Looking beyond treatment to promoting mental health and well-being, the Mental health Policy Commission examined evidence from people with experience of mental distress, families, practitioners, communities, academics, and policy-makers to form ground-breaking recommendations that will support a truly different approach and provide a strategic framework for mental health for the 21st Century.

The report states that, while there remains an urgent need to significantly improve access to support and treatment, this alone is not sufficient. We must look ‘upstream’ and shift the focus towards maximising young people’s resilience and minimising the risks to their mental health; we must take a whole-system approach and focus on prevention and early intervention. It is by closing the ‘prevention gap’ that we can close the ‘treatment gap’ too.