This report was undertaken to inform The Office for Strategic Co-ordination of Health Research (OSCHR) and help determine future priorities. Overall the MRC is optimistic about the role that the UK health research community can play in areas such as developing new forms of mental health treatment, evaluating existing approaches and producing guidelines. The authors have chosen the following two main areas as strategic objectives ‘over the short to medium term:
- Promotion of preventive strategies – The MRC believes that this should include gaining a clear understanding of the determinants of mental illness and wellbeing. They feel that the UK is well placed to do this because of its track record in areas including genetic and neuropsychology. There is also a call for improvements to the prompt detection of ‘high risk states’ and more promotion of the importance of good mental health, particularly among children and adolescents.
- Developing therapy – The MRC hopes that there is scope for more innovation in research, including: cross-symptom diagnoses; experimental medication; the impact of effective management on outcomes and increasing the involvement of patients and carers. A longer-term objective is seen as “to develop and evaluate ways of preventing the onset of mental illness.”
Among the report’s recommendations to help achieve these aims is for a population-basis to be adopted for research and incentives to be offered to those considering mental health research careers. The MRC also advocates collaboration with stakeholders on reducing stigma, which has ‘pervasive effects’ and arguably reduces financial contributions offered for research. Moreover they are very concerned about the disproportionate research capacity for mental health work, which the authors feel does not reflect the burden of mental illness worldwide.
To download the report visit the MRC’s website: http://www.mrc.ac.uk/Utilities/Documentrecord/index.htm?d=MRC006848