Conclusion

Positive mental health can contribute to better educational, employment, and social functioning. Public mental health includes both mental health promotion and prevention of mental ill health. Public mental health works at levels of general and whole population and society, vulnerable groups and individuals, and those needing early diagnosis and intervention. At each level different strategies are required. It is recognized that, when in distress, most individuals will seek help first from within their personal, social, and folk support systems and seek professional help only if that does not work. This depends upon healthcare systems and available resources. In this chapter the editors propose that public mental health is an important part of any healthcare system and suggest ways forward. They recognize that there is research evidence confirming the value of mental health promotion through education and empowerment, and by promoting strength and resilience through various local and national activities

Telemental health

Telemental health is a term for health care that leverages audio and video telecommunications technologies such as video-teleconferencing, computers, mobile devices, the Internet, telephones, and broadband connectivity to provide mental health services across time and physical distance. Telemental health has the capacity to make a significant and positive impact on public mental health by its ability to not only increase access to care, but also more effectively tailor mental health services to individual or community-wide healthcare needs. This chapter describes ways that telemental health is currently being used to impact mental health promotion, prevention, and treatment, summarizes the evidence base for these applications, and highlights some practical considerations for providers and systems implementing this newer virtual care delivery system.

Innovations in the area of social media

An estimated 2.62 billion people use social networking sites worldwide. Only recently have studies been carried out to explore the impact of social media in terms of creating new conditions such as cyberbullying, Internet addictions, and suicide contagion, among many other forms of mental health concerns. However, social media can play a role in education and public mental health interventions. Different types of social media include computerized self-help strategies, online psychotherapy and support groups, websites with medical information, forums, blogs, web applications, mobile apps, games, and networking platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Snapchat, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Pinterest, and Reddit. There are generational differences in the degree of familiarity and use of social media for gathering information and seeking education. The challenge for clinicians and public health educators is to try and use social media for betterment of society.

Non-governmental organizations and mental health

This chapter examines to contribution of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to meeting the mental health needs of individuals, families, and communities. After providing an overview of the history of mental health NGOs, and the current policy frameworks within which they work, it then examines the scope of mental health NGOs, and maps the main international networks and within the UK context. It examines the contribution of NGOs, the key challenges they face working within mental health, and concludes with the steps NGOs can take when striving for parity for mental health. It includes examples of international mental health NGOs throughout.

Intimate partner violence

Intimate partner violence (IPV) refers to any action that causes physical, sexual, and psychological harm by intimate partners, which includes domestic violence. This chapter gives a brief overview and details the prevalence, current theories, research, and evidence, including patriarchy and gender issues. IPV is complex, with internal and external factors relating to the victim, perpetrator, family, and the community. The long-term impacts on physical and mental health are reviewed. Recent direction by the World Health Organization describes a multi-level integrated approach, which is discussed topically in terms of individual, relational, and community prevention and intervention and its challenges. Finally, policies and laws relating to IPV are reviewed. This chapter has been written collaboratively by a multidisciplinary team of medical, social, and legal professionals.

Anti-stigma interventions

There is a rich literature on the nature of mental health-related stigma and the processes by which it severely affects the life chances of people with mental health problems. Applying this knowledge to deliver and evaluate interventions to reduce stigma in a lasting way is, however, a complex and long-term challenge. This chapter outlines how mental health-related stigma and discrimination have been defined; describes the negative impact they have on people with mental illness; summarizes anti-stigma strategies and the evidence regarding their effectiveness; and makes suggestions for future intervention development and evaluation. It seems likely that short-term interventions may only have a short-term impact, with the implication being the need to study longer-term interventions and to use interim process and outcome data to improve interventions along the way.

Parenting skills and promotion of mental health over the lifespan

Improving parenting skills can improve a range of mental health outcomes in infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and can improve both physical and mental health in adulthood. High-quality, evidence-based parenting programmes are especially effective for reducing children’s antisocial behaviour and promoting attachment security. This form of early intervention confers lasting benefits well into adulthood, on intelligence and academic functioning, as well as a range of mental health outcomes, such as antisocial personality disorder, crime, drug addiction, and early death. The skill of the mental health practitioner has a substantial effect on outcomes, as well as choosing a high-quality parenting programmeme, it is important to train the practitioner well and subsequently to ensure there is ongoing supervision. To widen access, more online programmes need to be developed.

Mental health in intellectual disability

This chapter focuses on the current knowledge in public health for people with intellectual disability and recognizes the extent of health inequalities these individuals experience. The prevalence of intellectual disability worldwide is discussed with special emphasis on the prevalence of mental health problems. Also highlighted are the population health characteristics, including physical and mental health problems. The issue of barriers to accessibility and the possible reasons are discussed. There is a section on premature mortality of people with intellectual disability and measures to improve the health status for this marginalized population. Recent initiatives, including prevention strategies and health promotional aspects, are discussed and solutions suggested, including those for low-and-middle income countries (LAMICs)emphasized. Training aspects to improve quality of health care in LAMICs is highlighted with the recognition of limitations in creating a sustainable transformation of services unless they are backed by authorities.

Clinical outcome assessment in mental health

Clinical outcome assessment (COA) in mental health is essential to inform patient-centred care and clinical decision-making. In this chapter, the reader is introduced to COA as it is evolving in the field of mental health. Multiple approaches to COA are presented, but emphasis is placed on approaches that generate clinically meaningful data. Understanding COA can position clinicians and stakeholders to better evaluate their own practice and to contribute to the ongoing evolution of COA research and evidence-based medicine. This chapter begins with the definitions of assessment and measurement. Conceptual frameworks and models of COA development and testing are then presented. These are followed by a discussion of measurement in practice that reviews measurement issues related to clinical decision-making, programme evaluation, and clinical trials. Finally, this chapter highlights the contribution of metrology to improving health outcomes of individuals who experience mental health disorders.

Social class and mental health

The Great Depression saw increasingly higher rates of mental disorder at successively lower social class levels. These findings have been repeated over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Dynamic interpretations of these relations have concentrated on vulnerability to economic crises, resulting in major increases in mental hospitalization and suicide. These studies have shown psychological morbidity and suicide to be strongly influenced by employment and income loss. Did the Great Recession re-enact the Great Depression’s mental health crisis for world societies? Recent literature shows substantially elevated psychological disorder in the Great Recession across industrialized societies. New multivariate analyses, using gross domestic product declines and unemployment increases as the main recessional indicators, find that world suicide and industrialized country overall mortality rates increased owing to the Great Recession and government austerity. A paradigm is presented of the circular relations linking economic crises, social class, and the interactive relations of mental and physical health.