I found that the World Health Organization’s definition of mental health was missing an important piece! Can you guess what that is? It’s the spiritual piece. So, I decided to finess my own definition of mental health because, I believe you can’t have mental health without spiritual health.
Mental health is a state of wellbeing that involves the whole person— emotional, psychological, physical, social, and spiritual. It’s really a wholistic thing, meaning mental health considers the whole self— mind, body, spirit, everything integrated as one. Mental health is not just the absence of mental illness but the ability to cope with life’s day-to-day stressors and challenges, engage in meaningful activities and have healthy relationships. Well that’s a tall order! But, I would say, it’s pretty necessary!
Sources
American Psychiatric Association, 2023 https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/what-is-mental-illness#:~:text=Mental%20illnesses%20are%20health%20conditions,Mental%20illness%20is%20common
World Health Organization, 2022 https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mental-health-strengthening-our-response
Welleum, 2023. https://www.welleum.com/holistic-vs-wholistic-whats-the-diff/
2 responses to “What is Mental Health Really?”
Hi Michelle, excellent point! I would further add that mental health requires us to go beyond the “whole person” to the whole community and the whole world. I’m sure you’re familiar with the “One Health” approach of the World Health Organization, which acknowledges that the health and well-being of the individual human is connected to and interdependent upon the health and well-being of other humans, our non-human animal and plant relations, and the ecological integrity of our world.
At work, we are also learning about community-based approaches to governing and reporting health data to protect and empower communities, not just individuals. For example, if you think about current health privacy legislation, it is all about protecting the privacy of individuals. What the health care system is now moving toward, however, is protecting racialized and equity-deserving communities from systemic harm (for example, in reporting that a particular community has poorer health outcomes without first engaging with that community and also partnering to improve those outcomes).
This is an exciting new approach to physical and mental health as relational and interconnected! I look forward to your thoughts in this area in the future. 🙂
Absolutely! Mental health is relational and interconnected. It has a lot to do with our connections to others and the environment —Happy Earth Day by the way! For me, this relational part of mental health is unpacked under the “social” and “environmental” aspect of the definition. As a Black person, minority, person of colour, or whatever the slogan is these days, I can say that racism, ignorance, marginalization, and stigma are huge barriers to mental health. Working in partnership with people is always the way to go, or at least that is my philosophy. I have never been able to accomplish any vision, without community. Connection, value, and respect for individuals and the environment is a core part of spirituality for many people, especially youth! When equitable care, respect, and love go out the window, can we really say that we care about people and their mental health or spiritual health?