Creating an Ounce of Prevention

January 31, 2008

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Editor's note: This is the first in a series of articles that look at the promise of taking a public health approach to mental health.

Strike a blow for common sense. At one time, preventive strategies in public health such as wellness and early intervention were treated with suspicion. But common sense embraced them.

Evidence gathered over the past two decades shows they can work wonders. Many relatively simple areas of behavior change lead to significant cost savings and improved public health:

Eliminate tobacco use
Use seat belts in cars
Exercise as little as 10 minutes daily
Blood pressure and cholesterol screenings

A recent report from the Washington State Board of Health on behalf of the Mental Health Transformation Project, Mental Health–A Public Health Approach: Developing a Prevention-Oriented Mental Health System in Washington State [ 771KB], extends the idea to mental health, arguing that the time has come to consider taking a public health approach to creating and implementing preventive strategies in mental health.

Preventive Approaches to Mental Health in Washington State

The pieces are in place for a preventive approach to mental health in Washington. The Prevention Advisory Group (PAG), convened by the Mental Health Transformation Project (MHTP), has spent the past year and a half examining the detailed connections between public health promotion and mental illness prevention.

As a result, a working definition of prevention has been formulated: "Creating a system that promotes mental health, intervenes early to address emerging mental health problems, and reduces the devastating impact of mental illness."

In addition, 14 themes have been identified that are common across stages of development, from infants to the elderly. The themes are identified and discussed in the report as policies and practices to consider in developing a mental illness prevention system that works for everyone.

Raising the Profile of Mental Health Wellness: What's Next?

The report is intended to spark a dialog about how to advance a preventive approach in Washington State focused on mental health. Just as "wellness" was once a strange concept next to the more familiar "disease," the report hopes to help spur people toward thinking in terms of "mental health" rather than "mental illness."

"I don't like reports to be shelf art," Craig McLaughlin of the State Board of Health said in his presentation of the report at the Transformation Work Group meeting on January 4, 2008. "This is an effort to actively reach out to the community and create a system, one that gets groups and organizations that already exist more involved with one another in long-term, sustainable ways to create better mental health in Washington State."

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