New report released by Global Wellness Industry Research Institute (GWI)
of Wellness Policy Toolkit: Mental Wellness The report is designed to be a comprehensive guide to improving mental health globally through targeted policies.
The 85-page toolkit highlights the economic and social burden of poor mental health and offers strategies to improve mental health.
The toolkit is designed to show communities, businesses and public policy makers why and how to use targeted policies to promote mental health.
The Global Wellness Institute (GWI) has released a new report highlighting the important role of mental wellness in supporting overall mental health.
The new report, written by GWI researchers Ophelia Yang, Katherine Johnston and Tonia Callender, Wellness Policy Toolkit: Mental Wellnessoffers a detailed roadmap for improving mental health globally.
The toolkit is designed to show communities, businesses and public policy makers why and how to use targeted policies to promote mental health.
The 85-page toolkit aims to highlight the widespread impact and economic burden of poor mental health, exacerbated by increases in depression, anxiety and loneliness. These issues are exacerbated by the pandemic, global conflict and climate change, straining communities’ health and social resources to their limits.
The report promotes mental health as a separate and complementary policy area to traditional mental health approaches, and outlines a range of actionable and comprehensive strategies, including social prescribing, engagement in arts and culture, access to nature and redesigning the built environment to promote mental health.
Lead author Callender said: “Supporting mental health doesn’t have to mean spending a lot of money or going on expensive trips. This toolkit will help everyone, from new policy makers to experienced policy makers, understand why focusing on mental health is so important.”
“This report is the first to outline the many strategies we can choose to improve our resilience and health, and demonstrates how new mental wellness approaches could be the missing weapon in the fight against soaring levels of loneliness, anxiety and depression.”
At the core of the toolkit are five key policy objectives, each linked to practical actions to improve mental health: These sections not only define the problem at hand, but also offer a range of policy solutions, global examples and concrete activities that can be implemented.
This new publication joins GWI’s ongoing Wellness Policy Series, which already includes publications dedicated to physical activity and wellness in tourism.
Download your free report here.
Mental health and mental wellbeing
The report makes clear the difference between mental health and mental health.
“We define mental health as the inner resources that help you think, feel, connect, and function,” Yen says. “It’s an active process that helps you build resilience, grow, and thrive.”
“I use the words resource and process here because I want to convey that mental health is dynamic. It is a reservoir that is depleted and replenished, so how we interact with it has a profound effect on our mental health.”
“Mental health is not just about whether you feel stressed or sad or lonely or fulfilled. It is a complex interplay of cognitive, social, emotional and psychological aspects.”
The GWI team first coined the term mental wellness in 2020 and now values the mental wellness economy at US$181 billion, with the sector predicted to reach US$330 billion by 2027.
The GWI divides sectors into four categories.
• Personal Development (US$38.3 billion)
• Meditation and mindfulness US$4.3 billion.
• Brain enhancement, nutritional supplements and botanicals (US$60.7 billion).
• Senses, space and sleep (US$77.3 billion).
“Mental wellness is one of the fastest growing sectors of the wellness economy, and it’s also one of the few sectors of the wellness economy that has maintained an upward trend and experienced strong growth throughout the pandemic,” Johnston said.
