Hope on the Horizon for Children, Youth and Families:Re-visioning mental health using

a public health approach

Sandra A. Spencer, Executive Director National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health

Atlanta GA – 11-20-08

Core Values

• Hope is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life

“Life is not so much a matter of holding good cards, as of playing a poor hand well”Robert Louis Stevenson

What Creates Hopelessness?

Hopelessness

Hopelessness occurs when adversities are perceived as:

• Permanent – Bad things always happen and this will never go away

• Pervasive – The bad things will spread into all areas of my life

• Personal – This only happens to me, it’s worse for me, why me?

Suffering

Suffering is half pain

and half being alone with the pain

Edwin Shneidman

What Happens?

• What happens when caregivers get weary and lose hope?

• What about other family members?

• What about siblings?

Re-visioning Mental Health

Family-Driven

Family-driven means families have a primary decision making role in the care of their own children as well as the policies and procedures governing care for all children in their community, state, tribe, territory and nation.

Family-Driven

This includes:

• Choosing culturally and linguistically competent supports, services, and providers

• Setting goals

Family-Driven

This includes:

• Designing, implementing and evaluating programs

• Monitoring outcomes

• Partnering in funding decisions.

Definition of Youth Guided

What is a Public Health Approach?

A Public Health Approach improves health by:

• Promoting positive health

• Preventing health threats

• Providing services for those in need

Our mission is to show the world "women can and do survive breast cancer", by promoting awareness, early detection and treatments, each and every minute of each and every day, all year long.  We believe that awareness is one of the keys to a cure and that early detection can be the answer to a cure.

We educate women every day, all year long on the importance of early detection, awareness and treatments in the fight against breast cancer.  We don't wait for women to come to us.  We go out into the communities and see women face to face and we talk and we listen and we promote awareness and we save lives.

A Public Health Approach to Children’s Mental Health

1. Promoting positive mental health for ALL of America’s children

2. Preventing the onset of severe mental illness by increasing protective factors and implementing early identification and intervention

3. Providing the best treatment options when a mental illness is present

World Health Organization

There is no Health Without Mental Health

• The essential dimension of mental

health is clear from the definition of

health in the WHO constitution:

"Health is a state of complete physical,

mental and social well-being and not

merely the absence of disease or

infirmity." Mental health is an integral

part of this definition.

There is no Health Without Mental Health

• The goals and traditions of public

health and health promotion can be

applied just as usefully in the field of

mental health as they have been in

the prevention of infectious or of

cardio-vascular diseases, for example.

Mental Health is More than the Absence of

Mental Disorders

• Mental health can be conceptualized as

a state of well-being in which the

individual realizes his or her own

abilities, can cope with the normal

stresses of life, can work productively

and fruitfully, and is able to make a

contribution to his or her community.

Mental Health is More than the Absence of

Mental Disorders

• Using this positive approach, mental

health is the foundation for well-being

and effective functioning for an

individual and for a community. This

core concept of mental health is

consistent with its wide and varied

interpretation across cultures.

Mental Health is More than the Absence of

Mental Disorders

• Mental health promotion covers a variety of strategies, all aimed at having a positive impact on mental health. Like all health promotion, mental health promotion involves actions that create living conditions and environments to support mental health and allow people to adopt and maintain healthy lifestyles. This includes a range of actions that increase the chances of more people experiencing better mental health.

Health, Mental Health for ALL Children