SaluVida - Health Improvement Consultants

SaluVida - Health Improvement Consultant

Home Page

About SaluVida

Human MOT

Stress Less

Raising Awareness

Let's Get Moving

Buy Stress Tools

Nutritional Products

Courses

Retreat Weekend

Shop

Jermaine

Articles

Links

Contact Us

Book Courses

A two day course designed to raise awareness of staff from all agencies about the part which they and their organisation play in promoting mental health.

This course will help reinforce individual concepts for mental health and wellbeing and put in context the role they can play at work and at home to promote mental health.

About mental health improvement in Scotland

"Mental wellbeing means feeling in control of my emotions, being able to deal with life and not letting my mind hold me back."
Rolf, 32 years old

Why a focus on mental health?

Mental health affects every area of our lives. What does mental health mean to you? Does it make you think of someone who has a mental health problem like depression or schizophrenia? Or does it make you think of that very personal quality which describes the way you think and feel about yourself, your experiences, your confidence, your resilience and sense of control over your life?

Mental health improvement, mental health, mental health problems: what's the difference?

Mental health means our ability to enjoy life and cope with its challenges. Recent research suggests that mental health consists of two dimensions:

positive mental health (mental wellbeing), for example life satisfaction, positive relationships with others and purpose in life
mental health problems (mental illness, psychiatric morbidity), for example depression and anxiety.

Good mental health is therefore more than the absence of mental health problems.

There are various definitions to describe mental health. Within this website, the following definitions will be used:

Mental health: An umbrella term to refer to both the concepts of mental health problems and mental wellbeing.

Mental health problems: A term that refers to symptoms that meet the criteria for clinical diagnosis of mental illness, or symptoms at a sub-clinical threshold which interfere with emotional, cognitive or social function. Examples include common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, and severe and enduring mental health problems such as schizophrenia.

Mental wellbeing: A term that includes:

aspects of subjective wellbeing (affect and life satisfaction)
psychological wellbeing (which covers a wider range of cognitive aspects of mental health such as mastery and a sense of control, having a purpose in life, a sense of belonging and positive relationships with others).

A different way of thinking about mental health is illustrated in the continuum:

(Adapted from K. Tudor, ‘Mental Health Promotion: Paradigms and Practice’, 1996)

The four quadrants of the mental health continuum represent different possible times and situations in a person’s life.

Mental wellbeing, mental health problems and suicide in Scotland

In Scotland:

The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) is a new scale developed to capture the breadth of components that make up mental wellbeing, including positive affect, satisfying interpersonal relationships and positive functioning. Based on their responses to a series of questions, people receive a score between 14 (the lowest level of positive mental health) to 70 (the highest). The 2008 Scottish Health Survey showed that mean WEMWBS score for adults aged 16+ years was 50.2 for men and 49.7 for women. (Scottish Health Survey, 2008)
One person out of every four people will experience a mental health problem in the course of a year. (Goldberg D & Huxley P (1980) Mental Illness in the Community: The Pathway to Psychiatric Care. London: Tavistock)
It is not any one person in four that will be affected by a mental health problem – those who are subject to inequalities are more susceptible. (Equal Minds, 2005)
People can and do recover from even the most serious and long-term mental health problems. Recovery is a unique and individual experience: no two people’s recovery journeys will be identical. (Scottish Recovery Network Website)
In Scotland, on average, around 2 people complete suicide each day (Choose Life website)

Book NOW.

Cromarty holiday and long term rental accommodation

Cromarty Retreats

Ecoventures Boat Trips

Sutor Creek Restaurant