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Benefits of positive mental health have been demonstrated across work and non-work domains. Individuals reporting positive mental health experience better work performance, better social relationships and better physical health. Additionally, positive work environments can contribute to employee mental health. The purpose of this paper is to develop “expert” consensus regarding practical, actionable strategies that organisations can implement to promote positive mental health in the workplace.

A Delphi consensus method was used to establish expert consensus on strategies to promote positive workplace mental health. A 278-item questionnaire was developed and strategies were rated over three survey rounds by two panels comprising 36 workplace mental health practitioners and 36 employer representatives and employees (27 and 9, respectively), employees with experience of promoting positive mental health and well-being in the workplace (total – 72 panellists).

In total, 220/278 strategies were rated as essential or important by at least 80 per cent of both panels. Endorsed strategies covered the topics of: mental health and well-being strategy, work environment that promotes positive mental health, positive leadership styles, effective communication, designing jobs for positive mental health, recruitment and selection, supporting and developing employees, work-life balance, and positive mental health and well-being initiatives.

The guidelines arising from this study represent expert consensus on what is currently appropriate for promoting positive mental health at work from the perspectives of workplace mental health practitioners, employers and employees, and constitute a resource for translating the growing body of knowledge in this area into policy and practice.

The need to improve the mental health of construction personnel has increased owing to high rates of mental health problems. Hence, a proper evaluation of a mix of implementable intervention strategies in the workplace will assist in achieving good mental health. Although there are recommendations in occupational health literature on strategies that can be adopted, it is unknown how they fit appropriately into the construction industry. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the mix of strategies for the construction industry and their criticality.

Drawing from the context of developing countries with Nigeria as a case study, data was collected using the quantitative technique. A questionnaire survey consisting of 31 intervention strategies was administered to a purposive sample of 45 experts in the Nigerian construction industry. The data collected was analyzed using mean score analysis and fuzzy synthetic evaluation.

The study revealed that strategies focused on boosting employee morale and engagement and interpersonal relationship offer higher chances of improving mental health among construction personnel. The study showed that implementing job crafting and sculpting may benefit the industry. The analysis showed that the overall criticality of the intervention strategies to the Nigerian construction workplace is high, suggesting that if implemented, the mental health of construction personnel can be improved.

The study provides an initial understanding of the most critical multi-level intervention strategies to enhance good mental health among construction personnel in Nigeria and the global construction industry. These findings serve as a guide to policymakers and advocate the implementation of strategies to adopt for a psychologically healthy construction workplace in developing countries.

Construction tradesmen are exposed to high levels of stress that can worsen mental health, negatively impacting safety compliance and organization productivity. Hence, effectively coping with stress to prevent mental ill-health becomes an essential point of reference. Thus, this study aims to examine the role of factors such as resilience and coping strategies in protecting tradesmen against mental ill-health.

Using a cross-sectional survey design, 110 tradesmen from 65 construction companies were surveyed using the Patient Health Questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Brief Resilience Scale and Ways of Coping Questionnaire.

The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis. With a 74.5%, 36.4% and 14.6% prevalence rate of self-reported depression, anxiety and suicide ideation among the tradesmen, only positive reappraisal, accepting responsibility coping behaviors and resilience would mitigate the likelihood of developing mental ill-health symptoms.

This study has extended existing literature by providing information vital to building interventions to deal with stressors effectively. This information would benefit individuals, organizations and the economy and equip policymakers with a deeper knowledge base toward improving mental health.

The European Commission green paper Improving the Mental Health of the Population, published in October 2005, is essentially a public mental health strategy for the European Union. In this short article Jude Stansfield outlines the main elements of the strategy and discusses its relevance and implications both for the European Union as a whole and for policy and practice in England and the other individual member states. While the green paper is in many ways welcome in that it will raise the profile of public mental health at national and international government level, it has a number of flaws ‐ not least its primary focus on mental illness and mental illness services.

This article suggests some dilemmas in producing local mental health promotion strategies, as experienced by a mental health promotion specialist in England. It argues that, because of the misconceptions and misunderstandings associated with mental health and mental health promotion (MHP), some groundwork is needed to communicate a common and clear understanding. The author explains how she has communicated MHP among organisations in her locality. This includes exploring definitions of mental health and its relationship to mental illness, the rationale and effectiveness of promoting mental health and the use of a framework to plan or assess mental health promotion.

The European Commission adopted its green paper on mental health on 14 October 2005, taking forward the Mental Health Declaration and Action Plan for Europe endorsed by the 52 member states of the WHO European region at the WHO Ministerial Conference on Mental Health in Helsinki in January 2005. Monika Kosinska interviews Jürgen Scheftlein, project and policy officer at the European Commission Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection, who drafted the paper, about its implications for member states.

The Policy Watch series reflects on recent and forthcoming developments in mental health policy across the UK. This paper aims to review recent developments in mental health policy including the mental health implementation framework, draft Mandate to the NHS Commissioning Board, and proposals on shared decision making and integration of social and health care.

The paper reviews and summarizes recent developments in national mental health policy in England and their implications for mental health service provision.

The paper outlines several developments which contribute towards the realisation of the mental health strategy, No Health Without Mental Health.

The paper updates and discusses knowledge on recent and forthcoming mental health policy initiatives and cites recent evidence from Mind.

There are many barriers to effective mental health promotion with mothers living in socially disadvantaged communities. These include failure to take account of local cultural knowledge, community values and identities; feelings arising from experiences of poor health and disadvantage; mistrust of health professionals, and lack of engagement with services. Qualitative methodologies were used to explore maternal mental health and service delivery to people living in poor social conditions. Individual interviews and group discussions were undertaken with nine mothers living in a disadvantaged community. Further data were obtained from fieldwork contacts with seven health professionals working in the community. The research identified four discursive strategies used by participants when they and others encountered difficulties in relation to stigma, mental health and their daily lives as mothers within the community. These strategies were othering, counteracting, blaming, and resisting. The analysis offers a resource to community initiatives seeking to examine how mothers can deal most effectively with a lack of control and power in their lives.

Adolescence is an important life stage including physical, emotional and social changes that make adolescents vulnerable to mental health issues. To face these emotional and behavioral problems, adolescents may use various coping strategies. This exploratory qualitative study aimed to better understand the coping strategies when adolescents face mental health difficulties, the reasons why some adolescents find it difficult to seek social support and/or professional care and which interventions they would find efficient to improve adolescents' mental health.

The study included 28 participants aged between 12–19 years old. Four online focus groups (FGs) separated by gender and age were performed between March and April 2021, during the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland.

The results show that several strategies put forward by participants did not include talking about their problems with others. Reducing the stigma and taking the adolescents' mental health seriously would make it easier for adolescents to talk about their problems to other people. Overall, participants considered that doing leisure-time activities and going out with friends were the best way to reduce stressful situations and mental health problems. For all aspects of health, including the mental one, it is important that policies promote the access to sports and arts activities for all the adolescents.

This study explored adolescents' coping strategies and their opinions on intervention for dealing with potential mental health problems, an issue that is still taboo for some adolescents.