Promoting Emotional Well-being and Resilience
Young people with weaker mental health are particularly at risk because they are an easy target for manipulation. Fake news in society often creates a feeling of confusion, panic, but also dissatisfaction with the state of society.
Recognizing that mental health is an essential part of overall health is the first step to supporting mental health of youth and the population in general. Effective promotion and prevention is important to enhance mental well-being and resilience, prevent the onset and burden of mental health conditions and drive down the need for mental health care.
How to build individual capital for mental health:
Implement strategies that focus on strengthening emotional and cognitive skills, knowledge, capabilities and attitudes.
Learning programmes that promote competence to live, learn and work effectively, resilience to manage and adapt to life stressors and empowerment to have confidence, choice and control in one’s life.
Development of skills for communication, critical thinking, decision making, problem solving, self awareness and behaviours in the field of self-acre.
Build the capacity to deal with stress and adversity while also having a sense of hope, identitiy and purpose.
Protective factors for indvidual attributes affecting mental health can be developing a healthy self-eseem and confidence, building on the ability to solve problems and manage stress and adversity. Continuing on that working on one’s communication skills alongside physical health and fitness. It is essential to develop attributes such as self-control, resilience and confidence so that individuals are equiped to deal with the adversities they will face as they grow older (WHO, 2012).
Engaging and empowering people with lived experience through valuing their insight and giving them voice, choice and influence is a vital step towards transforming mental health. Empowerment gives people with lived experience better understanding and control over their lives (WHO, 2010).
There are varying degrees of participation, from being consulted to joint decision-making; and from being involved in service-delivery to user-led services. Empowering people to have control over their life and mental health care instils personal dignity, value and respect. It can increase self-esteem and confidence. It also gives people a level of choice and autonomy they may not have received otherwise (WHO, 2022b).
Approaches based on social contact with people with mental health conditions are particularly effective. People with lived experience, including in peer-led organizations, can be important agents of change. They can increase awareness and acceptance among the general public and so build health literacy in mental health (WHO, 2022b).
Mentioned strategies that engage people with lived experience are the evidence-based way of reducing stigma in the community. Peer-led networks and organizations have a key role in enabling people with lived experience to engage with their care. Networks can be a vital source of mutual support for mental health service users. The Comprehensive mental health action plan 2013–2030 calls for action that helps organizations of persons with mental health conditions to participate in reorganizing, delivering, and evaluating and monitoring services. (WHO, 2022b).