Mental Health Promotion in Victoria: A Strategic Approach

Health promotion has proved to be crucial in most areas of health, for example, cardiovascular health, cancer control and injury prevention. However, mental health promotion has hitherto been a very poor cousin by comparison with funds spent on other health promotion areas, and also by comparison with funds spent on mental health services. This situation is understandable. First, there has been a need to shake mental health services out of antiquity to ensure that they not only meet fundamental standards of human rights, but also begin to develop a focus on rehabilitation. Second, the amorphous, unspecific and often haphazard nature of the few existing mental health promotion programs has, to a degree, given mental health promotion a bad name. As mental health promotion initiatives must inevitably relate to social and structural issues, the health content of mental health promotion has sometimes been hard to identify.