Research and publications
| Published date | 01 March 2005 |
| Date | 01 March 2005 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17465729200500010 |
| Pages | 44-47 |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care |
UPDATE
44 journal of public mental health
vol 4 • issue 1
©Pavilion Publishing (Brighton) Ltd
Research and publications
Choosing mental health
Mental Health Foundation (2005)
Choosing mental health: a response from the Mental
Health Foundation to the government’s white paper
for public health in England.
London: Mental Health Foundation
(www.mentalhealth.org.uk)
This report provides an overview of Choosing Health
(Department of Health, 2004), the government’s public
health white paper, from a public mental health
perspective. It aims to identify the gaps and
opportunities in the white paper and to provide a
framework for addressing these, together with a wide
range of recommendations. While the Mental Health
Foundation welcomes the white paper, it also highlights
some fundamental flaws in its treatment of mental
health. The report argues that Choosing Health
provides little explanation of the fundamental role of
mental health or its importance in relation to
inequalities in health or risk behaviour.It says it fails to
develop a life span perspective and pays inadequate
attention to older people. The report will be of interest
of colleagues in public health and a valuable resource for
anyone involved in implementing the Choosing Health
delivery plan.
Department of Health (2004) Choosing health. London: Department
of Health.
European action plan
WHO mental health action plan for Europe (2005)
Copenhagen:WHO Europe
(www.euro.who.int/mentalhealth2005/20041216_2)
European declaration on mental health (2005)
Copenhagen:WHO Europe
(www.euro.who.int/mentalhealth2005/20041216_1)
Endorsed by the 52 member states of the WHO
European region in Helsinki in mid-January 2005, both
documents argue that ‘the primary aim of mental health
activity is to enhance people’s well-being and
functioning by focusing on their strengths and resources,
reinforcing resilience and enhancing protective external
factors’. Population-based mental health promotion is
central to the priorities enumerated in both the
declaration and action plan, with explicit
acknowledgement both of how promotion must be
fundamental to a wide range of public health strategies,
and of how it necessitates long-term investment. The
action plan is focused around addressing mental health
across the lifespan, but presses for the prioritisation of
children, adolescents and older people. Member states
are also urged to ensure that people with the most severe
problems and the poorest in society receive the largest
relative benefits from resources devoted to mental
health problems. But while the action plan
acknowledges that those resources are often inadequate,
it is far from clear how this is to be remedied, especially
given the long list of important milestones that member
states are asked to achieve by 2010.
The WHO Europe website (www.euro.who.int/
mentalhealth2005) also has links to several useful
briefings prepared for the conference, on topics
including research, working life, mental health
promotion and mental disorder prevention, the
economics of mental health in Europe, and mental
health of children and adolescents.
Public attitudes
Braunholtz S, Davidson S,King S
(MORI Scotland) (2004)
Well? What do you think? (2004):the second national
Scottish survey of public attitudes to mental health,
mental well-being and mental health problems.
Edinburgh: Scottish ExecutiveSocial Research
(www.scottishexecutive.gov.uk/ library5/health/
pamhs-00.asp)
Two years after the first Scottish attitudes survey, this
update – which uses exactly the same format of
questions, and a representative sample of 1401 adults
aged 16+ in Scotland – provides interesting data
relating to the impact of the Scottish Executive’s
National Programme for Improving Mental Health and
Well-being. It suggests some positive shifts in attitudes
towards those with mental health problems since 2002,
and nearly three quarters of respondents had seen, read
or heard an advertisement or promotion relating to
mental health in the past year (in comparison with 43%
in 2002). But, as Michael Smith warns (Smith, 2004),
it would be unwise to take respondents’ answers at face
value. For example, respondents might be trying to
make socially acceptable responses, and might not, for
example, the high rates of mental ill health reported by
women aged 35-54 simply reflect their relative openness
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