About us

Since 1949, the Mental Health Foundation has been the UK’s leading charity for everyone’s mental health.

Our vision is for a world with good mental health for all. With prevention at the heart of what we do, we aim to find and address the sources of mental health problems so that people and communities can thrive. 

We will drive change towards a mentally healthy society for all, and support communities, families and individuals to live mentally healthier lives, with a particular focus on those at greatest risk. 

The Foundation is the home of Mental Health Awareness Week.

Our approach

We take a public mental health approach to prevention, finding solutions for individuals, those at risk and for society, in order to improve everyone’s mental wellbeing.

The practical things we do

• Community and peer programmes; we test and evaluate the best approaches to improving mental health in communities and then roll them out as widely as possible. 
• Research; we publish studies and reports on what protects mental health and the causes of poor mental health and how to tackle them. 
• Public engagement; we give advice to millions of people on mental health. We are most well known for running Mental Health Awareness Week across the UK each year. 
• Advocacy; we propose solutions and campaign for change to address the underlying causes of poor mental health. 

What we don’t do

• We are not an academic think tank or research institute. We generate and apply evidence in real world settings.  
• We are not a mental health service provider for when people are unwell.  
• We don't only focus on individual actions and steps - we look at both the personal and societal changes that can improve and protect everyone’s mental health.