Integrating Mental Health Promotion and General Health Promotion Strategies
| Published date | 01 January 2000 |
| Date | 01 January 2000 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17465729200000005 |
| Pages | 19-25 |
| Author | Andrew Tannahill |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
International Journal of Mental Health Promotion VOLUME 2 ISSUE 1 • FEBRUARY2000 © Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Limited. 19
Integrating Mental Health
Promotion
and General Health Promotion
Strategies
Andrew Tannahill
Chief Executive,
Health Education Board
for Scotland
FEATURE
promotion is a good thing. Rather than proceed on the basis of that
assumption, I shall start with the question ‘Why
integrate?’. In seeking answers to that question I shall first consider
mental health in the context of health more generally, then do the
same for mental health promotion and general health promotion.
What is health?
When I once asked a group of medical students this question, they
came up with the definition ‘Health
is the absence of clinical signs’ (Tannahill, 1994a). However, on
exploring how they viewed their own health, it became apparent
thatthey placed considerable emphasis on subjective perceptions,
on feeling good in themselves and about themselves. In their con-
ceptions of their own health, as distinct from patients’ health, they
put a high value on mental and physical well-being, and they incor-
porated notions
of self-concept, self-worth and self-esteem. They reflected the com-
monly cited World Health Organization (WHO) definition of health:
‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and
not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ (World Health
Organization, 1946).
While we can debate the letter of the WHO definition (Downie et al.,
1996), I think that most or all of us would accept the spirit. But how
well is acceptance in spirit translated into everyday thinking and
action? Consider, for example,ho w people tend
to answer the question ‘Does damp housing affect health?’.
Responses tend to concentrate entirely
on evidence of damage to physical health, such as respiratory prob-
lems. That evidence is undoubtedly important, but so too is the plain
fact that dampness in houses is likely to impair mental and social
well-being, and thus health.
Ilike to present the spirit of the WHO definition of health as in
Figure 1, below.The diagram reminds us tha t mental, physical and
social health can affect each other, that social circumstances can
affect mental and physical health, and so on. This brings us to my
first answer to the question ‘Why integrate?’.
Why integrate?
There is an implicit assumption in the title of this paper: that inte-
gration of strategies for mental health promotion and general health
This paper identifies seven points in favour of
integrating mental health promotion and general
health promotion strategies: mental, physical and
social aspects of health are inextricably inter-
linked; mental health is all too easily overlooked
in thought and deed; life circumstances affect
mental, social and physical health; mental, social
and physical health have intertwined and shared
roots; we need concerted action on these
intertwined and shared roots; even topic-specific
action needs to be co-ordinated and the
promotion of mental health is a foundation for
the promotion of general health. Attention is
then focused on how such integration can be
achieved, with reference to the Ottawa Charter
for Health Promotion and the ‘arenas’ approach
to programmes. The paper concludes by widening
out the notion of integration to that of health
promotion as an integral part of our collective
way of life, advocating the idea of ‘a healthy
mind in a healthy body in a healthy society’.
ABSTRACT
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