ABSTRACT
The World Health Organisation [WHO (2004)] defi nes mental health as ‘a state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to her or his community’ and adds, ‘Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infi rmity’. Thus not having a recognised psychiatric disorder might be a necessary condition for mental health, but may not be suffi cient. WHO offers criteria for psychiatric disorders [ICD-10 (2010)] but highlights the need to also address mental well-being, which appears to be an operational approximation to ‘happiness’. Whether addressing mental well-being (MWB) will prevent the development of mental ‘disorders’ remains to be demonstrated, but there may be benefi ts in addressing MWB for its own sake. MWB is the ‘new kid on the block’ and there is little research on how it can be effectively targeted by comparison with the evaluations of treatments for psychiatric disorders.
