“between one in six and one in four people in the UK experience mental health problems at some point in their lives. The number of prescriptions for anti-depressant drugs increased from 9 million in 1991 to 34 million in 2007. There are also important psycho-social needs – some people have no one to talk to day to day or about important issues.”

“some less appreciated trends include worsening levels of stress and anxiety; anxiety and depression looks set to double during the course of a single generation.”

Sinking and Swimming Report from the Young Foundation Understanding Britain’s unmet needs.

Mindapples is a new campaign to promote culture change in mental health, by asking everyone the question:

“What five things do you do to look after your mind?”

We all have mental health, but too often we ignore it until it goes wrong. We take little care of our minds, and rely on experts to fix us if we get sick. It obviously isn’t working: mental health issues cost the UK billions of pounds every year and depression is at an all-time high. But if we can take care of our physical health by eating five fruit and veg a day, then what can we do for our minds? What is the mental health equivalent of playing football, or eating an apple? We want to change popular culture to make taking care of our minds as natural as brushing our teeth, and make Britain more mentally healthy in the process.

I work with the Mindapples team, bringing positive psychology theory and empirical evidence to their work and helping to design the strategy for the campaign.