Audience Research Scott Harrand

Gender

Of my respondents, the overwhelming majority were female, with 77.08% of the survey takers identifying themselves as female. Only 20.83% were male, and only 2.08% identified as another gender, which accounted for only 1 respondent. This means that the vast majority of my data came from women, which may not effect the data too much, as mental health issues can have impacts on the lives of anyone regardless their gender. However, as people are often socialized throughout their lives differently depending on their gender, there may some difference between how people of different genders view mental health issues.

Age

Incidentally, it seems that the age categories that had the most respondents were the age categories at the younger and the older end of the spectrum. The majority of respondents were between the ages of 15 and 19, with this group amounting to 41.67% of respondents. While it was still a smaller percentage, the second largest age group of respondents was people who were 51 or over, which added up to a total of 18.75%. While the rest were considerably smaller percentages, there was still respondents in all of the age categories except for 36-40 and 14 or under, in which there were no survey takers. This means there is a fairly large range of ages, and therefore a wider spectrum of opinions and viewpoints, as people born at different times, into different worlds, who had gone through vastly different experiences, are likely to have different opinions and beliefs.

“Have you ever been diagnosed with any form of mental illness?”

While the majority of the respondents to this question said they had not been diagnosed with a mental illness (58.33% having responded “No”), there was still a considerably large chunk of the survey takers that said they had been diagnosed with some form of mental illness. 37.50% of the respondents answered “Yes”, as well as an additional 4.17% that opted that they would prefer not to say. While not the majority of the respondents, this is still a considerably large group of people, and certainly enough to display the scope of mental health issues and how many people they can effect. This underlines the importance of the social action cause I am working toward, as it is raising awareness of an issue that effects such a large amount of people.

“Do you know someone that has been affected by any form of mental illness?”

An overwhelming majority of the survey takers (93.75% of the respondents) responded with “Yes”, signifying that they did know someone who had been affected by mental illness, with a further 2.08% saying they were “Uncertain”, meaning the true percentage could be even higher. This statistic certainly drives home the widespread nature of mental health issues, with almost the entirety of the respondents saying they knew at least one person that had been affected by a form of mental illness. This continues to drive home the importance of the campaign, to raise greater discussion and awareness of mental health, an issue that affects so many people and yet is so rarely discussed.

“Have you ever believed you may have any form of mental illness?”

Exactly half the respondents gave the same answer to this question, with exactly 50% saying, “Yes”, suggesting they had at some point or another thought they may have a mental illness. The other half of the survey takers were split up in their answers, with 33.33% answering “No”, 14.58% saying they were “Uncertain”, and 2.08% indicating they “Would prefer not to say.”. These results suggest that mental health is certainly a concern for many people, and they are often thinking about it when considering their own mental health, but they may not be as aware about mental health on a wide scale. These results also show the importance of talking about mental health, and removing the stigma attached to it, considering so many people have worried about it for themselves.

“Do you think there is a high or a low rate of mental illness in the UK?”

The vast majority, 81.25% of the respondents, said that they believed there was a high rate of mental illness in the UK. 12.50%, the second largest percentage, said they were uncertain, and only 6.25% said they believed there was a low rate. This would suggest that the vast majority believe there is a serious mental health issue in the country, a fact which only serves to support the importance of creating campaigns about the subject, as it is agreed that it is a critical issue.

“Do you think there is enough help for people with mental illnesses?”

While somewhat more divisive than the previous question, this question still yielded a majority of survey takers responding with the same answer, with 77.08% of respondents saying “No”, they did not believe there was enough help for people with mental illnesses. A further 12.50% were uncertain whether there was enough help for those with mental illnesses, and only 10.42% believed there was a sufficient amount of help available. The amount of people that believe there is a high rate of mental illness with the UK, combined with the amount of people that believe there isn’t enough help available to people suffering mental illnesses, paints a bleak image about the state of the UK when it comes to dealing with mental health issues and helping those that are suffering from them.

“Do you think there is a high or low rate of self-harm and suicide in the UK?”

Following a similar trend in many of the questions, there was a vast majority of respondents that gave the same answer to the question. With 70.83% of the respondents answering that they believed there was a “High Rate”, there is a fairly noticeable majority opinion. However, there is still a fairly sizeable chunk (22.92%) of the survey takers that were uncertain if there was a high or low rate of self-harm and/or suicide in the UK. Only 6.25% believed there was a “Low rate”. While the respondents were more willing to answer in absolutes about more general mental health topics, there is more hesitation to give a solid answer when it comes to more specified topics of mental health, such as self-harm and suicide, which may be much less discussed and talked about. It is important that, in my campaign, I open up a dialogue and raise awareness for less talked about aspects of mental health, and try to remove stigma attached.

“Do you think many children in the UK suffer some kind of mental illness?”

Similarly to the previous results, there is still a noticeable majority, but there is a certain amount of wavering confidence. While 64.58% of the respondents believe that, “Yes”, there are a lot of children in the UK that suffer some kind of mental illness, and the smaller amount of 8.33% that say no, there is also a fairly large portion of 27.08% that are unsure. This seems to be the general case for questions that dig into the more specific areas of mental health and those who suffer from it. It may be that a large amount of the population is aware that mental health issues are a widespread problem that affect a great deal of people, it’s important that they know the hard facts of the situation, and the specifics of who is being affected and how so.

“Do you think many elderly people in the UK suffer some kind of mental illness?”

There was still a considerable majority of survey takers that responded with “Yes” to this question, totaling in at 72.34%. Correspondingly, only a small percentage of 8.51% answered with “No”, but a portion of the respondents did opt to choose “Unsure”, with 19.15% of them having chosen this option. While there is still a trend of larger chunks of respondents being unsure or uncertain about more specific topics of mental health, there is still a much larger chunk of the respondents that believe that many elderly people in the UK do suffer some kind of mental illness, a percentage higher than any of the other more specified, final questions. This may be as a result of the widespread nature of dementia, perhaps one of the better known mental illness as it effects so many (generally) elderly people. However, this is not the only kind of mental illness that can effect elderly people, and it is important to make people aware that elderly people are just as susceptible to other kinds of mental illnesses as anyone else, and should also be protected and given help to get through them.