Improving mental health and wellbeing in Scotland: A model policy approach

Abstract

This article reports on the development and implementation of a mental health policy framework in place in Scotland, namely the National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing. This programme has drawn on worldwide innovations in mental health improvement and represents an holistic mental health promotion policy. The National Programme for Improving Mental Health and Wellbeing is central to the Scottish government’s overall policy aimed at reducing the high levels of mental ill-health encountered by the Scottish population. This article articulates five factors which have created the environment that has allowed this to occur. These are an environment of bureaucratic reformation, a context of significant public scrutiny of high levels of mental ill-health as reflected in the Scottish suicide rate, the creation of a supportive political, policy and legislative framework, the cementing of national initiatives within local services, and the creation of regulatory indicators and a shared understanding of positive mental health. This discussion of the National Programme is offered as a model policy programme in order to provoke debate about what a successful public mental health policy might look like.

Keywords:

• population health approach
• policy development
• mental health policy
• wellbeing