Mental Health Promotion at the university setting

Health Promotion and prevention of illness have strong acceptance within he public health area, but they have often failed to incorporate mental health components within their framework.

Mental Health Promotion aims to protect, promote, and maintain emotional and social conditions and create individual, social and environmental health by enabling optimal psycho-physiological and psychological development. As well as to enhance the respect for mental health culture, equity, social justice, and the dignity of people (WHO, 2004). Strategies for mental health promotion are related to improving the quality of life and potential for health rather than the amelioration of symptoms and deficits.

There are some experiences and programs in the educational context, such as the Health-Promoting School network, but there are not sufficient studies, correctly documented, in the university context.

Universities have a significant influence on the behavior and development of students and provide an efficient means of promoting the health, academic and emotional development of young people. But, the universities are also a workplace adequate to increase mental health promotion.

There are some isolated actions and interventions that take place at different academic settings that address different issues, including self-esteem, anxiety, mediation, interpersonal skills, burnout, mobbing, etc. We examined specific universities' organizational structures of universities.

This presentation will present and discuss the actions and programs of universities in Spain that shows the need to strengthen the efforts to support an effective implementation and for monitoring and evaluating the impact of implemented policies and programs, as well as the needed policies, evaluation tools, and appropriate planning for effective Mental Health Promotion.