Mental health

Mental health conditions can have a significant impact on all areas of someone's life, and their prevalence is increasing worldwide. In Kent, suicide is the main cause of death in those aged 10 to 35. It accounts for nearly a quarter of all deaths among 20 to 24-year-olds.

Depression is one of the leading causes of disability in England and adults with mental health problems are one of the most socially excluded groups in society.

See also our pages on dementia, alcohol, sexual health and minority groups.

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Our resources

Data and reports

Mental Health Needs Assessment 2025

Kent and Medway faces growing challenges around mental health. Demand for support is rising, and inequalities persist. In 2023, 306,000 adults were recorded with depression—a sharp increase. Suicide rates and self-harm exceed the national average, while socioeconomic challenges, deprivation, and service disparities compound risk, especially for vulnerable groups.

This 2025 Needs Assessment recommends joined-up action: integrating health, social care, and community services, expanding early intervention, targeting support for those most at risk, and reducing gaps to improve mental health outcomes for all. These findings are vital for local partnerships, and it’s everyone’s responsibility to use this data and act on the recommendations.

Follow these links for the Mental Health Needs Assessment 2025 main report (PDF, 13.8 MB) and executive summary.

Healthwatch Kent produces reports on people's experiences of Mental Health services. See the external resources section.

Additional information can be found in our Health and Social Care Maps self-serve tool including the prevalence of depression and severe mental illness, deaths of despair and suicides. We are constantly developing this resource in response to your feedback.

Previous reports

In 2019 we produced a Mental Health Needs Assessment for Kent with additional analyses. There are some inaccuracies in section 2.2 which estimates the prevalence of common mental illnesses which have now been corrected in this supplementary report on common mental illnesses.

We have also produced the following needs assessments:

We have produced a Kent mental health & wellbeing index, which provides an assessment of the relative assets and vulnerabilities of each ward in Kent in respect of the mental health and wellbeing of the population within it.

Multiple Complex Needs

In January 2026 we published a health needs assessment for Adults with multiple complex needs. It includes adults who are aged over 18 years and over and experiencing two or more disadvantaged domains of alcohol or substance misuse, mental health, homelessness, offending, and domestic violence.

Suicide prevention

The Kent and Medway Suicide Prevention team are responsible for delivering the local Suicide Prevention Strategy 2021 - 2025, which seeks to prevent suicides amongst our residents. The programme operates broadly in two ways, commissioning projects and system leadership / quality improvement.

The suicide prevention team have developed a suicide prevention resources Padlet which consists of campaign materials, training links, funded projects, research, reports and more. It is aimed at professionals to gain a better understanding of support that is available locally and to upskill in suicide prevention activity.

We welcome the opportunity to promote our teams work in relevant forums. If partners would like to find out more, or have a presentation from the team, please email suicideprevention@kent.gov.uk

External resources

A number of organisations produce mental health statistics both at national and local level.