5.L. Workshop: Public mental health promotion: a global perspective drawing on local narratives
Authors:   Organised by: EUPHA Health promotion section, EUPHA Public mental health section, ICHL Bielefeld University (Germany),   Chair persons: Orkan Okan – EUPHA-HP, Jutta Lindert – EUPHA-PMH
Published: October 2020

The past decade has brought a heightened awareness of the importance of mental health and its adequate promotion. In context of global public health, the tagline is “No global public health without mental health”. The impact of mental disorders concerning increased prevalence rates, severity of mental illnesses, associated disability and mortality rates has let traces, which is why mental health promotion is high on the agenda of European public health researchers, health practitioners and health policy makers. The 2005 mental health declaration and a mental health action plan by WHO and the 2006 “Green Paper on Mental Health” by the European Commission are both proof of and drivers for the development of mental health and mental health promotion strategies in the European region.

Currently, there is need to shed light on the mental health states and the mental health related capacities of different high-risk populations and professionals that work in critical fields to promote mental health. The improvement of mental health knowledge, including the biological, social, psychological and political risk factors for mental health is as important as the stimulation of the development of policies and practices to establish a basis for preventive mental health action. Key target groups are children, and especially children affected by adversities, such as parental mental health problem, and professionals in education and mental health, who are in need of guidance to address important mental health topics within programmes and interventions, such as mental health literacy, mental health awareness and mental health capacities

The aim of this workshop is to: (1) present unique research projects and their findings on mental health literacy and stigma prevention in schools in different European countries, (2) shed light on the critical importance of global public mental health promotion and (3) initiate a critical discussion on methods to strengthen mental health literacy and overcome stigma.

The 1st presentation will introduce the first German adaptation of the mental health literacy teacher manual (TeenMentalHealth) addressing mental health literacy learning and stigma prevention in the classroom. The 2nd presentation will present evidence from a research project on high school students' and teachers' mental health literacy in Turkey. The 3rd presentation will introduce empirical findings from a state-wide survey in Germany on the mental health literacy capacities of primary and secondary school teachers. The 4th presentation will introduce findings from an online social media study on mental health and stigma in young Russian adolescents and their perceptions and attitudes towards living with affective disorders. The 5th presentation will focus on mental health information materials to raise parents' awareness of children's mental health and provide specific suggestions for mental health promotion and screening for mental health problems in Switzerland.

Key messages

This workshop will shed light on public mental health promotion and various intersecting approach from different countries. Public mental health promotion and mental health literacy are important global health concerns and as such should be included as an agenda item on policies.