ℹ️ Introduction
This article explains how to use the Ardens Manager Mental Health dashboards to understand prevalence, monitor activity and evaluate the quality of care across key mental health conditions. By the end of this guide, you will be able to use these insights to support service planning, structured reviews and quality improvement across your practice, PCN or ICB.
Background
Mental health conditions contribute significantly to morbidity, health inequality and reduced life expectancy. Effective management relies on accurate coding, regular review, continuity of care and proactive follow‑up, particularly for people with severe mental illness and learning disabilities.
In primary and community care settings, organisations need clear oversight to:
Understand prevalence across different mental health conditions.
Ensure appropriate annual and structured reviews are completed.
Monitor workforce activity and service delivery.
Identify variation in access, outcomes and capacity.
The Ardens Manager Mental Health dashboards support visibility across both QOF and non‑QOF mental health registers, enabling population‑level insight and consistent monitoring of care delivery.
How Ardens Can Help
The Ardens Manager Mental Health dashboards bring together insights across the following conditions:
Depression
Severe Mental Illness (SMI)
Learning Disability
Other Mental Health Conditions (register‑only):
Anorexia nervosa
Bulimia nervosa
Anxiety disorders
ADHD
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Post‑Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Each dashboard follows a consistent structure, enabling organisations to:
Analyse prevalence and demographics.
Monitor activity and demand.
Evaluate completion of reviews and key care components.
Assess variation in service delivery and workforce involvement.
The Ardens Manager Mental Health dashboards work alongside existing Ardens Clinical resources to support structured, high‑quality mental health care. To learn more about the clinical resources, access the support articles below:
✅Included in Ardens Manager National Content package: Interested in finding out more or requesting a trial? Contact accounts@ardens.org.uk
📍Access the Dashboard
Log into Ardens Manager.
Go to Services on the left-hand pane.
Open to Conditions folder.
Click on Mental Health.
Click on the required condition tab.
📊 Plan & Forecast Demand
The Overview section enables organisations to analyse coded registers, understand population size and plan workforce and review activity accordingly.
Understand Your Population
he Mental Health registers provide visibility of patients coded with a mental health condition, supporting understanding of:
Recorded prevalence.
Population characteristics.
Coding patterns and register accuracy.
Size of the cohort requiring review or follow‑up.
This insight supports proactive planning, capacity modelling and equitable service delivery.
To review registers:
Click the View button next to the required register report.
Review the Demographic tab to understand age distribution and deprivation.
Review the Conditions tab for breakdown by long-term condition and multimorbidity.
Review the Risk tab to identify patients in vulnerable or higher-risk groups.
Further insights allow organisations to review diagnosis patterns by clinician and by patient geography, supporting identification of variation and unmet need.
Analyse Trends
Understanding how registers change over time helps organisations anticipate demand and evaluate the impact of service changes.
To analyse trends:
Click View next to the required report.
Click on the Timeline tab.
Choose Year (or another timeframe) from the drop down below the chart
This allows you to:
Monitor changes in prevalence.
Identify increases in demand.
Inform future workforce and service planning.
🔎 Monitor Activity & Delivery
The dashboards provide tools to support oversight of service delivery and workforce activity across mental health care pathways.
Last Month Activity
All mental health dashboards include a summary of activity for the previous month, including:
New diagnoses.
Reviews and monitoring completed.
Workforce involvement by role.
To review activity:
Click View next to the activity report.
Review the Demographic, Conditions, Risk and Staff tabs.
Analyse the Timeline tab to understand recent trends.
This supports monitoring of workload, capacity and delivery against local priorities.
Case Finders
Case Finder reports identify patients who may meet criteria for inclusion on a mental health register but do not yet have an appropriate diagnosis code. This often reflects missed or inconsistent coding.
These reports support:
Improved register accuracy.
More complete population oversight.
Appropriate identification for review or follow‑up.
Using case finders:
Click View.
Select PATIENTS tab.
Review each patient record.
If diagnosis is confirmed:
Add the appropriate diagnosis code in the clinical system.
This will move the patient onto the register and remove them from the case finder.
If inclusion is due to a data error:
Amend or remove the incorrect coding in the clinical system.
Performance Indicators
Performance Indicators monitor completion of key care components across mental health pathways, including:
Diagnosis coding.
Annual or structured reviews (e.g. SMI and Learning Disability).
Monitoring requirements linked to specific conditions.
Reviewing performance indicators:
Indicators are grouped by diagnosis, review, or screening.
Green bars display percentage completion.
The Remaining column highlights outstanding care.
Click View and select Show remaining only to support follow‑up.
⚠️ Please note: Patient data can be exported. Refer to this support article for further information.
Patient View for Follow-up
The Patient View functionality enables clinicians and teams to review outstanding elements of care at an individual patient level.
To access Patient View:
Click View next to the patient’s NHS number
Within the patient view:
View all Ardens Manager findings across relevant mental health reports.
Clearly see what care elements remain outstanding.
Use this as a prompt list prior to reviewing the full clinical record.
To take action:
Click Open in EMIS / SystmOne to access the clinical record.
Review history, current care and suitability of next steps.
Consider patient preference and clinical need.
Complete any required actions or updates.
❓ FAQs
What time period does 'Last month activity' refer to?
This reflects activity recorded in the previous calendar month and is updated regularly as data refreshes.
How do case finder reports work?
Case finders identify patients who may meet criteria for diabetes or pre-diabetes but are not coded. These should be clinically reviewed and coded appropriately if confirmed.
How do the dashboards support proactive care?
By highlighting high-risk patients, unmet care needs, and trends, they enable targeted interventions rather than reactive care.
🏫 Additional Support
To further your understanding of the Ardens Manager platform:
Book training for your GP Practice, PCN or ICB.
Contact our Support Team for support in real time.