👋 Hello from André! Welcome to the very first issue of The Mental Elf Monthly — our new email newsletter for mental health professionals, researchers, and policy people who care about making mental health evidence more useful and accessible.

Each month, we’ll 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 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. Tackling social determinants will reduce the global mental health burden

We pulled together the latest evidence on how poverty, housing, and education impact mental health, and what prevention strategies might make a real difference.

👉 Read the blog​

💬 Join the discussion on LinkedIn​

2. AWARE and INSPIRE: school mental health trials show mixed results and unexpected harms

Two of England’s largest school-based mental health trials just published findings — and they’re not what many hoped for. Important implications for school-based interventions.

👉 Read the blog​

💬 See our post on LinkedIn​

3. Inequity in action: why minoritised ethnic patients are more often rapidly tranquilised

This blog explores systemic inequalities in acute mental healthcare and what reforms are needed to tackle disproportionate use of rapid tranquillisation.

👉 Read the blog​

💬 Read the conversation on LinkedIn​

4. Psychedelics and mental health: can the field deliver on its promise?

With hype growing around psychedelic therapies, this blog asks whether the evidence base is strong enough to support widespread implementation.

👉 Read the blog​

💬 Join the discussion​

5. Increased risk of respiratory disease in bipolar disorder

This study highlights a striking physical health inequality, with clear calls for integrated care that addresses both mental and physical health needs.

👉 Read the blog​

💬 Check out our post​

👀 In case you missed it…

🎉 We hit a milestone: 3,000 blogs!

It started in 2011 as a little side project. 3,000 blogs later, The Mental Elf has become one of the most trusted sources of evidence-based mental health content online.

👉 Read the anniversary post​

🗳️ Researchers: we want your views

We’re supporting the SUNRISE study, which aims to improve how researchers work with people with lived experience.

If you work in mental health research, please take a few minutes to complete this survey. The team are especially keen to hear from researchers working in neuroscience, genetics, big data/longitudinal studies, or biomedical science, as well as those based outside the UK.

👉 Take the SUNRISE survey​