MNHQ here: fancy having a play with a new NHS-approved tool for mental health support?

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello,

We've been asked if Mumsnet users would be willing to check out a new NHS-approved tool for mental health support and give some feedback on it - and let us know whether you'd like to see it featured in relevant Talk and content areas across Mumsnet.

You can find it here: it's called Good Thinking and aims to help people find tools and resources to support their mental wellbeing. At the moment some of the resources are a bit biased towards London and the southeast, because the tool has been supported by the Mayor of London's office as well as the NHS, but the aim is to add more national resources over time.

The makers of the tool want to know whether it would be a useful thing to feature on Mumsnet in relevant topics and content areas, so we're throwing it over to you. Would it be a useful addition to the site?

Any feedback or thoughts let us know - and if you have any questions for the developers we'll try to get them answered for you.

Thanks
MNHQ

I did the stress pathway, said it was caused by work. The suggested "help" made sense - included C25K and the website Living to the full, which I've used previously for mild anxiety.

I then completed the stress questionnaire, highlighting some issues with work, lack of sleep and no close friends. Suggestions were fair (to a degree) but all mixed up - so a point about speaking to my manager, followed by calling Relate, followed by talking to HR, then going to bed earlier, then calling CAB if i was being bullied at work!

I am not under 25, I am not male and I was not involved in the London terror attacks, the results made me feel more isolated and also more guilty for not being ‘bad enough’ to fit the top 5 suggestions of help.

I found it didn't reflect my wider circumstances so the advice was irrelevant - it told me to sleep more and exercise, which I'd dearly love to do, but the advice given didn't in any way consider the nocturnal 2yo who keeps me awake.

It told me to go to a sexual health clinic because of suspected pelvic inflammatory disease.

Not entirely sure how that is going to help my mental health / sleeping pattern...

(Also likelihood of it being correct is extremely low, looking at the risk factors)

wont its really unhelpful to spread misinformation about mental health.

Brain chemistry absolutely is influenced by behaviour and social interactions (or lack of them). Talking therapies really are effective and in a wide range of cases of anxiety or depression, from mild to severe.

AD's and anti-anxiety medication can also be useful and effective.

The recommended method for treatment of depression is a mixture of both treatment types.

I tried the sleeping assessment.Apparantly I should call111(not sure what for)or see my GP immeduatly.I am not getting enough sleep for my age(my problem is that I am not getting enough sleep for any age).But my day time dr owsyness is caused by my couple of glasses of wine a week.
If the mental health Ines are similar advice to see your GP then not helpful for a teenager.Mine has be directed to online 'help sites' but finds them not helpful as you have to be able to articulate why you are down which she is unable to do.
My teens sees our GP every 1-2 months,self harm and being suicidal is not bad enough for CAMHS.She has not found many online sites helpful and the questions on this are like filling a CAMHS form all over again.

It's not all that useful to me, possibly other different MH issues could be included?

I gave up halfway through after I ended up answering questions about my 'urinary problem' when I was asking about insomnia. Also, there is no option for 'ceased drinking alcohol in the past month' - they seem to assume your intake would just increase, and never decline. I've self-diagnosed as suffering from insomnia due to a change (cessation) of alcohol intake. This too shall pass!

Actually it appears that the site is great for anxiety because you can really improve your mood simply by reading the feedback here!! But I do feel for those with urination issues or who have presumably called for an ambulance because of sleep issues

It's not all that useful to me, possibly other different MH issues could be included?

Whatever self-assessment bit I managed to get through did ask about various MH diagnoses that one might have, but it didn't seem to take into account the symptoms of said conditions. As in, I think the reason it wanted me to rush off to a Dr straight away was the the experience of hallucinations. There wasn't any part where I could have ticked that my Dr is well aware of this old symptom of mine, and it's probably here to stay, and I'm getting on with my life quite well with it, thanks.

I found the user interface easy and logical.
I agree the title of resource is a bit 1984.
The assessment questions appeared vague to me, and similar in all topics. I was directed to 2 resources for men via the anxiety site, but I am a woman, so suggest this needs refining.
It is useful as a resource finder for people who have mild anxiety, stress or insomnia. You also need some initial knowledge and personal insight to understand this could be helpful. When my insomnia and anxiety was at its worst I would not be motivated or capable of using this.

Just tried the depression/low mood questionnare. Signposted to CALM (for men), services for those under 25 years, and for people involved in London Terror Attacks.
I am a 60 year old female in the Midlands. If I was seriously depressed I would (a) not be motivated to use this (b) be seriously discouraged from seeking further help on here. I certainly would not want to download, pay or use an app.
Who is it aimed at? I suggest middle class educated people who have access to IT and the skills and motivation to use it, and funds to pay for apps and phone calls.

It recommended me five options - one was only free to Londoners, two were things I use currently (and are helpful, so that’s good) and the other two were well respected resources.

Humans are the problem here - we are very unlikely to seek out and use the ‘helpful things’. Like buying the self help book but not reading it.

Mine said to make an appointment to see GP within 2 weeks, due to excessive daytime sleepiness. But otherwise my sleep patterns are fine...

They really didn't touch on excessive sleepiness which can be as much a symptom of depressive illnesses as insomnia.

I then tried anxiety, not that I am particularly anxious but hey ho. I think it needs to ask more questions before giving an answer. The first suggestion it gave me was for under 25's. Then suggested London area services.

I am a long way the other side of 25 and feel that this somewhat shows the expectation that millennials are likely to engage with smart technology.

As with others I am not in the London region for face to face help. Although I appreciate this service is in beta testing, I would like more information on the area it is intended to serve and whether support agencies would be required to sign up to have their facilities advertised. Where is the funding coming from to run it? (For me it would make a difference as to how credible I might find the service. ie are people being pinpointed to a service over another based on how much they pay into this application).

The swipe/scroll worked well.

At the moment, as a non London/south east based person I would say it's too restrictive to be featuring on MN outside the local pages as the audience would be very limited to that area whereas MN is a nationwide website.

But when/if the service is rolled out nationwide, I think provided the funding of the service allowed for reliable and credible pinpointing to services, It wouldn't be unreasonable for MN to feature it in relevant health sections.

I can not stress enough how necessary this is.need go nationwide(i mean scotland)I am sti;; waiting on whats so far been a yr waitlist initial mental health assesment appointment..//tho have been "in the system" 20yrs and more.there is no clear,helpful way to find the resources needed in crisis or to avoid it.this would be so useful.

I went through the self-assessment questions. Been instructed to go directly to A&E because of "thoughts of suicide or self harm, with A plan". My answers said that I had thought about hurting myself and how I might do it, but I wouldn't go through with it and no immediate risk. So I'd be wasting their time.

Also not sure how they can assess that I'm getting enough sleep. I spend 12 hours in bed but takes me "more than an hoyr" to fall asleep. Usually takes me 4-5 hours and I wake up during the night, I average 6 hours sleep.

And yeah, fair enough it told me to cut down on alcohol.

I think mental health is too complex to be categorised like this. Can’t see any reference to poor mental Health symptoms like Mania? Also went through the anxiety checker with my daughter in mind. There didn’t seem to be any solutions suitable for children.

i also canot stress enuf that co being in scotland,being me,whatever-i responded on the "concept"..as is norm to be fucked about n ruled out by area-i didnt explore it.now i did.its dreadful.sorry

I did the 20 min self assessment and apparently I need to see the GP about my unidentified urinary symptoms.

I have depression and anxiety. I don't have urinary symptoms. I did tell it that my sleep is often poor quality and that I get up in the night to wee. I get up to have a wee because I am often awake because I toss and turn and have crazy dreams and wake up feeling like I've run a marathon and then my bladder starts nagging me. It went on and on about my urinary symptoms and when they started and if I have other genital infections and stuff when all I do is get up in the night for a wee! Then i started asking about my pain and trying to get me to describe it. I don't have any pain but there wasn't an option for that! Didn't care or mention my night sweats though even though I had ticked to say I have them.

Not convinced by will explore it further.

Incidentally I did see the GP today for a routine medication review and he is perfectly happy with me.

Omg. I tried the self assessment tool. I gave up because it took forever. (for the record, I answered yes to difficult sleeping due to stress and waking up sometimes needing to wee because I drink water too close to bedtime. I don't currently have any mental health problems. And yet I found the assessment process too onerous to complete. I think people who actually have depression are going to find it seriously hard work)

It's probably good to have quality information out there, but I really think you need a human being when it comes to assessing people. There's too many separate decisions to make.

I did it again but didn't tick the getting up at night to wee option. This time I had a lot more questions about my depression, more about my menstrual cycle and it concluded that I'm menopausal. So that's nice. And also pretty unlikely.

I think this needs a lot more testing rejigging!

The self assessment tool got stuck on the state of my wee and we never really got past that. Also the questions are wordy and written in green so difficult to read and answer accurately. A good idea but probably needs tweaking still.

It was rubbish! I put in answers that would have been applicable when I had severe depression and psychosis 11 years ago. I answered the questions as if I was still in that place. It told me that I might have a UTI, and then when I tried to get out, it froze. I do hope that the NHS aren't funding this. I will try it again later.