​

🌳🌤️🍄 A very warm woodland welcome to the August edition of The Mental Elf Monthly — our new LinkedIn newsletter for mental health professionals, researchers, and policy people who care about making mental health evidence more useful and accessible.

Each month, in this LinkedIn and email newsletter, we bring you:

• The most popular Mental Elf blogs
• Research highlights from our community
• Updates on what we’re working on (and how you can get involved)

If you find this useful, please hit Subscribe, and feel free to share it with a colleague or two. We’ll keep it short, sharp, and relevant — no fluff, no hype, just helpful content.

📈 Top 5 blogs this month

Here’s what caught the most attention this month:

1. One therapy, many disorders: the strengths and limitations of CBT across mental health conditions

This massive meta-analysis looked at 375 RCTs of CBT across 11 different mental health conditions. It shows where cognitive behavioural therapy works well and where the evidence is shakier.

✏️ Read the blog​

💬 Join the LinkedIn conversation​

2. Not just PTSD - reframing trauma as a public health issue

Recently we've started thinking about trauma as more than just PTSD. We don't all have a traumatic past, but for those of us that do, it can be complex. This new review shows why trauma is a public health issue; affecting everything from diagnosis and treatment to policy and systems change.

✏️ Read the blog​

💬 Join the LinkedIn conversation​

3. After the storm: why post-disaster mental health support must be tailored and backed by evidence.

We often assume that early psychological support after disasters prevents mental health issues like PTSD and depression. But does the evidence back that up?

✏️ Read the blog​

💬 Join the LinkedIn conversation​

4. Does harsh parenting increase the risk of self-harm and suicide in young people?

The review shows that preventing harm may be more critical than promoting “positivity”. Important reading for anyone working in child & adolescent mental health, social care or parenting support.

✏️ Read the blog​

💬 Join the LinkedIn conversation​

5. When helping hurts: potential harms from CBT and mindfulness in schools

We don’t talk enough about the potential harms of school-based mental health programmes. The review raises crucial questions about the ethics and effectiveness of a one-size-fits-all approach to wellbeing in schools.

✏️ Read the blog​

💬 Join the LinkedIn conversation​

👩🏽💻 Free webinar: Difficult-to-treat depression – 11am BST, Mon 6 Oct

Difficult-to-treat depression (also called treatment-resistant depression) affects up to half of people with depression. It causes major distress, long-term disability, and heavy costs for individuals, services, and society.

Despite evidence for medication, psychological therapies, neuromodulation, diet and exercise, many patients still get limited support, especially in primary care. Access to specialists is patchy, stigma persists, and recovery often remains out of reach.

This free one-hour webinar from The Mental Elf (run in partnership with colleagues at King's College London) brings you up to date with the latest evidence and practical guidance. Our panel will:

• Summarise the most promising treatment options
• Highlight gaps in UK care and access
• Explore new approaches, from psychedelics to neuromodulation
• Offer clear recommendations for policy and practice

Join us to refresh your knowledge, reflect on your practice, and reimagine what good care could look like.

🎟️ Tickets are limited. Book yours now!​

​

🌳🌤️🍄 Commission the Mental Elf to help share your research

Is your latest paper reaching the audience you want to reach? We can help by turning your mental health research into real-world impact.

We help researchers share evidence through social media, podcasts, videos, webinars and more. Right now we're working with research groups from London, Oxford, Bristol and Sheffield to disseminate their new papers and maximise their reach and impact.

You can commission our expert team or write us into your next grant application as your dissemination partner. Either way, contact us now and get yourself some #ElfHelp.

🔗 elfi.sh/help​

📧 andre.tomlin@nationalelfservice.net​

📬 Want this in your inbox?

Please share our email newsletter with your colleagues to make sure no-one misses an elf update — especially if you’re all interested in the latest blogs, research impact, #ElfHelp, or upcoming events.

👉 If this email has been forwarded to you, please subscribe now to our email newsletter​