Promoting mental well-being through policies, systems and environments: A local-level assessment

There is growing agreement across many disciplines that mental well-being is an important contributor to overall health. Less clear is what local health departments can do to promote it. As partners in the Centers for Disase Control (CDC) -funded Community Transformation Grant, three local public health departments conducted an extensive assessment to:

1) Describe the contribution of positive mental well-being in preventing chronic disease;

2) Understand what mental well-being means to populations of interest (African American, American Indian, recent immigrants {East African, West African, Latino, Asian Indian}, Chinese American, Hmong American, Vietnamese American, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender);

3) Describe the factors affecting mental well-being;

4) Recommend strategies to address those factors through policies, systems and environments.

Project components included:

• A review of current scientific literature about mental well-being, its relationship to chronic disease and its presence across the lifespan in populations of interest;

• Interviews with community, academic, subject and government thought leaders about mental well-being;

• Identification of best practices/promising approaches to improving mental well-being through policies, systems and environments;

• Identification of local data related to mental well-being status.

In this session, assessment findings will be reviewed, including a summary of interviews with 40 thought leaders; identification of other countries’ approaches to the topic; strategy recommendations for policy, system and environmental changes; and implementation progress to-date.