Between 10 and 20% of adolescents worldwide experience a mental health problem within a given 12-month period. Mental health problems impact on an adolescent’s potential to live a fulfilling and productive life and lead to challenges such as stigma, isolation and discrimination. 

Adolescent Mental Health

There is a need for global emphasis on more comprehensive mental health promotion and intervention in schools. The SMHILE (School Mental Health International Leadership Exchange) identified 5 critical themes for nations to advance SMH (=school mental health). Doing so, we can accomplish cross-nation collaboration among research and policy leaders from diverse countries and share experiences/lessons to improve SMH.


Comprehensive Mental Health Promotion & Intervention in School

The long-term physical, mental, emotional, and psychological effects of racism.

Weathering

Defines strategies that typically involve health-oriented public policies, an improvement in community action, significant positive changes in regards to creating healthy environments, development of essential personal skills, and the redistribution and improvement of health-related services.

Mental Health Promotion Strategies 

Generally speaking, anxiety is a reaction by the body that ensues negative internal experiences such as negative thoughts or feelings. Physical changes may also follow, such as an increase in blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, trembling, and so on.

Anxiety

Assessments, treatments, and counseling resources offered in private, public, outpatient and inpatient facilities that focus on serving individuals experiencing mental health crises and issues. 

Mental Health Services

NIMH. (2022). Anxiety Disorders. National Institute of Mental Health. Retrieved March 12, 2022, from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders 

Panic Disorder Reference

NIMH. (2022). NIMH. National Institute of Mental Health. Retrieved April 6, 2022, from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/ 

NIMH

Dementia is characterized by memory loss and impairment of mental functioning that. Depression, paranoia, anxiety, confusion, and wandering are symptoms of the illness.

Dementia

It is a mental disorder that affects a person's brain and behavior, leading to their inability to control their use of substances such as legal or illegal drugs, alcohol, or medication. Symptoms can range from moderate to severe, with addiction being the most powerful form of SUDs.

Substance Use Disorder

Gender is a determinant of mental health. Different factors different genders face impacting their mental health and lives, social position, status, and treatment in society. Gender differences also occur in the rates of common mental disorders.

Gender and Mental Health

Emotion regulation is the process by which individuals manage their emotional responses to various situations and experiences. This involves altering their emotional experiences and how they are expressed.

Emotional Regulation

While wellbeing does not have a clear and universal definition, people believe that it can be conceptualized in a few ways:

- Positive Construct
- Subjective Construct
- Multi-dimensional Construct

Wellbeing

Shim, R. S., Compton, M. T., Rust, G., Druss, B. G., & Kaslow, N. J. (2009). Race-Ethnicity as a Predictor of Attitudes Toward Mental Health Treatment Seeking. Psychiatric Services, 60(10), 1336–1341. https://ps.psychiatryonline.org/doi/pdf/10.1176/ps.2009.60.10.1336 

Reference for Predictors in Mental Health Seeking Behaviors

 Societal or internal criticism that shames the desire for professional mental health support and can lead to negative changes in help seeking behaviors.

Mental Health Stigma

Conner, K. O., Copeland, V. C., Grote, N. K., Koeske, G., Rosen, D., Reynolds, C. F., 3rd, & Brown, C. (2010). Mental health treatment seeking among older adults with depression: the impact of stigma and race. The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, 18(6), 531–543. https://doi.org/10.1097/JGP.0b013e3181cc0366

Reference for Predictors in Mental Health Seeking Behaviors(Age)

Insomnia, the most prevalent sleep disorder, is characterized by a persistent difficulty in initiating or maintaining sleep. Individuals with this condition often experience significant delays before falling asleep and may wake up frequently during the night, struggling to resume sleep. According to diagnostic criteria, these sleep disturbances must occur at least three nights a week for a minimum of one month.

Insomnia

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), published by the American Psychiatric Association in 2013, is the primary classification system used by most mental health professionals in the United States to diagnose psychological disorders.

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5)

A subcategory of overall health relating to one's emotional well-being by one's ability to successfully overcome everyday stressors, to realize one's inner potential, and to work in a manner that gives back to the self and to their community.

Arizona State University

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Santa Clara University

Syracuse University

Positive psychology is a field of research that was formally established in 1998 when Martin Seligman, then president of the American Psychological Association, called for a new focus on building human strength and psychological well-being. Often described as the 'science of happiness,' this area of study seeks to identify and promote the qualities that contribute to a more fulfilled life. It represents a significant shift from traditional psychology's emphasis on pathology, faults, and problems, instead concentrating on people's strengths and the factors that enable individuals to lead happy and contented lives.

Positive Psychology

The 6 Primary types of health include
-	Emotional Health
-	Environmental Health
-	Mental Health
-	Physical Health
-	Social Health
-	Spiritual Health


Primary Types of Health

VandenBos, G. R. (Ed.). (2007). APA Dictionary of Psychology. American Psychological Association.

APA Dictionary of Psychology

Wikipedia

- Expressing kindness
- Gratitude
- Humility
- Awe
- Mindfulness
- Optimism
- Telemedicine / Telehealth 

Interventions Used in Positive Psychology

Positive psychology practices can be implemented beneficially in a number of spaces, such as worksites, schools, and healthcare settings.  It focuses on positive emotions and strengths rather than mentally ill health and its consequences, which can mitigate some of the stigma surrounding mental health.

Utility of Positive Psychology in Promoting Public Mental Health

Health promotion is defined by the increase in control an individual has over their health and also in the ways in which an individual can improve their health. 

Health Promotion 

  - Redirecting focus from Pathology and disorder to positive feelings 
  - Shed light on the ways in which an individual can function optimally 
  - Remove stigma surrounding health (ex. Health isn't exclusively about 
     the absence of illness) 

Major Goals of Positive Psychology on Health 

 - Positive Psychology is promoting the undermining of mainstream psychology
 - Positive Psychology is reinforcing negative views on pathology and mental illness studies
 - Adaptation
 - Goals 
 - Temperament 
 - Heritability
 - Forecasting 
 - Recall biases 
 - accuracy of measurements relating to well-being
 - influence on well-being

Criticisms of Positive Psychology

Mental Health

Flow is a state of deep engagement and absorption in an activity, making the experience intrinsically rewarding. The term itself originated from individuals' spontaneous descriptions of this feeling when an activity was going well. This state is not limited to creative or leisure pursuits but can also be found in work or academic study—essentially any activity that is sufficiently engrossing.

"Flow" in Positive Psychology

 What promotes excellence in performance? A researcher studying how sports psychology and positive psychology intersect brought forth this pictural in attempt to answer that question.

 Promoting excellence in performance

Positive affect refers to the experience of pleasurable engagement with one's environment, encompassing feelings like happiness, joy, enthusiasm, alertness, and excitement. This feeling state can manifest in various ways, being brief and momentary, long-lasting, or even a stable, trait-like characteristic of an individual's personality.

Positive Affect

Benefit finding is the process of deriving positive growth from adversity.

Benefit finding

Happiness is conceptualized as an enduring state of mind, often called subjective well-being, that goes beyond temporary positive moods. It encompasses two key aspects: experiencing pleasure and positive emotions in daily life, and a deeper sense of fulfillment derived from using one's skills and talents to enrich both their own life and the lives of others.

Happiness

Positive peace psychology is an emerging subfield that extends the core principles of positive psychology to a global scale. It focuses on applying these principles to address widespread conflict, hatred, and distrust. The ultimate goal of this field is to understand how to overcome oppression and promote well-being and peace within the international community.

Positive Peace Psychology

Positive psychology investigates a range of subjects aimed at understanding and fostering human flourishing. Key areas of study include prosocial behaviors and virtues like altruism, empathy, kindness, forgiveness, compassion, and mindfulness. The field also explores creativity, the role of positive emotions, savoring life's moments, and the connection between psychological states and physical health, such as enhanced immune system functioning.

Topics in Positive Psychology

Located at the University of Wisconsin–Madison's Waisman Center, the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds is an organization established in 2008 and led by neuroscientist Dr. Richard J. Davidson. It is dedicated to conducting rigorous scientific research on positive mental qualities like kindness and compassion. The ultimate goal of this research is to develop mental health training approaches that help people live happier and healthier lives.

Center for Investigating Healthy Minds

Research on psychological well-being in recent years has focused on the factors that constitute optimal levels of human flourishing and their relationship to physical health, work performance, social relationships, and a range of other outcomes. Mechanisms of self-regulation such as psychotherapy, positive psychology interventions, and contemplative practices have been studied in relation to changes in well-being.

Psychological Well-being

Optimism is the inclination to maintain a positive outlook and expect favorable outcomes. It is often conceptualized as a generalized tendency for one to believe that good things will happen. Another perspective defines optimism as the tendency to view life's difficulties and stressors as temporary and external to oneself.

Optimism

Positive psychology is a field of scientific inquiry that seeks to understand the elements contributing to a better life for everyone. Its goal is to identify the foundations of hope, optimism, happiness, healthy relationships, flow, and authentic personal fulfillment.

The Promise of Positive Psychology

Based on the case study below, contrast the likely primary focus of a psychologist emphasizing the study of pathology and dysfunction with that of a psychologist specializing in building human strength and well-being. What would each professional prioritize in their sessions with the client?

Contrasting Psychological Approaches

A field that explores, assesses and seeks to control the harmful effects people have on their environment and inversely, the harmful impact the environment has on people. Addresses environmental issues (biodiversity, climate change) and health issues (vector-borne diseases and heat- and flood-related deaths). 

Environmental Health

Emotional Health encapsulates all feelings regarding all aspects related to oneself and their life. Regulation and management of these feelings and the subsequent emotions produced is central to the maintenance of emotional health.

Emotional Health

Physical Health includes the management of the state and functioning of the physical body in an effort to promote wellness and comfortability in the ways one lives their life.  

Physical Health

Social Health considers the types and strengths of interpersonal relationships that one develops. It also includes one’s ability to create and establish those relationships and the subsequent adaptability to exist comfortably in the social sphere.

Social Health

Spiritual Health refers to the ability for one to develop a sense of inner peace and connection to their place and existence in nature and the greater world. It includes the collection of one’s beliefs as it relates to morality, values, and ethics therefore helping one to define a purpose and navigate throughout life and its challenges. 

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