Evidence base for prevention

There is a large evidence-base around the prevention of mental ill-health (Campion, 2019). This includes interventions to prevent and treat mental health conditions in adults, and to improve the outcomes of adults living with mental health conditions.

The table below summarises different types of evidenced-based interventions to prevention and approaches to improve intervention coverage. It summarises the findings of a comprehensive review of public mental health evidence carried out in 2012 (and later updated in 2015) by Campion:

Table 1: Approaches to primary, secondary and tertiary prevention of mental illness in adults, and to facilitating improved coverage of prevention, as suggested by Campion et al. 2015.

	Approaches to prevention	Improving coverage of prevention
Primary	Addressing socio-economic inequalities Perinatal parental interventions Addressing parental mental illness Parenting programmes Addressing child adversity Prevention of violence and abuse Prevention of mental illness by addressing particular risk factors including social isolation, physical inactivity, screen time, insomnia, diet and climate change Early intervention for childhood mental illness Prevention of specific mental illness and suicide Prevention of alcohol use disorder, drug use and tobacco dependence Prevention of mental illness in higher risk groups	Settings based approaches (e.g. workplace-based interventions) Economic policy including taxation Interventions including parenting interventions and addressing child adversity Digital technology Legislation and regulation
Secondary	Early detection and/or implementation of evidence-based treatment for: Common mental health conditions Depression Anxiety disorders ADHD Psychosis Autism Personality disorder Eating disorder Dementia Self-harm Sub-threshold mental health conditions.	Screening and education Improving population literacy Settings based approaches Maximising existing resources through self-help, less intense intervention, improving concordance with treatment and tasking shifting Digital technology Parenting interventions Legislation and regulation
Tertiary	Implementation of evidence-based treatments for mental health conditions Monitoring and intervention for physical health conditions Addressing health risk behaviours Addressing socioeconomic and housing impacts of mental health conditions Substance use prevention Prevention of stigma and discrimination Suicide prevention Prevention of violence and abuse

Additional resources

• NICE guidelines on mental health and wellbeing
• The Mental Health Foundation’s report on the economic case for investing in the prevention of mental health condition summarises evidence around prevention for adults and workplace-based interventions.
• Promotive and preventive interventions for mental health and well-being in adult populations: a systematic umbrella review

References

Full list of references is included at the end of this chapter.

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