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Promoting positive mental health is increasingly being encouraged as the focus of research and policies on the mental health of construction personnel. Most measures of mental health, however, typically use negative indicators such as depression and anxiety and are not specifically developed for the construction workforce, especially those with a Global South background. These limitations have made it challenging to measure construction personnel’s positive mental health. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to develop a scale for measuring the positive mental health of construction personnel with a Global South background.

Guided by Keyes’ two-continua model of mental health, the study objectives were addressed through a mixed-methods study using the case of Ghana. Qualitative data collected from eight key stakeholder groups using 16 interviews and two rounds of focus group discussions were analysed thematically. Quantitative data were obtained through a survey of 425 construction personnel and analysed using confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis.

Thematic analysis revealed a four-dimensional structure of positive mental health, namely, emotional, psychological, social and spiritual. Confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis of the results indicated good instrument validity and reliability.

Existing measures of positive mental health are based on a three-dimensional model, i.e. emotional, social and psychological well-being. By including spiritual well-being, this study proposes a four-dimensional measurement model as a more comprehensive and promising measure to use in surveys of positive mental health among the construction workforce, especially those with a Global South background, and to develop suitable interventions for them.

To position refugee mental health more effectively on the developing global health and humanitarian agendas requires effective communication in policy‐making processes. The capacity to answer three simple but demanding questions arguably determines the readiness of those working in this field to seek such influence. Reviewing current knowledge on the global context of refugee mental health with respect to the questions ‘What is the need?’, ‘What can we do about it?’ and ‘Will it work?’ suggests significant conceptual advance in this area over the last decade, and increasing consensus on broad intervention strategy. It remains important to document impact more effectively, however, if policy‐makers are to be persuaded to invest more resources in promoting mental health interventions with displaced and war‐affected populations.

This paper aims to assess the knowledge, perceptions and mental health impact of COVID-19 among students in Rwanda.

This paper is a cross-sectional online survey questionnaire.

The mean knowledge score among the 375 respondents was 75.14% (SD ± 19.1), with 195 (55.1%) of the respondents scoring below 80%. Students who believed that COVID-19 education was sufficient were more likely to have lower knowledge levels (OR = 1.84, 95% CI = 1.15; 2.94). While most respondents were aware of their vulnerability to the virus, they did not see themselves at risk of becoming infected. The percentage of respondents reported to have some form of mental health issues was 49.7%. The three most important factors in influencing mental health were age, history of mental health issues, and the way news was reported. Education quality was less affected for those who received online schooling (OR = 0.55, 95% CI = 0.33, 0.94).

Education about COVID-19 should be strengthened by capitalizing on existing online and offline learning platforms to frequently update new or changing information.

This paper was the first study assessing the knowledge, perception and mental health impact of COVID-19 among Rwanda students.

Extreme weather events are known to be detrimental to well-being, and there is a growing interest in anxiety connected to unfolding climate change. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the global association between information-seeking relating to climate change and mental health.

By using Big Data from Google searches and website traffic, evidence is presented that worldwide information-seeking for climate change and mental health-related terms are highly correlated. Regression analyses account for seasonal variation that is known to influence online searches for mental health terms.

There is an association between climate change and mental health-related information-seeking for the period of 2006–2020. This paper proposes causal models to account for the data, with future directions for how these could be tested.

This is the first paper according to the author’s knowledge to demonstrate a strong association between information-seeking for climate change and mental health and highlights the importance of considering mental health issues in the era of rapid climate change.

Mental health recovery across cultures lacks understanding and suitable measures. The Questionnaire about the Process of Recovery (QPR) is a self-report instrument measuring personal recovery outcomes for consumers of mental health services. However, the extent of its relevance among culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities is unclear. This pilot study aimed to examine the relevance and utility of the QPR among CALD consumers of primary mental health services in Australia.

Eleven individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with two general practitioners (GPs) and nine consumers from two clinics, at locations with high Iranian and Burmese refugee or asylum seeker populations. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using a thematic framework approach.

Although almost all consumers had little or no understanding of the concept of personal recovery, they found the QPR culturally acceptable and understandable. Using the QPR during mental health consultations can help with needs identification and goal setting. Challenges in using the QPR included completion time, cross-cultural differences in concepts and norms for some items, and need for careful translation. Consumers suggested additional items regarding family reputation, sexuality, and spirituality.

The QPR is potentially a valuable tool to support mental health consultations with CALD consumers, from the perspectives of both GPs and consumers.

The purpose of this systematic review is to assess if there is a relationship between literacy abilities and mental health outcomes as reported in global literature. Fourteen percent of the global population has little or no literacy. Literacy skills impact on daily functioning and have been shown to impact on social outcomes. Whilst there has been research examining the potential association between literacy and mental health outcomes in specific populations, there has been no systematic review of this literature to date.

A systematic review was carried out using Embase, PsycINFO and PubMed to identify relevant papers that measured both literacy and mental health. Data relating to the association between literacy and mental health were extracted. The papers included were assessed for quality using a bespoke quality rating tool. A narrative synthesis describes the findings.

Nineteen studies from across nine countries were included in the analysis. Seventeen studies showed a significant association between literacy and mental health, those with lower literacy had greater mental health difficulties. Some papers reported factors that interacted with this association, such as age, gender, poverty and years of education.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic review to look at the global picture of literacy and mental health. It suggests there is a relationship between literacy abilities and mental health outcomes, highlighting the importance of healthcare professionals and services including identification of literacy needs within routine mental health practice.

For over 100 years biomedical psychiatry has dominated the way people throughout the western world understand their sadness and distress, despite the lack of empirical evidence that distress has a biological basis. Now, the interests of the global pharmaceutical industry and trans‐national professional elites such as the World Health Organisation and the World Psychiatric Association are extending these biomedical accounts across the globe. This paper briefly describes biomedical psychiatry and its origins before considering how this project is closely aligned to the interests of the pharmaceutical industry. It ends with a call for a new agenda in mental health, driven by the concerns and interests of ordinary people in local communities, and an outline of recent developments in Britain and elsewhere that illustrate this challenge to the biomedical hegemony.

This study aims to describe the perceptions of some participants from a community mental health center in the Department of Chocó, Colombia.

A case study with a qualitative approach was carried out in 2023. Focus groups were conducted with mental health leaders and members of a community mental health center. The data were analyzed using a thematic analysis.

Two categories emerged: characterize the Community Mental Health Center of Chocó and Reaffirm human rights. In the first category, the community center is described as a place of recovery that mobilizes social services and works to increase agency capacity. In the second category, the human rights were assumed as part of community services, not only to eliminate coercive practices but also to support the increase of autonomy.

The limitations of this study are the analysis of strategies from the perspective of global politics, without delving into the structure of community actions themselves, which are not necessarily based on global recommendations.

Despite the design and development of public policies the study of their implementation still poses several challenges. The strategies carried out by regions that follow evidence-based practices and participation routes are not officially recognized as good practices in mental health and, therefore, independently supported to be sustained.

A community mental health center is described that manages to be implement and deliver a service despite not being able to be financed by current national regulations. This indicates, apart from a need, the capacity of the regions to build their solutions beyond regulations.

Since its initial development, numerous mental health literacy (MHL) definitions and associated measures have been created which have yet to be adequately evaluated. This paper aims to evaluate the psychometric properties of global MHL measures with the aim of identifying the most valid, reliable, responsive and interpretable measure.

A systematic review was conducted of studies that evaluated global MHL measures against at least one of the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) taxonomy properties; validity, reliability, responsivity or interpretability.

In total, 13 studies were identified which examined the psychometric properties of 7 MHL measures. Two of these seven measures were vignette format and the remaining five measures were questionnaires. The mental health promoting knowledge-10 and the multicomponent mental health literacy measure were the most psychometrically robust global MHL measures as they had the most psychometric properties rated as adequate. Both were shown to have adequate structural validity, internal consistency and construct validity. The two vignette measures, the MHL tool for the workplace and the vignette MHL measure, were both shown to only have adequate evidence for construct validity.

The current study is the first to systematically review research that evaluated the psychometric properties of global measures of MHL.

Current research on mental health in the construction industry is fragmented, making it difficult to obtain a complete picture of young construction workers’ mental health conditions. This situation adversely affects research progress, mental health-care planning and resource allocation. To address this challenge, the purpose of this paper was to identify the themes of mental health conditions among young construction workers and their prevalence by geographical location.

The scoping review was conducted using meta-aggregation, guided by the CoCoPop (condition [mental health], context [construction industry] and population [construction workers 35 years old and younger]) and PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews) frameworks.

A total of 327 studies were retrieved, and 14 studies published between 1993 and 2022 met the inclusion criteria. The authors identified 13 mental health conditions and categorized them under nine themes. Mood disorders, anxiety disorders and substance-related disorders constituted the most researched themes. Studies predominantly focused on young male workers in the Global North. The prevalence estimates reported in most of the studies were above the respective country’s prevalence.

This review extends previous studies by focusing specifically on the themes of mental health conditions and giving attention to young construction workers whose health needs remain a global priority. The study emphasizes the need to give research attention to lesser-studied aspects of mental health, such as positive mental health. The need to focus on female construction workers and on homogenous sub-groups of young workers is also emphasized. The findings can guide future systematic reviews on the identified thematic areas and help to plan the development of interventions.