Mental health promotion (MHP) is the process of enhancing the capacity of individuals and communities to increase control over their lives and improve their mental health. By working to increase self-esteem, coping skills, social connectedness, and well-being, mental health promotion empowers people and communities to interact with their environments in ways that enhance emotional and spiritual strength.
MHP goes beyond the focus on risk factors for mental illness and seeks to create and support conditions that enhance positive mental health, such resiliency, social belonging, and knowledge and access to mental health resources. MHP is an approach that promotes socially supportive environments and fosters individual and community resilience. It works to increase the strengths and competencies that individuals and communities already possess. Mental health promotion is for everyone.
Promoting mental health across the lifespan (pre-natal to older adulthood stages) includes:
- Supporting positive parenting, enriching family environments, and healthy family relationships
- Supporting the enhancement and development of emotional, psychological, and social well-being
- Supporting the enhancement and development of strong social networks, schools, workplaces, and communities
- Supporting the availability and accessibility of community programs, services, and resources that promote and support positive mental health
- Reducing societal inequalities and injustices
- Decreasing stigma, discrimination, and oppression
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU) is involved in developing and delivering programs that promote and support mental health for individuals and communities. The WECHU also develops partnerships with other health, social service, and community organizations to share knowledge and resources, and to build capacity for mental health promotion and prevention in the community.
In 2019, the WECHU partnered with the Canadian Mental Health Association – Windsor-Essex County Branch (CMHA-WECB) to develop the Mental Health Promotion in Windsor-Essex County Report. The purpose of this report is to develop a shared understanding of MHP in Windsor-Essex County (WEC). It provides community organizations, inter-disciplinary stakeholders, and local service professionals with a conceptual and strategic framework for promoting and supporting positive mental health in WEC. This framework is being utilized to:
- Communicate and collaborate with community partners, stakeholders, and organizations involved with MHP
- Inform future MHP programming based on community needs
- Build strategic goals and action plans for MHP
- Include a summary of foundational standards for measuring and monitoring local data on positive mental health in WEC
To learn more about mental health promotion, please see the following resources: