This year, the Royal College of General Practitioners, my professional body, published a report The General Practice: Health of the Nation 2017 which it commissioned last year to look at what GPs were concerned about for their patients. They surveyed more than 1,300 GPs. Mental health concerns were number one for the GPs surveyed.
I would like to encourage us to think about how to turn this situation around. My thoughts are to encourage what I call “mental fitness” or resilience in our society. Of course, we need to provide care and treatment to those who are suffering from poor mental health, but I think we should equally emphasise how to keep mentally fit and provide specific guidance to our community to promote and develop a sense of wellbeing. We talk about physical fitness and how it prevents physical disease but we don’t seem to be putting as much emphasis on prevention of mental illness.
As a general practitioner, I am interested in the whole person, their physical, mental and spiritual health. I try to engage patients in a conversation about health and wellbeing. Let me share with you a strategy that I use which was developed by Professor Martin Seligman. You might have read about him and his work. Professor Seligman is a recognised authority on interventions that prevent depression and build strengths and wellbeing. He developed the PERMA Model. This is based on the idea that individuals enjoy high levels of wellbeing if there is evidence of:
- Positivity (optimism, happiness and life-satisfaction)
- Engagement (creating more flow experiences)
- Relationships (authentic, meaningful, life-enhancing connections)
- Meaning (creating purpose, passion and fulfilment)
- Achievement (accomplishment, inspired action)
I therefore leave you with this challenge …
What are you doing today that is incorporating some or all of these aspects into your daily life? How are you encouraging someone in your life? Are you talking about this to your friends and family? How are you working towards maintaining good mental fitness?
