The treatment of mental illness currently brings substantial costs to individuals, the NHS, and also to wider society. The need for innovation to promote good mental health has never been greater. In an effort to catalyse this innovation, researchers have set out four ambitious targets:
- Halve the number of children and young people experiencing persistent mental health problems
- Improve our understanding of the links between physical and mental health, and eliminate the mortality gap
- Increase the number of new and improved treatments, interventions and supports for mental health problems
- Improve the availability of choices and access to mental health care, treatment and support in hospital and community settings
The number of goals was limited to four in an effort to easily promote cross-sector partnerships, and to track their impacts.