Foreword

Good mental health is a vital part of people’s well-being. Successful and people-centred strategies to promote good population mental health need to acknowledge that the ability to thrive depends on the broader living conditions experienced by individuals, families and communities. This report applies a “well-being lens” to support the efforts of many of the cross-governmental mental health strategies currently underway in OECD countries. It systematically reviews how people’s economic, social, relational, civic and environmental experiences, underpinned by the OECD Well-being Framework, shape and are, in turn, shaped by their mental health; identifies examples of co-benefits, or policy interventions that can jointly improve both mental health and other well-being outcomes; and reviews selected mental health initiatives across OECD countries to highlight different elements of an effective policy ecosystem that supports collaboration across government and beyond. This publication is the second of two reports prepared as part of a special assessment of mental health and well-being in the context of the OECD’s broader work on well-being. The first report, Measuring Population Mental Health, provided recommendations to national statistical offices and other data producers on how to collect high-quality measures of population mental health, both for ill-health and positive mental health, in a more frequent, consistent and internationally harmonised manner.

The report was prepared by the OECD WISE Centre, under the direction of Romina Boarini. Lara Fleischer led the project and content editing under the supervision of Carrie Exton. The authoring team consisted of Lara Fleischer and Jessica Mahoney. Jessica Mahoney also led the statistical work for this publication, and Muriel Levy conducted analysis for the cross-lagged panel models shown in this report. Manuela Grabosch and Nikita Arora are gratefully acknowledged for the background research that informed various sections of this work, and Silvia Neumeister contributed significantly to an early draft of Chapter 2. Martine Zaïda, with the support of Maéva Labbe-Maalouf and Erin Bush, has provided essential communications support throughout the project. Anne-Lise Faron prepared and formatted the manuscript for publication. Patrick Hamm copy edited the work and Sonia Primot designed the front cover.

The report has benefitted from valuable comments provided by national delegates to the OECD Working Party on Social Policy and the OECD Health Committee. Their contributions and advice are very gratefully acknowledged.

We are also grateful to many colleagues in the OECD and externally for their help, comments, insights and data, and edits either on draft text, attending webinars or in relation to specific queries. They include, but are not limited to:

• Doron Wijker, Christopher Prinz, Emily Hewlett and Marion Devaux (OECD Employment, Labour and Social Affairs Directorate)

• The stakeholders interviewed for the case studies of mental health initiatives featured in this report:

  • Grant Akesson, Claire Hicks and Kendall O'Shea (Western Australia Mental Health Commission)

  • Bailey Cordrey, Shannon Bradley Dexter, Rosamund Dunkley, Emanuela Fedele, Natalie Gabora, Vicky Laramee, Heather Orpana, Leslie Payne, Kelly Salmond and Mélanie Varin (Public Health Agency of Canada); Shiona Glass-Kaastra (Health Canada)

  • Soile Ridanpää (Finland Ministry of Social Affairs and Health); Johanna Cresswell-Smith, Tapani Kauppinen and Tuulia Rotko (Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare), Taina Laaksoharju (MIELI Mental Health Finland)

  • Natalie Horspool, Tanya Maloney, Karen Osborn and Laura Ross (Te Hiringa Mahara, New Zealand Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission)

  • Nina Kolbjørnsen and Heidi Marie Nilsen (Norway Directorate of Health)

  • Sara Holsbrink and Lina Wilkander (Public Health Agency of Sweden)

  • Michael Cantwell (Flintshire and Wrexham Public Services Board, Wales); Nina Ruddle (Wrexham University)

  • Charlotte Meilstrup (Copenhagen University)

  • Monika Mohr (Faroese Health Authority)

  • Steinar Krokstad (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

• The members of the Informal Advisory Group supporting this workstream:

  • Adam Coutts (Weatherhead Centre for International Affairs, Harvard University Senior Research Fellow, Magdalene College, University of Cambridge)

  • Alexandra Lazaro, Cath Davies, Jess Rackham, Lily Makurah and Linda Bullivant (Department of Health and Social Care, United Kingdom)

  • Amelia Walters (Board Member, Victorian Collaborative Centre for Mental Health and Wellbeing)

  • Andrew Steptoe (Professor of Psychology and Epidemiology, Head of the Department of Behavioural Science and Health at University College London)

  • Angeline Ferdinand (Research Officer, Centre for Health Policy, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne)

  • Bernard Jacob (Federal Coordinator of the Belgian Mental Health Care Reforms, Belgian Federal Public Service - Public Health)

  • Caroline Cohrdes (Mental Health Unit, Robert Koch Institute)

  • Catherine Carty (UNESCO Chair project manager)

  • Claire Gibbons (Senior Program Officer, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation)

  • Daniel Hugh Chisholm (Programme Manager for Mental Health, World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe)

  • Elisabeth Ng Langdal (Executive Director, Mental Health and Human Rights Info)

  • Emma Lawrance and Jessica Newberry Le Vay (Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London)

  • Fredrik Lindencrona (Lead for Strategic Improvement, Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions)

  • Gregory Bratman (Assistant Professor, Director Environment and Well-Being Lab, University of Washington)

  • Harold Alan Pincus (Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Psychiatry, Co-Director, Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University)

  • Katie Hayes (Senior Policy Analyst, Health Canada)

  • Layla McCay (Director, Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health)

  • Lene Søvold (Clinical Psychologist, Mental Health Advisor & Researcher)

  • Luca Bernardi (Senior Lecturer Politics, University of Liverpool)

  • Margaret Walker and Peter Falkai (Executive Director and President, European Psychiatric Association)

  • Patricio V Márquez (Senior Associate, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, former World Bank Group Lead Public Health Specialist)

  • Richard Layard (Co-Director, Community Wellbeing Programme, Centre for Economic Performance, London School of Economics)

  • Ronni M. Greenwood (Social-Community Psychologist and Lecturer in the Psychology Department, University of Limerick)

  • Sarah Hinde (Acting Assistant Secretary of the Mental Health Data and Evidence Taskforce, Australian Government Department of Health)

  • Shekhar Saxena (Professor of the Practice of Global Mental Health at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health)

  • Ziggi Ivan Santini (Researcher, Danish National Institute of Public Health)

• Paul Allision, Jeroen Mulder, Alexander Saeri and Tomoya Okubo for their guidance on cross-lagged panel model methodologies

• Robert Donovan for additional comments on the ABC Programme

Support for this report was provided in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.