Mental Health and Wellbeing Surveys Directions specification

This Directions specification details the work that is to be undertaken as part of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Surveys Directions.

This Directions specification includes the following surveys

• the Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys
• the Mental Health of Children and Young People Surveys

The purpose of the surveys is to capture information from a representative sample of the general population about the mental health of adults, children or young people living in England. This information benefits patients and users of the NHS by enabling users to: 

estimate what proportion of adults, children or young people in England are living with a mental disorder (and the types of mental disorders experienced) • Monitor the prevalence of mental health disorders and changes over time by comparing trends across survey years

monitor the prevalence and changes in mental health in response to national changes in policies, economic climate and lifestyle behaviours 

enable the circumstances of adults, children or young people with different mental disorders to be compared with those without

Improve the understanding of the state of adult, children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing to help improve services and support for mental health patients

identify risk factors associated with mental health • Inform and monitor mental health policies

inform the need for and planning of mental health services for adults, children and young people to help improve patient care

allow local and central government, researchers and charities to do further research into mental health to help improve care for patients

Specific information for each current survey is given.  he Mental Health and Wellbeing Surveys Directions also cover the collection and analysis by NHS Digital of historic data obtained by the Office for National Statistics from previous Mental Health and Wellbeing Surveys commissioned by the Secretary of State between 1993 and 2020 to allow trend series analysis and reporting.