Data informing the barometer is drawn from the issues experienced by those using our services, whether they choose to engage in one-to-one chats, use their online journal or submit a comment, article or poem to the platform.

Recording presenting issues helps us to provide effective care, ensuring that support is centred around an individual’s current needs and concerns. It helps to keep our community safe: practitioners in one-to-one sessions are able to address issues described in an individual’s case notes and offer relevant support.

Data and insights from our service, including the topline presenting issue data shared here, means we are able to:

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  Shape our service to meet people’s wants and needs

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  Understand the difficulties people are experiencing and how these may differ according to factors like geography, gender, ethnicity and age

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  Continually adapt and enhance our service, especially looking at prevalence and how needs are changing over time

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  Develop targeted support to meet the needs of specific cohorts, such as young people feeling worried about exams or those who may be self-harming

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  Share our learning with the NHS and others so that we can achieve greater and accelerated progress

Notes: 

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  As we are not a diagnostic service, these presenting issues reflect the concerns expressed by our service users, rather than any specific diagnoses

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  Issues are recorded in an individual’s case notes. In some cases, there may be more than one presenting issue added to one person’s notes