Definitions

From the 2004 WHO report, “Promoting Mental Health: Concepts, Emerging Evidence, Practice”

WHO has recently proposed that mental health is:

… a state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community (WHO 2001, p. 1).

In this positive sense, mental health is the foundation for well-being and effective functioning for an individual and for a community. It is more than the absence of mental illness, for the states and capacities noted in the definition have value in themselves.

Neither mental nor physical health can exist alone. Mental, physical, and social functioning are interdependent. Furthermore, health and illness may co-exist. They are mutually exclusive only if health is defined in a restrictive way as the absence of disease (Sartorius 1990). Recognizing health as a state of balance including the self, others, and the environment helps communities and individuals understand how to seek its improvement.

Health promotion has been defined as action and advocacy to address the full range of potentially modifiable determinants of health (WHO 1998). Health promotion and prevention are necessarily related and overlapping activities. Because the former is concerned with the determinants of health and the latter focuses on the causes of disase, promotion is sometimes used as an umbrella concept covering also the more specific activities of prevention (Lehtinen, Riikonen & Lahtinen 1997).

From the 2009 IOM report, “Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People: Progress and Possibilities”

Mental health promotion should be recognized as an important component of the mental health intervention spectrum, which can serve as a foundation for both prevention and treatment of disorders.

Mental health promotion includes efforts to enhance individuals’ ability to achieve developmentally appropriate tasks (developmental competence) and a positive sense of self-esteem, mastery, well-being, and social inclusion and to strengthen their ability to cope with adversity.

At this time, theory, research, and practice have evolved to support an approach to prevention that aims not only to prevent disorder, but also to promote positive mental, emotional, and behavioral health in young people. The committee has decided that the definitions of universal, selective, and indicated prevention, as laid out in the 1994 IOM report, with the addition of mental health promotion, offer the most useful framework for the field.