Improving mental well-being and resilience

We will help everybody realise their full potential and be better able to cope with the challenges that life throws at us.

Population approaches to improving mental well-being help individuals to realise their full potential, cope with the challenges that life throws at them, work productively and contribute to their family life and communities.

Good mental well-being impacts physical as well as mental ill health and has the potential to influence related inequalities in health. Recent studies on ACEs have shown the relationship between ACEs and their potential impact in adult life. They have also highlighted the factors that build resilience (reduce the impact of ACEs) for individuals and communities. Resilience is a key component of mental well-being.

By 2030 we want Wales to have:

a population that knows how to support their own and their families’ mental well-being

a society that supports everyone to be mentally healthy

citizens with greater resilience

a greater population level of mental well-being

This means:

building self-esteem, self confidence and the ability to understand and manage our emotions
reducing the impact of emotional trauma and toxic stress (mitigating ACEs)
building skills to create and maintain healthy relationships across the life course
connecting people in communities to increase a sense of belonging and support (including sport)

By 2030, we will:

be leading an ongoing national conversation on what is important to the public and what helps us to attain better mental well-being
be responding to the ever changing social and economic environment and working with our partners to stimulate collective action to improve outcomes
be actively monitoring the mental well-being of the population and are using this to influence policy, strategy and programmes
have supported partners in promoting mental well-being and resilience including reducing the impact of ACEs / trauma
have facilitated a trauma and resilience informed Wales – aiming to break generational cycles of poor mental and physical health outcomes

Our Priorities

With support from our staff, partners and the people of Wales, we have developed a long term strategy covering 2018-30. It brings together seven strategic priorities which are intrinsically linked and together help us achieve our purpose: Working to Achieve a Healthier Future for Wales.

This strategy will enable us to focus on how we can best work with our partners to have maximum impact in improving health and well being and reducing health inequalities in Wales.

Our seven priorities are: