How to Make Societies Thrive? Coordinating Approaches to Promote Well-being and Mental Health
Good mental health is a vital part of people’s well-being. This report uses the OECD Well-being Framework to systematically review how people’s economic, social, relational, civic and environmental experiences shape and are, in turn, shaped by their mental health. Based on this evidence, examples of co-benefits, or policy interventions that can jointly improve both mental health and other well-being outcomes, are identified for a range of government departments. Implementing and sustaining such co-benefits requires resources, incentives and working arrangements that enable all relevant stakeholders to contribute to tackling the upstream determinants of mental health. Selected mental health initiatives across OECD countries are reviewed to illustrate how policy makers have been realigning action across government agencies; redesigning policy formulation to address the joint factors influencing mental health; refocusing efforts towards the promotion of positive mental health; and reconnecting with societal stakeholders beyond government, including those with lived experience, youth, civil society and research institutions. How to Make Societies Thrive? Coordinating Approaches to Promote Well-being and Mental Health is the second of two reports as part of a broader OECD project on mental health and well-being.
Risk and resilience factors for mental health and well-being: Quality of life
The relationship between mental health outcomes and a range of quality-of-life indicators – spanning the domains of physical health; knowledge, skills and educational attainment; and environmental quality and natural capital – is often bidirectional. Well-being deprivations are associated with an elevated risk for mental ill-health and lower positive mental health, while a higher quality of life serves as a resilience factor for better mental health outcomes. Examples of interventions available to policy makers include better integrating physical and mental health services; promoting physical activity; establishing school-based interventions and lifelong learning programmes; funding eco-therapy and green interventions and promoting green cities; and a better accounting of the mental health costs of climate change, and the benefits of climate action.
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