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May 2022

What works to improve mental wellbeing in the UK: insights from WEMWBS

What works to improve mental wellbeing in the UK: insights from WEMWBS
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Introduction

As a What Works Centre we bring together high quality wellbeing evidence to support decision-making and the delivery of more effective and efficient services. We use the UK’s harmonised wellbeing standards to inform our evidence reviews and understand what can be done to improve wellbeing and reduce its inequalities. The national measures within the harmonised standards include subjective wellbeing, mental wellbeing and social capital measures, all of which are commonly used in national and local outcomes frameworks. They help us build a shared knowledge base that uses consistent and comparable wellbeing constructs.

Our Rapid Reviews:

  • Explore what is known so far about what works, for whom and in what contexts.
  • Illustrate how wellbeing measures are used in different studies so we can support organisations to generate high quality findings.
  • Conduct rigorous searches using less extensive methods when compared to systematic reviews, but often searching across grey and published sources.

In 2020, we reviewed evaluations using the ONS4 Personal Wellbeing measures. For this current project, the Centre worked with Kohlrabi Consulting to conduct a 6-month rapid review of UK interventions, delivered from 2007 to the present, that aim to improve mental wellbeing.

Close Introduction

The big picture: WEMWBS scales as a key starting point for mental wellbeing

Findings on what works to improve mental wellbeing

High quality evidence from controlled studies

Approach to meta-analysis

Where and how are the WEMWBS scales used

How robust were the findings?

Implications and recommendations

Policy, practice and commission

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Downloads

You may also wish to read the blog article on this document.

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