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Publications

SANE periodically publishes and shares research it is involved with relating to mental health conditions.

As well as providing information for family, friends and carers, we hope it will increase everyone’s understanding of mental illness and how conditions can be treated.

Over the last 35 years, since the publication of The Forgotten Illness, a lot has happened in mental health policy and awareness.

But despite all the progress including advances in treatments, the lives of those affected by schizophrenia have barely improved because services are ill-equipped to provide consistency of care.


Still Forgotten

People with schizophrenia continue to be let down by services, which all too often are simply unable to respond to their needs, or provide consistency of care.

Our Still Forgotten report shows that one in nine people receive no support service following diagnosis. This is a huge failing.

In addition, half of people with schizophrenia or experience of psychosis do not feel supported by healthcare professionals, and three-quarters want to be more involved in the decisions that affect their lives.

Family members and carers not feeling supported is also sadly a consistent finding, and our report highlights why they need clear and concise information for their needs as well.

For this report we spoke to our advisers in the field of mental health, as well as people affected by schizophrenia and psychosis, to come up with ways mental health provision can be improved.

This report sets out their analysis as well as 10 recommendations for policymakers and NHS providers. Some of these recommendations, although not all, can only happen if more funding reaches the frontline.

The aim of Still Forgotten is to give a voice to the people who are so often forgotten in the mental health system. Our findings confirm there is a long way to go until we even come close to reaching equity between physical and mental health services.


Self-harm study

Despite being thought of as something that teenagers and young adults do, the results from our survey showed that self-harm affects people of all ages.

The age range of those who were still harming at the time they took part was 12 to 59 years of age, and while some people were reporting that they had first started self-harming as young as four, others had not harmed until they were in their late fifties.

Although the majority were female, just over 100 men who had at some time harmed themselves took part in the survey – this made up 12% of all participants who had harmed.

It is still unclear whether self-harm really is that much more in common in girls/women than in boys/men, or whether the former are just more willing to talk about it and seek help.

Many participants explained that they felt their emotional life to be different and wrong, when compared with what others appeared to feel. This idea of an inner world that is unacceptable and that should be hidden was present in many guises throughout the participants’ responses.

Self-harm is more an act of self-preservation, than it is an act of self-destruction. The key findings from the study and support can be found on the Self-harm Study page.


Suicide research

We have carried out two major studies exploring the insights of people who have experienced suicidal feelings, have attempted suicide, or have been close to someone who has attempted or completed suicide. The research findings of both these studies are presented in SANE on Suicide.

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