What's the Tool Kit About?

Although the factors that influence mental health are numerous and complex, there are many simple ways to support and sustain mental health at the community level. The projects that are profiled in this tool kit provide examples of straightforward and effective approaches to promoting mental health in diverse communities.

This tool kit emphasizes that the means to promote mental health are already present in communities. Mental health promotion requires imagination, innovation and partnership, but it does not require extensive financial resources or training. Identifying and mobilizing individual and community assets can help mental health promotion projects to take root and flourish, benefiting all members of the community.

The Introduction to this document provides information on the origins of the tool kit, the Canadian Mental Health Association's (CMHA) background in mental health promotion, and a glossary of key terms that we will be using throughout the tool kit. This background provides the context for the sections that follow.

Part 1 briefly introduces the projects chosen as examples of effective mental health promotion at the community level. For each of the three examples, you’ll find a background to and summary of the project. This will set the stage for Part 2, where we’ll explore the process of developing, implementing and evaluating mental health promotion projects, using examples from the three projects to illustrate important points.

Part 2, the meat and potatoes of the tool kit, is organized around a planning model that has been well used in many different communities to achieve a variety of goals. The planning model presents the process of promoting mental health at the community level as a series of steps. The model will serve as an overall guide, and examples from the three projects will animate and illustrate the steps.

Back to top

Foreward

What is Mental Health Promotion?

Research from a number of sources’ shows that mental health promotion is a concept that has significant potential for contributing to the well-being of individuals and communities. But what exactly does it mean?

Good mental health is a goal that most of us share, and mental health promotion is a means of reaching that goal. Mental health is promoted through processes which give people the ability to function well, or which remove barriers that may prevent people from having control over their mental health.

For example, strengthening people’s ability to bounce back from adversity and manage the inevitable obstacles that life tends to throw in our path is a fundamental way of promoting mental health. In general, though, any actions which are taken for the purpose of fostering, protecting and improving mental health can be seen as mental health promotion. These can range from community-level interventions such as equitable social policy development, to individual-level interventions which cultivate skills, attitudes and behaviors conducive to mental health.

Mental health promotion applies to the whole population in the context of everyday life; it is not only for those who experience mental health illness, nor for those who are considered to be at risk. There is a role, however, for interventions designed specifically for certain groups, such as people who care for a family member with mental illness.

There a few key factors to keep in mind in relation to mental health promotion. One is the importance of informal relationships -- with friends, family, co-workers, and others - which play a vital role in supporting and maintaining positive mental health. Mental health promotion initiatives build on the networks of social support that are already present in communities, and create new relationships that enhance our sense of belonging.

Secondly, it is important to consider that mental health promotion can take many forms. Because positive mental health is the result of many interacting factors, there is no single way to promote it. Communities are made up of a diverse range of people, so efforts to promote mental health need to consider a variety of strategies and approaches that are relevant to the full range.

Finally, it is essential that efforts to promote mental health recognize and reflect the diversity of cultures within our communities; these efforts will contribute to building a society that ensures fair and equitable treatment -- one that accommodates and respects the dignity of people of all origins.

To be successful, mental health promotion efforts require active citizen involvement in identifying mental health needs, setting priorities, controlling and implementing solutions, and evaluating progress towards goals - essentially a community development model.

In a sense, this is no different from the process followed in most community-based health promotion projects. If the process is so similar, why set mental health promotion apart from generic health promotion efforts?

Although the principles and processes may be similar, the outcomes of mental health promotion and generic health promotion can be quite different whereas health promotion projects might be working toward improved cardiovascular health or decreased rates of smoking, mental health promotion focuses explicitly on mental health outcomes such as increased sense of personal control, empowerment, self-determination, and resilience.

Much of the work of mental health promotion has to do with shifting attitudes -- emphasizing the importance of maintaining positive mental health instead of dealing with individual distress, and dealing with mental illness in a balanced and humane way that will dismantle stigma and encourage recovery.

Small community mental health promotion projects (like the ones described in the kit) will probably not radically alter perceptions or society, But if a small-scale project is planned, evaluated and then championed, it can have an incremental effect on wider social policy and the decisions that affect whole populations.

We all need mental health promotion. By identifying and activating the personal and social strengths that support positive mental health, people can work together to develop healthier communities.

Back to top

Rationale for the Tool Kit

In conducting preliminary research for this tool kit, we came across numerous practical guides and resources for community action and health promotion programs. We didn’t, however, find any that pertained specifically to promoting mental health at the community level.

Written information on mental health promotion tends to fall into the categories of theoretical and conceptual work, recommendations to bring about mental health promoting change at the policy level, and guidelines for health professionals to follow to incorporate a mental health promotion approach into their work. We didn’t turn up much practical information that was geared toward helping people promote mental health in their own communities.

Both the research process and feedback from community groups indicated that this tool kit would fill a gap in the mental health promotion field, providing the kind of practical information and resources that will help people in communities take action to promote mental health.

What is CMHA and What is Its Connection to Mental Health Promotion?

This tool kit is a document of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA), a national, voluntary organization whose mission is to promote the mental health of all people. CMHA is unique in Canada as a non-governmental organization with an explicit mandate for mental health promotion and education.

An important objective of the organization is to advocate improvements in mental health services and to press for changes in social policies that have an impact on individuals’ mental health.

There are divisions of CMHA in every province and territory, and branches in cities and towns throughout Canada. Their diverse efforts and activities are united by a common vision that builds on the principles of mental health promotion.

To further our mission to promote the mental health of all people, CMHA National has focused on the concepts and principles of mental health promotion; with support from the Mental Health Promotion Unit of Health Canada we developed a conceptual model for understanding mental health promotion and a framework for developing mental health promotion programs.

We built on this background work to create this tool kit, which we hope contains effective tips, strategies and resources to help bring mental health promotion to life in communities across the country.

Back to top

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to a number of individuals and organizations who contributed to this project.

The development and production of this kit would not have been possible without the support of our funder, the Population Health Fund of Health Canada. This document was made possible by the funder, but does not necessarily represent the official policy of Health Canada.

We also want to thank Natacha Joubert, of the Mental Health Promotion Unit of Health Canada, for championing the cause of mental health promotion at the national level. Many people contributed a great deal to the three projects profiled in this kit. Without their enthusiasm and energy, the projects would not have become such excellent examples of mental health promotion in action. We can’t name all of those individuals here, but we would like to especially thank those who took the lead in those projects: Moyra Buchan for the Helping Skills project, Bonnie Pape and Heather McKee for the Inclusion in Community project, and Garda Sinclair-Moran for the Seniors’ Medicine Wheel project.

A number of people gave generously of their time and expertise to review drafts of this document. We wish to acknowledge their contribution to the kit -- their comments and insights were invaluable. Those people include Tom Mawhinney, Bonnie Pape, Anne Simard, Jeffrey Nguyen, Rhonda Mauricette, John Raeburn, Liz Roberts, and Michelle Pante.

The tool kit builds on and borrows from the resources in the Community Tool Box, an on-line resource for community building based at the University of Kansas. Thank you to Jeffrey Schultz and all those who contributed to making the Community Tool Box such a wonderful and complete resource for all aspects of community development and mobilization.

Back to top

Why a Tool Kit? >

Developed with the support and help of the Mental Health Promotion Unit of Health Canada.