NO LIFE WITHOUT MENTAL HEALTH

Mersey Care’s director of research and innovation

Professor Nusrat Husain thinks change can’t come soon enough.

The World Health Organisation believes that there is ‘no health without mental health’. In my experience, there is no life without mental health.

“We know half of disorders start before the age of 14 and three quarters by the age of 25. The fact that three quarters of children in the North West of England do not have proper access to care should give us great cause for concern.

“The good news is that everybody can contribute to improving the mental wellbeing of everybody else in society. This is a major step towards improving services for people in the UK who don’t currently receive adequate mental health care or make a full recovery.

“We are all exposed to the stresses we feel in our community,” says Professor Husain. “When people have one episode of mental disorder, they are more vulnerable to suffering another. If they come home from hospital, back to the same street with the same poverty and crime rate, then the likelihood of another episode will increase.

“Too often, research is ringfenced in the so-called ‘golden triangle’ of London, Oxford, and Cambridge. M-RIC helps to turn that triangle into a circle that embraces the whole country.”

People who have personal experience of mental health issues such as service users, patients, carers, nurses, family members and the wider public – will be at the heart of the M-RIC programme.

Events and short films will provide vital first hand insight. A training programme for people with lived experiences will help them contribute to research and potentially become part of Mersey Care’s future workforce.

Professor Husain is clear: “We want to give a voice to people in our local communities who could benefit from our research so they can shape and inform our plans.”

• Professor Nusrat Husain’s research is in Global Mental Health and Cultural Psychiatry. His work in Pakistan, Canada, Brazil and Kenya not only has an impact in those countries but his understanding of working across cultures is proving very useful for the delivery of culturally sensitive care to the diverse population in the UK. He is a Senior Investigator for the National Institute for Health and Care Research and has been awarded the World Health Organisation Prize for the best Diplomat.