Mental Health Improvement Messages: Seminars 2008

Location: Across Scotland

Dates: Various During Feb - March 2008

NHS Health Scotland is holding a series of one day seminars to present the findings of recent research on the evidence base for key mental health improvement messages. This is an opportunity to look at the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence on what individuals can do to promote mental well-being and discuss the implications of these findings for practice. These seminars will be of interest to colleagues across all sectors.

The aim of the events is to:

• disseminate the research
• provide an opportunity for discussion and debate on the findings and their implications for practice
• ensure that research findings are informed by the knowledge and expertise of practitioners and other stakeholders.

The research will be presented by Lynne Friedli and Chris Oliver (two of the authors of the  report) and will include:

• a review of the literature on the effectiveness of mental health improvement messages, sometimes referred to as 'positive steps '
• qualitative research, including grey literature, on public attitudes to mental health messages
• an online survey and telephone interviews with BT employees
• lessons from social marketing and other approaches to mental health promotion campaigns
• feedback on 'positive steps messages' from consultation with colleagues in Scotland and the UK.

Presentations will be complemented by group discussions where delegates will be given an opportunity to:

• critically appraise the evidence
• feedback their experience of using the health improvement messages into the evidence base
• explore the barriers, facilitators, caveats and opportunities when using these health improvement messages in practice.

The feedback from the group discussions will be incorporated into a summary report about the evidence base on mental health improvement messages in order to help contextualise the research findings.