The Mental Health Conversation
We aim to break the cycle of fear and to counter our reliance on categorically organizing nuances of the human experience. Our ideal future is one in which we can courageously face reality together as individuals within our respective communities.
While some of our programs and services are tailored to specific age groups, our work is meant to benefit everyone, from babies to boomers and beyond. That can be hard to wrap our heads around because when we think of mental health, we think of those who need help managing theirs. However, we all have mental health. Health is health. Yet the term mental health is used interchangeably with mental illness, which makes it more confusing. For example, in Beliefs and perception about mental health issues: a meta-synthesis, they explain that “Mental health literacy is the beliefs and knowledge about mental health issues and their remedies.”
They later state that; “The cultural context is important when studying beliefs regarding mental health. The understanding of mental health and the interpretation vary from culture to culture. People’s perception of illness explains their help-seeking behavior or lack thereof.”(1)(2) So, how do governments and health systems measure how great our mental health is? How do we support people in their comprehension of and speaking to their mental health, in ways that improve the state of it?
What if we could help people build up their potential for mental wellness so that we avoid reinforcing the conversation within the context of a crisis? So that we better address the impact of COVID, climate crisis, or global warfare. If we take the long view, this approach makes the most sense in supporting sustainable engagement with our health. To help us understand how the whole of mental health is referred to in Canada’s systems, we can look to The Positive Mental Health Surveillance Indicator Framework (PMHSIF). They state that; “Positive mental health is a state of well-being that allows us to feel, think, and act in ways that enhance our ability to enjoy life and deal with the challenges we face.” This is decidedly different from the context of measuring mental illnesses and disorders, which inform our minimum health system requirements and operational frameworks.
Thankfully, there are a great many resources, services, and professionals that excel in this work. We’ve grouped these inputs through our 8 domains of functioning, measured in different ways around the world, in their efforts to measure how well we are. This is why we triangulate between 3 defining systems of societal and economic frameworks to ensure our language can benefit those who have a broad understanding of mental health, who are curious about mental health, and those who feel they have no choice. Through our efforts to improve mental health literacy and promote healthy brain development, we support the local mental health ecosystem in connecting citizens with the resources they need - outside of a crisis or referral.
*Interested in continuing to read about measuring health data across countries and systems? We recommend Towards a minimal generic set of domains of functioning and health (2014) by Alarcos Cieza, Cornelia Oberhauser, Jerome Bickenbach, Somnath Chatterji & Gerold Stucki .
(1) Choudhry FR, Mani V, Ming LC, Khan TM. Beliefs and perception about mental health issues: a meta-synthesis. Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat. 2016 Oct 31;12:2807-2818. doi: 10.2147/NDT.S111543. PMID: 27826193; PMCID: PMC5096745.
(2) Verhulp EE, Stevens GW, Pels TV, Van Weert CM, Vollebergh WA. Lay beliefs about emotional problems and attitudes toward mental health care among parents and adolescents: Exploring the impact of immigration. Cultur Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol. 2017 Apr;23(2):269-280. doi: 10.1037/cdp0000092. Epub 2016 Oct 6. PMID: 27709973.
(3) Cieza, A., Oberhauser, C., Bickenbach, J. et al. Towards a minimal generic set of domains of functioning and health. BMC Public Health 14, 218 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-218
