Good mental health is important 

Looking after your mental health is just as important as your physical health. And the two are linked. 

At Self Management UK, we don't distinguish between mental and physical health just as we don't distinguish between a person with diabetes compared to a person with fibromyalgia. Our experience of supporting over 150,000 people with long-term conditions tells us that often physical and mental health are intrinsically linked. 

Read Zev's story who joined one of our courses and now works with us as a tutor.

There are some great campaigns and discussions going on about speaking about your mental health and our work supporting people with mental health challenges continues. No health without mental health, a cross-government paper states:

"Improved mental health and wellbeing is associated with a range of better outcomes for people of all ages and backgrounds. These include improved physical health." 

Support

We offer courses which deal specifically with the challenges people with mental health conditions face. We also discuss the ways to improve your stress, anxiety as well as other mental health concerns on all of our courses. The challenges people face can range from isolation; lack of confidence; loneliness; debt; housing issues or physical health concerns.

Mental and physical health parity

In a recent pilot we were asked to support over 100 people who were displaying signs of stress, anxiety or depression and had been referred to a psychological therapies team. Upon investigation, we discovered a large proportion of the individuals had recently been told they have a physical long-term condition.

The pilot results, from a small sample, showed:

- 57% reduction in unplanned A&E admissions

- 22% reduction in GP visits

- 14% reduction in prescribed medications 

"between 12 per cent and 18 per cent of all NHS expenditure on long-term conditions is linked to poor mental health and wellbeing – between £8 billion and £13 billion in England each year."

The above quote is from the Kings report "Long-term conditions and mental health, the cost of co-morbidities"

Get in touch if you would like to talk about how we can support you to feel better.

Mental wellbeing zoom course information leaflet