Concept of mental health promotion and developing country-specific plans for mental health promotion: report of the regional workshop

The role of health promotion in mental health is embedded in the WHO definition of health (1948): “Health is a state of complete physical, social and mental well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” The Ottawa Charter (1986) defines health promotion as “a process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve their health.” More recently, the Bangkok Charter on Health Promotion (2005), among other things, calls for making the promotion of health a key focus of

communities and civil society.

Within the context of health promotion, health has been considered less as an abstract state and more as a means to an end which can be expressed in functional terms as a resource which permits people to lead at an individual level, a socially and economically productive life. Promoting the mental health of individuals and communities is therefore a major function of health promotion. There is substantial evidence to show that effective health promotion strategies can lead to better health.