Stretton Health Equity, Stretton Institute, School of Social Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.
Health Promot J Austr. 2023 Jul;34(3):644-650. doi: 10.1002/hpja.754. Epub 2023 Jun 7.
Several national governments are showing interest in policies to promote wellbeing. One common strategy is to devise systems to measure indictors of wellbeing, presuming that governments act on what they measure. This article will argue instead that formation of multisectoral policies to promote psychological wellbeing requires a different kind of theoretical and evidentiary basis.
The article integrates ideas from literature on wellbeing, health in all policies, political science, mental health promotion, and social determinants of health to make a case for place-based policy as the central feature of multi-sectoral policy for psychological wellbeing.
I argue that the required theoretical foundation for policy action on psychological wellbeing lies with understanding certain basic functions of human social psychology including the role of stress arousal. I then draw on policy theory to propose three steps to translate this theoretical understanding of psychological wellbeing into practicable, multi-sectoral policies. Step one is concerned with adopting a thoroughly revised conception of psychological wellbeing as a policy problem. Step two involves uptake of a theory of change in policy, grounded on recognition of essential social conditions required to promote psychological wellbeing. Proceeding from these, I will argue that a necessary (but not sufficient) third step is to implement place-based strategies involving government-community partnerships, to generate essential conditions for psychological wellbeing on a universal basis. Finally, I examine implications of the proposed approach for current theory and practice in mental health promotion policy.
Place-based policy is foundational for effective multi-sectoral policy to promote psychological wellbeing. SO WHAT?: Governments aiming to promote psychological wellbeing should position place-based policy at the centre of their strategies.
一些国家政府对促进福祉的政策表现出了兴趣。一个常见的策略是设计衡量福祉指标的系统，假设政府会根据所衡量的内容采取行动。本文则认为，制定促进心理福祉的多部门政策需要一种不同的理论和证据基础。
本文综合了福祉、全健康政策、政治学、心理健康促进和健康社会决定因素等领域的文献观点，提出基于场所的政策是促进心理福祉的多部门政策的核心特征。
我认为，关于心理福祉的政策行动所需的理论基础在于理解人类社会心理学的某些基本功能，包括压力唤醒的作用。然后，我借鉴政策理论，提出了将这种对心理福祉的理论理解转化为可行的多部门政策的三个步骤。第一步是采用一种经过彻底修订的心理福祉政策问题概念。第二步涉及到政策变革理论的采纳，该理论基于对促进心理福祉所需的基本社会条件的认识。在此基础上，我将论证，必要的（但不是充分的）第三步是实施基于场所的战略，包括政府与社区的伙伴关系，以普遍创造促进心理福祉的基本条件。最后，我探讨了所提出的方法对当前心理健康促进政策的理论和实践的影响。
基于场所的政策是促进心理福祉的有效多部门政策的基础。那么，这对政府有何启示呢？旨在促进心理福祉的政府应将基于场所的政策置于其策略的核心位置。
