Editors’ blog: Progressing mental health care and MHT together

As of today, those with a passion for progressing mental health care and support will be able to support the mission by making voluntary contributions to Mental Health Today.

"We edit Mental Health Today because we want mental health care to be better. We want people to be better informed and to have better choices and responses than those currently enabled under the existing mental health act."

Readers won’t have to pay to access articles. We don’t believe paywalls are ethical or desirable in the context of improving mental health support. However, if you’ve read an article that left you inspired in the context of managing the mental health of others, or indeed yourself, you will now have a means to help Mental Health Today research, report, source and drive change.

It will also serve to future-proof the website, which is read and valued by over 50,000 people, and you will receive community patron rewards too. Digital advertising cannot sustain constructive news sites - these days, 90 percent of all advertising space is currently bought from Facebook and Google alone.

Templates to follow

Together we can change the way people with mental health needs are treated. Today’s police cell detention headlines, featuring across most of the mainstream media, show what mental health responses look like at their worst. The number of distressed individuals being kept in police cells remains over 1,000, which is of course 1,000 too high.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Mental Health Today this morning runs a piece showing how 999 calls are treated differently in Bradford. The template in Yorkshire is one the rest of the country could follow. Detentions have fallen by 90 percent there since nurses were put into emergency services control rooms.

This is a subject close to our heart (more on that next month). We edit Mental Health Today because we want mental health care to be better. We want people to be better informed and to have better choices and responses than those currently enabled under the existing mental health act.

Today is a significant day for mental health care in the UK as it is for the Mental Health Today website too. With the Mental Health Act now under review, the Mental Health Today community have a vital role to play in illustrating and realising the changes we all want to see. There is much that needs changing.

"Digital advertising cannot sustain constructive news sites - these days, 90 percent of all advertising space is currently bought from Facebook and Google alone."

Support us with your voluntary contributions or support us with your article ideas. Your insights and backing are precious. A big community each contributing a little, whether donations or insight, adds up to a lot.

Thank you,

Nadine and Barney, Mental Health Today Editors