Mental Health Europe

Conceptual framework

Mental Health

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there is no one "official" definition of mental health. Cultural differences and competing professional theories all affect how "mental health" is defined. In general, however, most experts agree that mental health and mental illness are not the same thing. In other words, the absence of a recognized mental disorder is not necessarily an indicator of mental health.

Mental health is integral to overall health and well-being and should be treated with the same urgency as physical health.

Positive Mental Health

Positive mental health is relevant to everyone. It is important for policy makers, professionals and lay people to comprehend that good mental health and mental well-being are fundamental for a healthy everyday life.

Positive mental health demands co-ordinated action by all concerned – Governments, Local Authorities, health and other social and economic sectors, industry, voluntary organisations and the media.

Public Mental Health

More recently the field of public health has begun to make small but significant inroads into thinking about how mental health might be addressed. This may also reflect a growing frustration over a mental health agenda that continues to be dominated by mental illness. Public mental health takes a wider-angle lens to including both mental health and mental illness.

A consensus appears to be emerging within the mental health promotion community that the way forward lies with public mental health. Increasingly those seeking to influence the policy agenda at all levels, are looking to the public health paradigm for allies and strategic opportunities by taking the “whole population approach”. This, the population-based public health model is characterized by a concern for the health of a population in its entirety and by an awareness of the linkage between health and the physical and psycho- social environment.

Public mental health is a conceptual framework for the development of policies and practices for the:

  • promotion of positive mental health,
  • early identification of mental health problems,
  • reduction of the incidence of mental illness and suicide.

Mental health promotion

Mental health promotion and prevention activities in Europe are developing a capacity for innovation through work in the community with the message that there is no health without mental health. It appears that this message is reaching more and more policy makers – witness the recent actions of the WHO European Region Action Plan for Mental Health and the European Commission launch of the Green Paper on Mental Health and the new policy initiatives on mental health promotion and prevention in an increasing number of EU Member States.

Mental health promotion covers a variety of strategies. These strategies can be seen to occur at three levels:
  • Individual - by encouragement of the invidual’s resources, self-esteem, coping, self-reliance.
  • Communities – by increasing social inclusion and cohesion, developing support structures that promote mental health in different settings, e.g. schools and the work place.
  • Government - by reducing socioeconomic barriers to mental health at the national level.
The goal of Mental health promotion is to improve mental health and well-being for all and to improve the quality of life for those experiencing mental illness or distress.