Improving community education strategies for mental health promotion.

Mental health promotion may be conceptualized as a process of communication comprising five basic elements: message content, message medium, target audience, goals, and providers of educational services (sender). This paper, based on a review of the mental health education literature, examines each element in terms of strategies and issues which should be considered in the development of effective mental health promotion campaigns. The s synergistic relationship among these elements and the need for evaluation are also discussed.