Why is mental well-being important?
Poor mental well-being can lead to problems like depression and anxiety. • One in four of us will experience mental ill health this year • Mental health problems take up a third of GPs’ time and cost the UK £77 billion a year • Unhappy people are 1.5 times more likely to have heart disease If we improve mental well-being we can help to prevent ill health, reduce inequalities, lower the impact on health services and save money. Developing the mental well-being improvement strategy Mental well-being is a new priority action area for health improvement. In his Annual Report 11 (2008) the Director of Public Health requested a strategy to improve mental well-being in Oxfordshire be developed, and the Health and Well-Being Partnership has since made mental well-being a strategic priority. The strategy Improving Mental Well-Being in Oxfordshire 2009-2012 was developed following a thorough mental well-being needs assessment. This included a survey ‘What Makes you Feel Good?’, which was complet
