Mental health
MENTAL HEALTH Important facts
There are affordable, effective and implementable strategies to promote, protect and restore mental health.
The need for action in the field of mental health is undeniable and urgent.
Mental health has an intrinsic and instrumental value and is an essential part of our well-being.
Mental health concep
Mental health is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with life’s stresses, fulfill their potential, learn and work well, and contribute to their communities. It is an integral part of health and well-being and supports our individual and collective abilities to make decisions, build relationships and shape the world in which we live. Mental health is a basic human right. And it is critical to personal, community and socio-economic development.
It exists on a complex continuum, experienced differently from person to person, with varying degrees of severity and distress, and potentially very different social and clinical outcomes.
Mental disorders include mental disorders and psychosocial disabilities, as well as other mental conditions associated with significant distress, dysfunction, or risk of self-harm. People with mental illness are more likely to have lower psychological well-being, but this is not always or necessarily the case.
Determinants of mental health
Over the course of our lives, multiple individual, social and structural determinants can work together to protect or undermine our mental health and alter our position on the mental health continuum.
Individual psychological and biological factors such as emotional abilities, drug use and genetics can make people more vulnerable to problems.
Exposure to adverse social, economic, geopolitical and environmental conditions – including poverty, violence, inequality and environmental deprivation – also increases the risk of mental illness.
Risks can manifest at any stage of life, but those that occur during developmentally sensitive periods, especially early childhood, are particularly harmful. For example, harsh parenting and physical punishment are known to affect children’s health, and bullying is a major risk factor for mental illness.
Protective factors similarly appear in our lives and serve to strengthen resilience. These include, among others, our individual social and emotional skills and characteristics as well as positive social interactions, high quality education, decent work, safe neighborhoods and community cohesion.
Mental health risks and protective factors exist at different levels in society. Global threats increase the risk to entire populations and include economic downturns, disease outbreaks, humanitarian emergencies and forced displacement, and the growing climate crisis.
Each individual risk and protective factor has only limited predictive power. Most people do not develop a mental illness despite being exposed to a risk factor, and many people with no known risk factor still develop a mental illness. Yet the interacting determinants of mental health serve to improve or impair
Promotion and prevention of mental health
Promotional and preventive interventions work by identifying individual, social and structural determinants of mental health and then intervening to reduce risk, build resilience and create supportive environments for mental health. Interventions can be designed for individuals, specific groups or entire populations.
Reforming the determinants of mental health often requires action outside the health sector. Therefore, support and prevention programs must cover the areas of education, work, justice, transport, environment, housing and social issues. Health care can make a significant contribution through promotion and prevention efforts
The enormous gap in care for common mental
conditions such as depression and anxiety means that countries also need to find innovative ways to diversify and expand care for these conditions, for example by non-specialist psychologists
WHO response
All WHO member states commit to…
Implement goals to improve by strengthening effective leadership and governance, providing comprehensive, integrated and responsive community-based care, implementing marketing and prevention strategies and robust information systems, evidence and research. ON
Analysis of the country’s performance against the action plan showed that progress towards the goals of the agreed action plan was insufficient.
Parliament calls on all countries to notify the Genome Chairman of the Action Plan. It believes that all countries can make significant progress towards better mental health for their populations by focusing on three “pathways to transformation”:
Eating or sleeping too much or too little
Pulling away from people and usual activities
Having low or no energy
Feeling numb or like nothing matters
Having unexplained aches and pains
Feeling helpless or hopeless
Smoking, drinking, or using drugs more than usual
Feeling unusually confused, forgetful, on edge, angry, upset, worried, or scared
Yelling or fighting with family and friends
Experiencing severe mood swings that cause problems in relationships
Having persistent thoughts and memories you can’t get out of your head
Hearing voices or believing things that are not true
Thinking of harming yourself or others
Inability to perform daily tasks like taking care of your kids or getting to work or school
Having a mental health condition can make it a struggle to work, keep up with school, stick to a regular schedule, have healthy relationships, socialize, maintain hygiene, and more.
However, with early and consistent treatment—often a combination of medication and psychotherapy—it is possible to manage these conditions, overcome challenges, and lead a meaningful, productive life.
Today, there are new tools, evidence-based treatments, and social support systems that help people feel better and pursue their goals. Some of these tips, tools and strategies include
strengthen the value that individuals, societies and governments place on and align this value with engagement, commitment and investment from all stakeholders in all sectors;
reform the physical, social and economic characteristics of the environment – at home, at school, at work and in society at large – to better protect and prevent mental problems; Also
Strengthen services so that the full spectrum of needs is available through a community-based network of accessible, accessible and quality services and support.
WHO places special emphasis on protecting and promoting human rights, empowering people through lived experiences and ensuring a cross-sectoral approach and engagement from multiple stakeholders.
WHO continues to work at national and international levels, including in the humanitarian sector, to provide governments and partners with strategic leadership, insights, tools and technical support to strengthen a collective response to and advance interventions.CLICK HARE…