Challenge Area 3: Multiple Long-Term Conditions
Other than suicide, most premature deaths in people with mental health conditions are from preventable physical causes. Mental and physical health have important bi-directional associations; our work has found that multiple long-term conditions can exacerbate each other, with a spiral of worsening physical, emotional, cognitive, and social functioning.
We also know that racially minoritised people residing in deprived areas of the UK develop multiple long-term conditions 10-15 years earlier than their White British counterparts residing in more affluent areas.
The objective of this challenge area is to evaluate policies, public health interventions, and group-level approaches impacting mental health inequalities in people with multiple long-term conditions.
We will work to identify relevant policy or public health interventions for evaluation. This could include assessing national rollout of population-based programmes for physical health to evaluate impacts on mental health. Examples of other potential interventions include devolution of powers to local government for health and social care, physical activity campaigns, alcohol minimum pricing, and extending the age of retirement, for example.
We will triangulate evidence to explore the extent to which these provide consistent findings about the impact of population interventions on mental health prevention in the context of multiple long-term conditions, with a focus on health inequalities.
Collaborators
Mental Health Foundation, Action Mental Health
Investigators
Senior Lecturer in Psychiatric Epidemiology
Research Associate, School of Psychology, Ulster University
Director, Bamford Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing, Ulster University