Promoting mental health, demystifying mental illness, countering stigma and discrimination

Mental Health Promotion

Mental Health Promotion - Pai te Hinengaro Pai te Ora

Mental health promotion seeks to improve the mental health and wellbeing of populations by addressing determinants of mental health.

Interventions focus on strengthening protective factors for mental health and reducing risk factors at an individual, organisational, community, structural and policy level.

Mental health promotion includes:

  • Promoting positive mental health among the general population, and particularly among those people who are most disadvantaged
  • Ensuring that people with experience of mental illness have the same opportunities as everyone else to fully participate in society and everyday life

  • Suicide prevention

Good mental health is fundamental to the wellbeing and effective functioning of individuals, communities and society as a whole.  It provides individuals with the ability to make a contribution to their community, achieve goals, cope with the normal stresses of life and interact with others.

Locally, mental health promotion programmes aim to:

Increase resilience:
Resilience refers to people's ability to cope with stress and adverse life events, and is well known to be a protective factor for mental health problems
Increase social connectedness:

Social connectedness affects mental health and physical health and is important both for individuals and communities.
Reduce the incidence of violence:

Violence is a key determinant of mental health and includes bullying, family violence and community violence.
Reduce and counter stigma and discrimination:
Stigma and discrimination are barriers to recovery for people experiencing mental illness - often preventing people experiencing mental health problems from seeking help.
Prevent suicide and self-harm:

Community-level suicide prevention includes activities such as mental health awareness campaigns, encouraging appropriate media reporting of suicide and advocacy for restricting access to means of suicide.

Click here to access the Health Promotion page of Like Minds Mental Health Sector Directory

 

Like Minds Taranaki gratefully acknowledges the financial support of this website by the Ministry of Health

Feedback is always welcome
Like Minds Taranaki, 06-759-0966, email: mental.health@xtra.co.nz

or on our Facebook page at:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Like-Minds-Taranaki/129833373781933

 


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