Paper Example on Building Healthy Public Policy

Introduction

It is important to maintain a positive mental health outlook for all people in the society to promote mental health well-being and manage the mental disorders afflicting various people in contemporary communities. One ideal way of attaining positive mental health is through the promotion of the issue as well as creating awareness of mental disorders (Jane-Llopis et al., 2005). This calls for the formulation of healthy public policies by relevant stakeholders in all the concerned sectors to stimulate awareness and concern among the policy makers. Mental health will be substantially addressed and promoted through the legislation of productive health public policies, especially in low-income settings where the conditions for positive mental health is likely to be compromised.

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The health policies formulated should lead to the improvement of nutrition in the society, particularly among children from poor socio-economical backgrounds who benefit by leading a healthy life with proper cognitive development. Policy makers also ought to address the issue of housing through effective public policies that will ensure the improvement of mental health as well as minimizing the inequalities that exist in the provision of health to the poor. The same policies should be geared toward addressing education such that almost everyone in the society has an equal chance of accessing quality education. This will improve the literacy levels among the population who can be able to better handle their mental disorders. Effective policies should be put in place to increase the taxation of addictive substances as a deterrence for people to avoid them and maintain positive mental health. It is also easier to promote mental health at the workplaces due to effective policies that improve the working conditions and peace of mind at the office.

Creating Supportive Environments

The other ideal approach towards promoting mental health well-being way and mitigating mental disorders among people in the society would be through the creation of supportive environments. This ideally means ensuring that there is promotion of positive mental health at work, home, school, and other community settings by improving the determinants of mental health. Mental health well-being is strongly related to a supportive family life, hence the emphasis on creating home-based strategies for the early development of positive mental health (Meadows, Singh, & Grigg, 2007). They are geared towards ensuring sensitive and responsible parenting styles that nurture a cordial relationship between the parents and their children. Parenting interventions are also effective in ensuring that the adults relate well with their children by understanding their needs and emotions. This is done through group-based training sessions for the parents that have proven fruitful in promoting the psychological health of both the mothers and their young ones.

It is also possible to create a supportive environment through various pre-school intervention strategies (Jane-Llopis et al., 2005). This entails preparing the young children for school even before they commence formal school to psychologically prepare them on an appropriate curriculum for their cognitive development. Then there is the actual schooling phase where the school plays the crucial role of providing a supportive setting in which the children can grow as they learn. Comprehensive programs found in the school environment are essential in developing the mental health of the children due to the competence and social skills acquired in the process, while minimizing depression and anxiety. The workplace is another environment where proper interventions ought to be implemented to decrease the effect of stressful work on the mental health of the workers. There should be adequate resources to help the employees cope with the demanding work conditions without adversely hampering their mental well-being.

Strengthening Community Action

The other argument in favor of promoting mental health and eradicating mental disorders within the society lies in strengthening the local communities to act decisively. The community is empowered to decide, strategize, and implement health priorities to attain better psychological health. The first phase revolves around strengthening the community through partnerships that allow building capacity for promoting psychological well-being of the community members (Meadows et al., 2007). The community members are mobilized to implement community change on matters of mental health through a broad range of local community activities. The community can effect these initiatives through effective programs meant to keep the youth away from drug and substance abuse, not to mention the incorporation of the school, parents, policy makers, the media, and other community stakeholders in the same initiative. This approach has proven to yield the desired results because of the reduced number of alcoholics and drug abusers in the community as long as there is open communication about drugs between the parents , other community figure-heads, and their children. The community aids in tackling alcoholism and mental disorders among the youth through the creation of awareness and policy making by politicians. The school also helps in serving as a gateway to the community. This happens where children attending school act as a source of essential information to their neighbors, friends, and immediate family members. This reduces mental health conditions due to the extensive awareness among the illiterate and ignorant in the community. The community is also called into action regarding the promotion of mental health through the mass media. Here is where aggressive media campaigns addressing the issues of stigma in the community, maintaining a positive attitude, and increasing awareness among members of the public go a long way to promoting and managing mental health issues (Jane-Llopis et al., 2005).

Developing Personal Skills

A valid argument for the promotion of mental health and the handling of psychological disorders lies squarely on the development of personal skills to support the development of both the individual and their community through the provision of health education, pertinent information on mental health, and the enhancement of life skills. This empowers the people to have options and control over their health and the surrounding environment. One way of developing the individual life skills of people is through developing their resilience while promoting social competence. Various age groups are subjected to different cognitive restructuring methods, with the best example being the promotion of emotional and social competencies in elementary school children. There is also the establishment of mental health clubs in schools with a focus on the youth to positively influence their lives. The students are taught leadership skills, clear communication skills, as well as fostering positive attitudes and relationships with others regarding mental health issues.

The underlying objective of developing the personal skills of community members and school goers is to target the avoidance or prevention of stress and depression (Jane-Llopis et al., 2005). The idea behind this approach is to alter the cognitive distortions in children with depression as well as enhancing their individual coping skills. This, in effect, leads to a drastic reduction in the number of cases of children with depressive or stressful symptoms. The third approach in developing the individual skills of the people is by addressing the adverse effects associated with unemployment. Mental health promotion becomes relatively easy whenever there is the creation of employment among the people in a given community setting (World Health Organization, 2004). This aids in developing personal and professional skills by sourcing for jobs for all the unemployed but employable population of the society. Employment reduces the high risk of depression among the people who could have otherwise been at a stressful state without earning an income.

Reorienting Health Services

Finally, the reduction of mental disorders and the promotion of mental health well-being can be achieved through the reorientation of health care services. This is where matters revolving the mental health of individuals in the society at large are a shared responsibility between the members of the society, their respective communities, health care professionals, health care facilities, and the relevant government health agencies.

One effective approach towards reorienting health services is the inclusion of brief interventions in the provision of primary health care. This particularly crucial for pregnant women who need to be continuously educated on the need to steer clear of drugs, illegal substances, and alcohol. Doing so prevents impaired fetuses, premature deliveries, still births, and low birth weights; all of which are factors that bring about avoidable mental disorders. Another approach centers on interventions for new mothers who experience a depressing postpartum period after birth. There is a high correlation between adverse mental health in women and their poor socio-economical backgrounds (Jane-Llopis et al., 2005). Educative antenatal interventions have proven to be effective in tackling the postpartum depressive symptoms.

Mental disorders have been reported to be high among the elderly in our society due to their loss of hearing that leaves them depressed most of the time. The use of hearing aids to improve the quality of their lives has been noted to contribute significantly to their mental health well-being compared to the other old people who lack hearing aids. Reorienting health care provision also works by intervening early for the individuals who have been diagnosed as having mental health disorders. The promotion of mental health becomes a possibility by adopting a holistic approach towards mental health (World Health Organization, 2004). The mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being of the individuals are assessed before helping them to cope with men...