The Government's ’Natural Capital Committee', set up to check how far the Government bases its policies on the cost the benefits the UK derives from its natural environment - such as clean air, water, food and recreation - should be put on a permanent statutory footing, the Environmental Audit Committee recommends. The NCC was set up in May 2012 with a three-year remit that ends just before the General Election. It has produced 2 progress reports so far, highlighting gaps in the available data on these factors and calling for a 25-year plan to plug the gaps and start using the information in Government decisions. But the Government has yet to respond in detail to those NCC reports. The environment is just one strand of a wider view of people's well-being, which also addresses people's economic and social circumstances, as well as their view of the satisfaction they get from their lives. In November 2010, the Prime Minister launched a programme to measure well-being to complement economic statistics like ’GDP' in - "measuring our progress as a country". However, more than three years since then, the Committee note, our quality of life is not yet receiving the same attention as those economic metrics. The Committee highlight the links being uncovered in the statistics between people's view of their well-being and their background and circumstances - for example the link between well-being and people's health, marital status or religion. But the MPs warn that the data are not yet sufficiently robust to support a single metric that could encompass well-being and which could be set alongside GDP.

Measuring Functioning and Well-Being is a comprehensive account a broad range of self-reported functioning and well-being measures developed for the Medical Outcomes Study, a large-sale study of how patients fare with health care in the United States. This book provides a set of ready-to-use generic measures that are applicable to all adults, including those well and chronically ill, as well as a methodological guide to collecting health data and constructing health measures. As demand increases for more practical methods to monitor the outcomes of health care, this volume offers a timely and valuable contribution to the field. The contributors address conceptual and methodological issues involved in measuring such important health status concepts as: physical, social, and role functioning; psychological distress and well-being; general health perceptions; energy and fatigue; sleep; and pain. The authors present psychometric results and explain how to administer, score, and interpret the measures. Comprising the work of a number of highly respected scholars in the field of health assessment, Measuring Functioning and Well-Being will be of great interest and value to the growing number of researchers, policymakers, and clinicians concerned with the management and evaluation of health care.

Where LNPs have been successful, they have demonstrated the benefits of local engagement, harnessing enthusiasm in finding solutions to local priorities. Where they have not been successful, the solution is not to impose additional tasks but to re-energise the unfocussed local commitment. Many LNPs are starved of funding and resources, meaning much of the good work in getting them up and running, is being undone. The whole country-urban as well as rural-need the natural environment protections that LNPs can provide. Rather than leave under-performing LNPs to wither away, the next Government should urgently review LNPs and their funding, and re-energise the initiative.

Stigma is one of the major barriers to care for people with mental health and related disorders. Stigma includes negative beliefs about and hostile perceptions towards others, shame and self-stigma, discriminatory practices in hiring, promotion and recognition of people who suffer from mental health challenges, and structural and organizational policies and processes that result in inequalities for people who have mental health challenges. Stigma has been recognized as a significant factor in the well-being of people with mental health and related problems and can be more debilitating than the direct effects of mental health problems themselves. The Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) was established to conduct policy reviews and to promote initiatives related to mental health. The Opening Minds program of the MHCC is the largest systematic effort in Canadian history to reduce stigma related to mental illnesses. The program has adopted the systematic development, evaluation and deployment of targeted programs based on theories of change, best practices and available research evidence as a model for stigma reduction. The Stigma of Mental Illness is an important vehicle to communicate conceptual issues in the field of stigma reduction, to document the work done to date within the MHCC Opening Minds program, and to offer practical strategies to broaden the scope and utility of the work for different contexts, cultures, and countries. This volume will be a global interest, given the growing importance of stigma reduction related to mental disorders and related problems.