Robust wellbeing
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JPMH-07-2016-0029 |
| Date | 19 September 2016 |
| Published date | 19 September 2016 |
| Pages | 141-149 |
| Author | Woody Caan |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Mental health,Public mental health |
Robust wellbeing
Woody Caan
Woody Caan is a Professorial
Fellow at RSPH, Duxford, UK.
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper arose out of a Public Mental Health Network meeting in September
2015 and a suggestion then by the editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry. The British Journal of Psychiatry
had just published an editorial by the chief medical officer for England that challenged the current concept of
wellbeing, within health policy.
Design/methodology/approach –The analysis is structured around three key elements of the chief
medical officer’s challenge to the concept of “wellbeing”: has wellbeing been scientifically defined? Does
improving wellbeing prevent mental illness? Is there any robust, peer-reviewed evidence to support a
wellbeing “approach”to mental health?
Findings –Wellbeing is definable provided there is recognition that it has multiple dimensions. At least some
of these dimensions relate to health, with most published research focused on personal wellbeing.
Originality/value –This policy analysis addresses the three questions above, within the context of mental
health improvement and training for public mental health.
Keywords Resilience, Mental health promotion, Mental wellbeing
Paper type Conceptual paper
Background
In the first volume of The Asylum Journal, John Connolly (1854) contrasted a variety of mental
disorders with this view of positive mental wellness:
Well ordered affections, well directed aspirations, worthy and practical objects, the pursuit of truth and
the desire to do good –these things exercise but do not discompose the understanding.
Today, under the heading of putting mental health at the heart of the public health agenda,
Connolly’s successors in the Royal College of Psychiatrists suggest practical actions for whole-
population mental health promotion. These include:
■Use a life course approach to ensure a positive start in life and healthy adult and older years.
■Promote purposeand participation to enhance positivewellbeing through a balanceof physical
and mental activity, relaxation, generating a positive outlook, creativity and purposeful
community (www.rcpsych.ac.uk/policyandparliamentary/publicmentalhealthevent/public
mentalhealthoutline.aspx).
For health promotion specialists, local authorities have been our key partners since the Local
Government Act 2000 stipulated that “Every local authority must prepare a strategy (referred to in
this section as a community strategy) for promoting or improving the economic, social and
environmental wellbeing of their area and contributing to the achievement of sustainable
development in the UK”. Even this legal reference to “well-being”at a population level recognized
that wellbeing contains multiple dimensions. The Health and Social Care Act 2012 established
health and wellbeing boards to bring together health service and local authority planners for
advancing “wellbeing”in each area.
Received 5 July 2016
Accepted 11 July 2016
The author indebted to the
members of the JPMH Editorial
advisory board who helped to
shape and polish this analysis.
DOI 10.1108/JPMH-07-2016-0029 VOL. 15 NO. 3 2016, pp. 141-149, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-5729
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JOURNAL OF PUBLIC MENTALHEALTH
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PAG E 14 1
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