Get the facts on mental health

12 September 2024

Why suicide data can lead us astray

It’s easy to misunderstand the data on suicides in England and Wales—especially when it comes to long-term comparisons or recent trends.

20 May 2024

It’s misleading to say 100 studies were not included in the Cass Review

The review on youth gender medicine did consider all the relevant studies, although almost all were assessed to provide only low- or moderate-quality evidence.

19 April 2024

A ministerial mistake is on the Parliamentary record—but was it due to an editing mix-up?

Comments about children’s mental health services from the health secretary Victoria Atkins have been changed in Hansard to make them clearer—but also clearly not correct.

25 October 2023

Age UK did not say that elderly suicides rose during lockdown

A Telegraph article reported comments made during the Covid Inquiry, which inaccurately described the content of Age UK’s witness statement.

1 September 2023

A patient did not wait in A&E for 36 days

FOI information obtained by Labour contained errors, which made it appear that a patient had waited continuously in A&E when in fact they left the hospital and returned the following month.

23 May 2023

The suicide rate may not have been rising in recent years

Sir Keir Starmer claimed the suicide rate is “going up”, based on a rise since 2007. But data for the last few years gives a mixed picture.

14 October 2022

Sunday Express misinterprets suicide data

We do not yet know whether suicides in young people rose in 2021. Suicide registrations did rise, but this may have been caused by delays earlier in the pandemic.

20 June 2022

Child self-harm numbers in the Guardian, Mirror and Independent don’t reflect survey’s actual findings

About 3% of parents taking part in a survey said their children had begun to self-harm in response to the cost of living crisis.

12 May 2022

Reports that ‘most teachers’ are suffering from depression are based on a self-selecting survey

The data comes from members of the NASUWT teaching union who chose to complete its survey, so it can’t reliably tell us about the wellbeing of teachers as a whole.

10 September 2021

New figures on healthcare workers' suicides should be treated with caution

Most of the suicides registered in the first half of 2020 occurred in previous years.

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Mental health

Why suicide data can lead us astray

It’s misleading to say 100 studies were not included in the Cass Review

A ministerial mistake is on the Parliamentary record—but was it due to an editing mix-up?

Age UK did not say that elderly suicides rose during lockdown

A patient did not wait in A&E for 36 days

The suicide rate may not have been rising in recent years

Sunday Express misinterprets suicide data

Child self-harm numbers in the Guardian, Mirror and Independent don’t reflect survey’s actual findings

Reports that ‘most teachers’ are suffering from depression are based on a self-selecting survey

New figures on healthcare workers' suicides should be treated with caution

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