, and what contact people with increased risk have with services.

The suicide prevention profile collection includes all updates. Some updates have an accompanying statistical commentary.

The near to real time suspected suicide surveillance system for England is designed to act as an early warning system for changes in patterns of deaths by suicide to enable appropriate intervention. The report shows statistics for the most recent 15 month period. It describes monthly suspected suicide rates by age group and sex. The data is aggregated for 3 month periods to describe suspected method of suicide.

Common mental health disorders

The common mental health disorders (CMD) profiling tool shows the prevalence of common mental health disorders, including depression and anxiety disorders, and what the risk factors for these disorders are. It can also be used to find out more about early intervention, assessment and treatment locally, as well as the outcomes and costs of these services.

There are metrics in the CMD profiling tool that are specific to older people.

The living well in older years chapter of the JSNA toolkit provides more information about common mental health disorders in older people, with a focus on depression.

Resources are available on other topics including:

Co-occurring substance misuse and mental health issues profiling tool

Older people’s mental health data catalogue (MS Excel file, 158KB)

Further information

OHID’s National Mental Health Intelligence Network produces these resources for commissioners and other health professionals to help them improve services and outcomes for patients. For further guidance and information about the tools and analysis please email mhin@dhsc.gov.uk.