Resources supporting recovery
ORGANISATION
Medical Research Foundation
Improving human health – the enduring challenge
In the last five years alone, the Medical Research Foundation has invested £25 million into life-changing medical research, focusing on areas that have historically been underfunded. It has injected much-needed funding into the field of eating disorders, ensuring there is scientific capacity to tackle this growing problem. It has also supported vital new research into pain conditions, COVID-19, and the impact if climate change on health.
But there is still much more to do.
Looking ahead, nine million people in England alone will be living with a major illness by 2040 – that’s 2.5 million more than in 2019, an increase of 37 per cent. The number of adults living with major disease is set to increase from almost one in six to nearly one in five by 2040. All of this will have an enormous impact on people and their families, the NHS, other public services, and public finances.
While a small number of major illnesses will remain at the very top of the research funding agenda, there are many health conditions which won’t get the attention they deserve. Millions of people, who desperately need better solutions for their health challenges, will continue to fall through the cracks.
The Medical Research Foundation uses its unique position, as a broad funder of medical research, to respond to these challenges.
Put simply, its purpose is to improve health and change lives through research.
Research priorities
The Medical Research Foundation has four research priorities:
- Improving the lives of children and young people
- Addressing neglected areas of mental health
- Tackling the health impacts of climate change
- Responding to emerging health threats
You can read more about the Foundation’s strategy here: https://medical-research-foundation.shorthandstories.com/our-strategy/index.html
Addressing neglected areas of mental health
The challenge
Mental health disorders account for 21% of the UK disease burden, although this figure is likely to be much higher, due to reluctance to seek medical help for these conditions. In recent years, although this number has been increasing, only 6% of the UK’s health research budget was spent on mental health. As a result, many mental health conditions are neglected and poorly understood.
Clearly the level of mental health research funding in the UK is still not meeting the scale or impact of mental illness within the population, meaning people are not getting the support they need. The reasons why people experience mental health disorders are often complex and, despite their prevalence, still not well understood. Some examples include:
- Eating disorders, which affect around 1.25 million people in the UK. More young people than ever before need treatment for these devastating conditions, yet there remains a chronic lack of research funding in this area.
- Self-harm, with rates increasing in the UK over the past decade, particularly in young people.
- Suicide, which has risen steeply among young men in the last five years, yet this area receives a disproportionately small – less than one per cent – of mental health research funding.
- Neurodevelopmental conditions with mental health co-morbidity, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), a condition which interferes with day-to-day functioning and is increasing steeply within the UK, with estimates suggesting it affects 5% of children and 3-4% of adults.
- Other severe mental health conditions, such as Tourette’s syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorder, borderline personality disorder, and trauma-related mental health
The Medical Research Foundation’s mental health projects: two case studies
Dr Dawn Branley-Bell, Northumbria University
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK saw a sharp rise in eating disorder cases, especially among teenage girls. Dr Dawn Branley-Bell wanted to understand why this was happening, so she carried out a series of online surveys, which revealed that over 30% of respondents with eating disorders were experiencing ‘much worse’ symptoms following lockdown restrictions.
With funding from the Foundation, Dawn uncovered eight key impacts of the pandemic, including increased social isolation and reduced access to healthcare services. Since then, Dawn has worked alongside healthcare providers to co-design better remote healthcare solutions for people with eating disorders.
Find out more: https://www.medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk/news/animation-on-remote-healthcare-for-eating-disorders
Dr Rina Dutta, King’s College London
More than one in 10 young people in the UK are thought to have self-harmed, and, as seen with eating disorders, rates of self-harm among young people increased dramatically during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic – especially among teenage girls.
The reasons behind self-harm are complex, and there is some evidence to suggest a link between self-harm and the impact of social media on mental health.
Thanks to the Foundation’s funding, Dr Rina Dutta is exploring how social media and smartphone use could influence self-harm; including excessive use and addiction, night-time use, and cyberbullying. Findings from Rina’s research could help to predict self-harm episodes in young people and aid the design of more effective, targeted interventions.
Find out more: https://www.medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk/news/new-study-sheds-lights-on-patterns-of-social-media-smart-phone-use-and-self-harm-in-youth
Support the Medical Research Foundation:
The Medical Research Foundation funds and supports the most promising health research wherever it discovers great opportunities that do not currently have funding. Without your support, it would not exist and could not continue to fund life-changing, pioneering medical research.
There are many ways you can support, including donating, taking on a fundraising event, or leaving a gift in your will.
Find out how you can get involved: https://www.medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk/support-us
Find out more:
To find out more about the Medical Research Foundation, visit their website:
https://www.medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk/
Follow them on social media at:
https://www.instagram.com/medresfdn
https://www.linkedin.com/company/medical-research-foundation-uk/