How does the British public understand mental health? A qualitative analysis of open-text responses

Abstract

Background: An individual’s understanding of mental health can influence their attitudes towards those experiencing mental health problems, and also impact their response to any mental health problems they experience. However, what the lay public understand about mental health is not well explored in existing research. Aims: This study aims to gain a deeper insight into what the general public understand by the term ‘mental health problem’. Methods: Data were taken from a large-scale representative sample of adults from Great Britain ( n = 2,708). A thematic analysis was carried out on an open-text question which asked people what they understood by the term ‘mental health problem’. Results: Six themes were identified in the thematic analysis, which included understanding mental health through thinking about cause and effect, thinking about the location of mental health problems in the body, the universality and variation of mental health problems, reflections on lived experience and identifying a specific mental health problem. Conclusion: The analysis suggests that there are many diverse ways the public conceptualises mental health. The themes identified may be useful for future quantitative analyses, and also may suggest how information about mental health can be best communicated to the public.

Kajian Kesehatan Mental pada Anak-Anak Yatim Piatu

“…Perkembangan kesehatan mental anak dan remaja dewasa ini dinilai perlu perhatian yang lebih. Beberapa kajian penelitian menemukan bahwa saat ini cenderung terdapat peningkatan kasus kesehatan mental pada usia anak-anak, remaja hingga dewasa (Arnot et al, 2022;Ayuningtyas et al, 2018;Radiani, 2019). Kesehatan mental secara umum didefinisikan sebagai kondisi sesorang yang berkaitan dengan kecemasan, stress dan depresi (Dorsey et al, 2015).…”

Analysis on the literature communication path of new media integrating public mental health

“…The results show that this method has high accuracy. Arnot et al (2021) argues that an individual’s experiences and attitudes toward life can affect an individual’s mental health, which in turn affects their perception of the problems they encounter, which in turn affects mental health education issues. It also found that the public is less aware of mental health knowledge and education.…”

Listening to voices from multiple sources: A qualitative text analysis of the emotional experiences of women living with breast cancer in China

“…While emotional expressions are made on social media in the real world and in real-time, the patients' demographic and disease characteristics are incomplete or unavailable on these platforms (27,28). Arguably, therefore, it is difficult to capture the full range of nuances in patients' disclosures of their emotional experiences from a single data source, especially concerning women living with BC in China, where cultural norms strongly discourage emotional disclosure (27,32). Use of a single-source method would likely skew results and fail to reflect the target population's comprehensive range of experiences.…”