Looking back to shape the future – 10 years of MQ

Stronger together

As described in our Decadal Impact Report, mental health care had seen little innovation since the 1960s. To transform the mental health landscape, MQ needed to transform the world of mental health research.

MQ united once-isolated researchers by creating the very concept of Mental Health Science. And as any superhero movie will teach us, we are stronger when we are part of a team. In the past, mental health research was fragmented from physical health and separated into distinct disciplines. Fragmentation and separation create weaker parts. As with many things in our world, research is stronger when it is united.

MQ has created a multidisciplinary approach to mental health research. Not only from psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience, but also from anthropology to data science, involving doctors and people living with mental illness. Our MQ expert meeting on psychological treatments gave rise to the first call and umbrella mental health science a new cohesive, multidisciplinary and collaborative scientific discipline.

However, much remains to be done

Looking back at the last 10 years, MQ has achieved a lot and come very far. From an idea born from a meeting of great minds that yearn for solutions, to meeting the needs of both the scientific community and the population in general.

The studies invested in at the beginning of the MQ timeline, back in 2013, have borne fruit, whether to improve public health policies, develop innovative and effective treatments, or improve prevention and intervention approaches.

But there is much more to do.

85% of MQ researchers said more research and development will be needed before their research can benefit the rest of the world. That is why MQ must continue to grow, to ensure that all researchers and their work can move towards achieving their potential, thereby benefiting us all.

For research to reach its full potential, more funding is needed. For research to reach its full potential, MQ needs you.

MQ needs you

Everything MQ has achieved in the last 10 years has been thanks to fans like you.

MQ is ambitious, has developed all the tools we need and is on the verge of the next phase of our potential as a charity and organisation. Over the past 10 years we have put together everything needed: a network of researchers, processes and systems to help early career researchers reach their full potential and those we support throughout their work.

As we enter our teenage years, MQ is ready to expand further, reach our full potential and find solutions for the 1 in 4 people affected by mental illness.

We have made an exciting impact in our first 10 years. But we can and must do more.