Ireland’s national mental health policy, Sharing the Vision: A Mental Health Policy for Everyone (henceforth referred to as simply Sharing the Vision), was published in 2020 with the aim of enhancing the provision of mental health services and supports across a broad continuum – from mental health promotion, prevention, and early intervention to acute and specialist mental health service delivery – during the period 2020–2030. The policy is organised around 4 core outcome domains consisting of a total of 15 high-level outcomes, and it encompasses a total of 100 recommendations and associated actions which are linked to these high-level outcomes.

Aim and research questions
This evidence brief aims to describe mental health outcome indicators used internationally as part of an initial scoping exercise in order to inform the development of a set of outcome indicators for assessing the performance and impact of Sharing the Vision, Ireland’s national mental health policy. Specifically, it addresses the following questions:
1. What indicators are used internationally to monitor and evaluate similar outcomes to those identified in Sharing the Vision?
2. What are the reported benefits and challenges regarding the use of these indicators for mental health policies/plans/strategies?
3. How are these indicators used to monitor and evaluate mental health policies/plans/strategies?