This page is dedicated to providing you with information about mental health promotion. It was added to this site through an initiative called the Mental Wellness Action Project - a project designed to encourage community/consumer participation within South Shore Health's Mental Health Program.

Please review the links on this page to discover more about the project, and for information about various aspects of mental health promotion:

• What is the Mental Wellness Action Project?
• What is Mental Health?
• What is Mental Health Promotion?
• Why is my mental health important?
• What can I do to maintain and improve my mental health?
• Are there alternative and complementary approaches to maintaining my mental health?
• What are important questions to ask my health care provider?
• How can I get involved in my community to help promote mental health?
• Where else can I get reliable information about mental health?

What is the Mental Wellness Action Project?

On March 5, 2003 a community forum was held in Wileville, Lunenburg County to facilitate community/consumer participation within South Shore Health's Mental Health Program. Specific recommendations resulting from the forum included:

1. Develop strategies to enhance the capacity of the citizens and     communities of the District in the following areas;

• develop a network of key community stakeholder

• provide ongoing community/consumer input to service system policy development, planning, and evaluation

2. Investigate methods to enhance mental health promotion activities within the District.

3. Investigate methods to incorporate a recovery-orientation to service delivery with the mental health program.

The Mental Health Consumer Advisory Committee has been meeting since last March and submitted a proposal for funding to the Nova Scotia Department of Health, Mental Health Services. The proposal was funded. The Mental Wellness Action Project was launched and work on the issues began in late January 2004.

Since then, the Mental Wellness Action Group has been working on developing strategies that will provide citizens of the South Shore region with information about mental health promotion strategies and methods to share these strategies. The Mental Wellness Action Group membership consists of consumers and family members who live within the South Shore Health District.

Funding is provided by the Nova Scotia Department of Health, Consumer Initiatives Fund and South Shore Health (2004). The website was developed by Tony Storer and South Shore Health. The project activities have been supervised, developed and implemented by the South Shore Mental Health Program Manager, the project coordinator and the South Shore District Mental Health Consumer Advisory Committee members.

Top of Page

What Is Mental Health  

People often talk about mental health, but many don't really know what it means. This is understandable since there has been a lot of confusion about it for centuries. This section will attempt to give you an understanding of what mental health is, why it is important to you and your community and discuss some of the concepts that are related to it. We will also provide you with methods to promote your mental health and where to get assistance in your community.

Mental health is the capacity of the individual, the group and the environment to interact with one another in ways that promote:

• subjective well-being
• the optimal development and use of mental abilities (cognitive, affective and relational)
• the achievement of individual and collective goals consistent with justice
• the attainment and preservation of conditions of fundamental equality.

This is the ability of people, groups and communities to:

• be inter-dependent in order to promote their well-being
• adopt the most effective use of their mental capabilities
• achieve their goals that deal with justice and getting and keeping the conditions for equality.

Mental Health for Canadians: Striking a Balance, Health and Welfare Canada, 1988.

In short, mental health is your ability to interact with others in your community in honest, positive ways, which will provide you with a good sense of:

• self-worth
• dignity
• belonging
• self-determination
• tolerance
• acceptance and respect for others
• your rights and responsibilities in the world

What is Mental Health Promotion?

Mental Health Promotion has been defined by Health Canada (1996) as the process of enhancing the capacity of individuals and communities to take control over their lives and improve their mental health. Mental health promotion uses strategies that foster supportive environments and individual resilience, while showing respect for equity, social justice, interconnections and personal dignity. (Centre for Health Promotion, 1997).

Top of Page

Why is my mental health important?

Healthy living is about maintaining a balance regarding your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. Maintaining good mental health helps us to handle stress, to feel good about ourselves and others, to gain control over income and affect social status, to expand social support networks, to affect education, employment and to increase personal health practices and coping skills. It can also help with making informed choice about health care decisions and knowledge about health issues.

Promoting mental health helps ensure that individuals have power, choice, and control over their lives and that their communities have the strength and capacity to support individual empowerment and recovery.

Just as we strive to be healthy physically, we can also be healthy mentally. It is important that we seek to have a balance in our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual life. It is what makes us whole and keeps us healthy.

Mental health is also important in providing us with a feeling of confidence that our environment is predictable, and a sense that things will work out as well as can reasonably be expected. In some cultures, it would be similar to a feeling that "I am in control". This sense of coherence is fostered by a number of resources: material, physical, social support, cognitive and emotional, values and attitudes, culture and place in the world.

Having a positive outlook on life, being able to bounce back from negative experiences that we encounter, developing good coping skills and ways to manage the stress in our lives are all part of being mentally healthy. Being able to have fun and to play, to reflect on the positives in our lives are also important components to good mental health.

Top of Page

What can I do to maintain and improve my mental health?

There are many things that you can do to maintain and improve your mental health. Being connected to your community and having a sense of belonging is an important step. Being connected with family members, friends, and any others in your support network is extremely important. Get involved in your community by joining a service club or organization such as Big Brothers/Big sisters, a church choir, your local food bank. Joining a self-help/mutual aid group is another way to get involved where you can get help, give help and learn how to help yourself. It is also a good way to get up-to-date information about the particular issues you are dealing with.

Learning how to handle stress, develop better coping skills, develop relaxation techniques and realize that you have a lot of strengths and capabilities as well as limitations goes a long way to improving your mental health. Making sure that you allow time every day to have fun and to play is vital to mentally healthy living.

Educating yourself about staying well is another way to help maintain and improve your mental health. Getting information about mental health promotion will assist you in making informed choices about your lifestyle and your health.

If you have been diagnosed with a mental illness, all of the above apply to you. More importantly, developing a plan is a key component that will help you. Having a plan for when things go wrong helps you and those close to you in knowing exactly what to do in times of crisis.

Of course, being able to live in a safe environment and having work to do brings meaning and a sense of well being to one's life. Work is defined in its broadest sense to include paid work (full or part-time), volunteer work and housework.

Top of Page

Are there alternative and complementary approaches to maintaining one's mental health?

More and more people are examining alternative and holistic approaches in dealing with their health problems. This is true for people seeking healing and recovery from a diagnosis of a mental illness. Many of these approaches are centuries old. Some are relatively new. What they have in common is that they are proving to be very effective in healing and recovery from a diagnosis of a mental illness.

They are effective in the treatment of mental illness when used independently or as a complement to treatments  available from the traditional mental health care system such as medication therapy.

There are many different alternative and holistic approaches to dealing with mental illness. The following provides an explanation of both of these approaches:

Alternative Mental Health

Alternative approaches to mental health care are those that emphasize the interrelationship between mind, body, and spirit. Although some alternative approaches have a long history, many remain controversial. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health was created in 1992 to help evaluate alternative methods of treatment and to integrate those that are effective into mainstream health care practice. It is crucial, however, to consult with your health care providers about the approaches you are using to achieve mental wellness.

Some of the different kinds of alternative approaches include:

Self-help, diet and nutrition, pastoral counselling, animal assisted therapy, expressive therapy, art therapy, dance/movement therapy, music/sound therapy, culturally based healing arts, acupuncture, ayurveda, Native American traditional practices, cuentos, relaxation and stress reduction techniques, biofeedback, massage therapy, and guided imagery or visualization.

www.mentalhealth.org/publications/allpubs/ken98-0044/default.asp

Holistic Health

Holistic health takes into account one's natural healing power as the main key to recovery. That is, where the individual is the true healer and the practitioner is the helper or guide. In holistic health, various forms of treatments are selected and integrated to create the most suitable treatment for the individual. Self-realization is sought by recognizing the deep meaning of illness. Self-realization occurs by recognizing the symptoms of and the deep meaning of an illness. By not viewing illness, disability, aging and death as an only negative events and recognizing their deeper meaning helps to bring people to self-realization with increased understanding and satisfaction that can emerge in the process of life and death.

The words, "whole", "relationship", "connection" and "balance" are now associated with the word "holistic". This concept parallels philosophies of the Orient.

In this context, holistic health considers and integrates the following:

It regards human life as a unity of "Body, Mind, Sprit and Chi (Vital Energy)". It is based on the total concept of the harmonious whole in relationship to Society, Nature and the Universe.

• It recognizes that the Natural Healing Power within each of us is the key to healing so that the basic principle of healing lies in how we can revitalize that Natural Healing Power within ourselves.
• First and foremost, the individual has to realize his/her natural healing potential. The practitioner is secondary, playing the role of guide and supporter. The individual's positive attitude toward health is crucial before therapies or treatments can be implemented by a therapist.
• Various means of treatments are selected and integrated to create the most suitable for the individuals. While holistic health approaches recognizes the benefits of conventional medicine it provides for various other therapies/treatments. These include:

Traditional Chinese Medicine, Indian "Ayurvedic" Medicine, Therapeutic Touch, Meditation, Flower Remedies, Mind/Body Medicine, Psychotherapy, Naturopathy, Nutrition, Osteopathy, Chiropractic

Alternative Approaches to Mental Health Care, National Mental Health Information Center, Center for Mental Health Services.

http://www.mentalhealth.org/publications/allpubs/ken98-0044/default.asp

Top of Page

What are important questions to ask my health care provider?

It is very important that you ask your health professional some basic questions that will help you make important choices about your treatment and your health. When we realize that we have a mental health problem, just as any other health problem we learn about in our lifetime like a cold, the flu, a serious injury, the first things that we want to know are: how long will this last and how can I get better?

The following questions are provided to you as a method for you to get answers that will help you overcome the difficult challenges that you are faced with. Of course, the best approach is that you develop your own set of questions to ask your health care provider. It is our hope that the following will spark you to put together your own set of questions to help you deal with your own specific condition.

1. What is my mental health problem is? - Please explain.
2. What are the risks and benefits of the treatment?
3. What are the short and long-term effects of the treatment/medication?
4. Do people ever recover from this mental illness?
5. What can I do to assist my recovery?
6. Where can I get information about managing my mental health?
7. Are there alternative and complimentary approaches that I can use?
8. What should my family and friends know about my mental health problem?
9. What information about me are you putting in my medical file?
10. Do you share this information with anybody else?

How can I get involved in my community to help promote mental health?

Mental health promotion has been defined as the process of enhancing the capacity of individuals and communities to take control over their lives and improve their mental health. Mental health promotion uses strategies that foster supportive environments and individual resilience, while showing respect for equity, social justice, interconnections and personal dignity (Centre for Health Promotion, 1997).

Taking personal responsibility for supporting the betterment of your community and getting involved is the start to making positive change in your area. There are many things that you can do to promote mental health in your community. The key to it is to get involved in some way. This can take different forms. For example:

• Get involved with a food bank

• Join the local recreation association

• Join a local service club

• Volunteer for a local or provincial mental health organization

Any contribution that you can make that helps people in your community grow in supportive and equitable ways and helps protects the environment are mental health promotion activities.

There are a host of clubs and organizations that you can in touch with in your community. A place to start looking to see which one best interests you and where you feel you can make the best contribution is the library. They can also be found by searching the world- wide-web.

Another method to promote mental health is by taking social action. Getting involved in promoting a cause locally, provincially or federally is helpful and can have a positive impact on you and others.

Some local and provincial mental health resources are listed below:

Local resources:

Provincial Resources:

Other Resources:

Where can I get reliable information about Mental Health?

It can be difficult to get the information you need when you are faced with the challenge of a diagnosis of a mental illness. Once you get information, it can be overwhelming because you will find that there is so much of it.

How do you determine what information is helpful? There is no easy answer to this question. The best way to make an informed decision about the information you get is to discuss it with family and friends, other people in your community that you trust, organizations that deal with the specific problem you are facing, mental health professionals, complementary medicine practitioners, support and self-help group members.

Ultimately, the decision about your mental health recovery, care, support and treatment is up to you. This will be one of the most important decisions you make that will shape your future well-being. Be cautious about it. Make sure you ask as many questions as you can in order for you to make the best possible choices about your mental health and recovery.

Write your questions down so that you won't forget them. If you can, take a tape-recorder with you so that you can capture all of the information that is given to you by the person you are asking. Having someone you trust go with you is another way to help capture what is told to you. This way, you won't have to remember all of the answers that are given to you. Once you have had your questions answered, it will lead you to further questions that you perhaps have not thought about.

Some community resources that you can contact about mental illness and mental health are:

Where else can I get reliable information about Mental Health?

Health Canada, Mental Health Promotion

Canadian Mental Health Association, National Office

Canadian Alliance for Mental Illness and Mental Health

Dr. John Grohol's Psych Central

Internet Mental Health

Australian Network for Promotion, Prevention and Early Intervention for Mental Health

National Institute for Mental Health in England

http://www.bu.edu/cpr/recovery/

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/page.cfm?pagecode=PBFS

General:

Mental Health Services, Nova Scotia Department of Health
P.O. Box 488, Halifax, NS, B3J 2R8
902-424-4232

The Canadian Mental Health Association, Nova Scotia Division
63 King Street, Dartmouth, NS B2Y 2R7
902-466-6600

The Schizophrenia Society of Nova Scotia
P.O. Box 1004, Room 409
Simpson Hall, Nova Scotia Hospital
Dartmouth, NS B2Y 3Z9
1-800-465-2601

The Empowerment Connection
Box 410,
1037 Church Street,
Fenwick, ON,
Canada,
L0S 1C0
Nova Scotia Location:
260 Wyse Road, Dartmouth, NS, B3A 1N3
(902) 404-3445

Local resources:

South Shore Health, Mental Health Services
South Shore Regional Hospital
90 Glen Allan Drive
Bridgewater, NS B4V 3S6
(902) 527-5228

The Canadian Mental Health Association, Lunenburg Branch
PO Box 117
17, 450 LaHave Street,
Bridgewater, NS B4V 3T2
Contact: Jean Covert (902) 527-1893
cmhalcb@hotmail.com"

The Schizophrenia Society Lunenburg County Chapter
Contact:
Representative Jean Covert 
ssnslcc@hotmail.com

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES FROM THE EMPOWERMENT CONNECTION "RECOVERY TOOLKIT: A PATHWAY TO EMPOWERMENT":

Mental Health Promotion

Atlantic Health Promotion Research Centre (AHPRC). (1995). Resiliency: Relevance to health promotion. Halifax: Author.

Canadian Mental Health Association, Nova Scotia Division. (1995). Consumer-led education and action for reform project. Dartmouth: Author.

Carling, P. (1995). Return to Community. New York, New York: The Guilford Press.

Health Canada, Mental Health Promotion, (n.d.). Retrieved January 17, 2002,

Willinsky, C. & Pape, B. (2001). Mental health promotion. In L. Young and V. Hayes (Eds.), Transforming health promotion practice: Concepts, issues, and applications (pp. 162-173). Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Company.

World Health Organization. (1986). Ottawa charter on health promotion. Copenhagen: World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe.

Recovery

Ahern, L. and Fisher, D. (1999). Personal Assistance in Community Existence: Recovery at your own PACE. Lawrence, MA: National Empowerment Center, Inc.

Anthony, W. A. (1993). Recovery from mental illness: The guiding vision of the mental health service system in the 1990's. Psychosocial Rehabilitation Journal, 16(4), 11-23.

Anthony, W. A. (2000). A recovery-oriented service system: Setting some system level standards. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 24 (2), 159-168.

Deegan, Patricia. (1993). Recovering our sense of value after being labelled mentally ill. Paper presented at "Rehabilitation of Children, Youth, and Adults With Psychiatric Disabilities: Achieving Valued Roles" Conference, Tampa, Florida, January, 1983. Lawrence, MA: National Empowerment Center, Inc.

Deegan, Patricia. (1995). Using medications as part of the recovery process. Lawrence, MA: National Empowerment Center, Inc.

Fisher, D. B. (1990's). Self-managed care: You too can heal your "mental illness". Lawrence, MA: National Empowerment Center, Inc.

Websites

National Empowerment Center

Naturopathic Medical Research Centre

Safe Harbor Alternative Mental Health On-line

The Synergy Group of Canada:

University of Ottawa, Alternative Interventions

Top of Page