Welcome, and thank you for your interest in contributing to the Mental Health Disorders Project Group. Your expertise and engagement are greatly appreciated and help improve the quality, clarity, and clinical usefulness of mental health content in SNOMED CT.

Project Scope

The Mental Health Disorders Project Group is responsible for the review and refinement of SNOMED CT content related to mental and behavioral disorders as identified by Member Forum. All work undertaken by this group will be strictly constrained to the existing SNOMED CT Machine Readable Concept Model (MRCM). The group will not develop, propose, or pilot new definitional attributes specific to mental health.

In scope:

• Mental and behavioural disorder concepts within the existing SNOMED CT hierarchies identified by Member Forum

  • <<13746004 |Bipolar disorder (disorder)| 

  • <<35489007 |Depressive disorder (disorder)|

  • <<58214004 |Schizophrenia (disorder)|

  • <<33449004 |Personality disorder (disorder)| 

  • <<110359009 |Intellectual disability (disorder)|

• Review and correction of hierarchical structure to ensure clinically appropriate parent–child relationships

• Identification and resolution of duplicates, ambiguities, outdated or potentially stigmatizing concepts and legacy structural issues

• Improvement of descriptions and synonyms in line with current SNOMED CT Editorial Policy

Out of scope:

• Creation or extension of the SNOMED CT MRCM including the creation of new attributes

• Experimental or pilot modelling approaches

• Local extension-specific content

• Administrative, legal, billing, or residual classifications

Key Deliverables

1. Consensus based and editorially compliant mental health disorder hierarchies

2. Corrected hierarchical structures that reflect appropriate clinical classification and subsumption

3. Documented clinical and editorial rationale for hierarchy changes and other substantive updates

4. Recommendations for inactivation, replacement, or re-modelling using existing patterns

5. Early Visibility summaries for stakeholder review where appropriate

Governance and Engagement

The Project Group will operate within established SNOMED CT governance structures and will actively engage with relevant Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), Clinical Reference Groups, and National Release Centres where additional clinical or implementation expertise is required. Engagement may include targeted expert review, focused discussions, or formal requests for input.

To support transparency, shared understanding, and wider community visibility, the group will use SNOMED Forums as the primary mechanism for discussion of key topics, questions, and proposals. Forum discussions will be used to gather feedback, document differing perspectives, and provide a clear audit trail of decisions and rationale.

Any issues identified that suggest limitations or gaps in the existing SNOMED CT MRCM, or that require changes beyond hierarchical correction or editorial refinement, will be documented but will not be addressed within the scope of this project.

Thank you to everyone who contributes time, insight, and expertise to this work. Your involvement supports the development of clinically meaningful, well-structured mental health content for the global SNOMED CT community.