1 INTRODUCTION TO MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION
Alanna Kaser and Megan Sponagle
1.1 HISTORY OF MENTAL HEALTH PROMOTION: MENTAL HEALTH VS. MENTAL ILL-HEALTH
1.1.1 Introduction
It is recognized that mental health is an inherent and central component of health and that promoting mental health optimizes our quality of life. In fact, mental health promotion has grown into a key field of health promotion research and programming, as well as a key priority in building thriving individuals, communities, and populations. However, recognition of mental health within the field of health promotion and the emergence of mental health promotion as its own distinct domain was delayed in part, by evolving perspectives and definitions of mental health and its scope of relevance. Understanding a brief history of the conceptualization of mental health is central to the evolution of mental health promotion and how it is widely understood and studied today.
1.1.2 Early Origins: Mental-Ill Health & Mental Illness
Early understandings and study of mental health existed within the domains of psychology and psychiatry, resulting in an approach focused on the treatment and prevention of mental illness at an individual level (Bertolote, 2008; Froh, 2004). By consequence, having “good” mental health was understood to be simply the absence of mental illness (Keyes, 2002). This was achieved and relevant only through a treatment lens, for individuals with existing mental health disorders. Eventually, this perspective expanded to include preventive approaches which identified and targeted risk factors to prevent poor mental health (i.e., the risk-reduction model). Fortunately, the utility of preventive approaches to extend beyond the individual-level (e.g., community programs, prevention policy) and the efficacy and reduced burdens available in seeking to prevent, instead of only treating mental health challenges enforced the recognition of protecting mental health as a key matter of public health. In 2001, the WHO published a report emphasizing the importance of addressing mental health on a global level and clarified the importance of the topic as a matter of public health. The report acknowledged mental health as having equal importance and interconnectedness with physical health, as well as, outlined its vital contributions to well-being, at and beyond the individual-level (WHO, 2001). However, the underlying view of mental health as solely the absence of illness and the dominant focus on treating and preventing mental disorders still informed the predominant prevention and treatment-based actions recommended within both programming and policy.
1.1.3 Influences from other disciplines: The paradigm shift in studying mental health
The paradigm shift towards a positive approach to mental health and its promotion was informed in part by health promotion and population/public health domains, but also by the fields of positive and community psychology. Although the views of more holisti