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Moving Social Policy from Mental Illness to Public Wellbeing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2021

MATTHEW FISHER Open the ORCID record for MATTHEW FISHER [Opens in a new window]
MATTHEW FISHER*
Affiliation:
Southgate Institute for Health, Society & Equity, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, Australia email: matt.fisher@flinders.edu.au
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Abstract

In the face of global epidemics of mental ill-health, the future of social policy lies with promotion of public wellbeing. This article aims to provide an explanatory rationale and methods for a fundamental shift in social policy; away from a remedial focus on mental ill-health defined in terms of disease or aberrant behaviour and toward a focus on universal access to social conditions favourable to psychological wellbeing. The paper begins with prefacing argument about the urgent need for such a shift, noting the high rates of mental ill-health globally and the failure of current biomedical responses to reduce these. Building on recent theoretical work on public wellbeing and evidence on social determinants of mental health, the paper then proposes nine domains for social policy and broader public policy action, to create conditions supportive of wellbeing abilities. Finally, the paper presents several conceptual issues relating to the challenge of putting such action into practice and concludes that contemporary understanding of wellbeing offers a theory of change to shift social policy from mental illness to public wellbeing.

Keywords

wellbeingmental healthsocial determinants of healthhealth promotiontheory of change
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , July 2022 , pp. 567 - 581
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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