Towards Flourishing
Towards Flourishing is a program which promotes the mental well-being of parents and their families. The Towards Flourishing Mental Health Promotion Strategy focuses on positive mental health as well as mental illness and prevention activities. This project was developed for and embedded into Manitoba’s Families First Home Visiting Program. It is based on Corey Keyes’s dual continuum of mental health and identifies symptoms of wellness and positive mental health, not merely the presence or absence of a mental illness.
The goals of the Towards Flourishing mental health promotion program are to:
- Improve mental health and decrease mental illness/distress of parents and their families.
- Strengthen public health workforce capacity to address the mental health and well-being needs of families
- Build community capacity for mental health promotion
The program comprises mental health education for families offered through a curriculum of 4 discussion topics and nine everyday strategies.
- Simple everyday strategy for parents and families to promote positive mental health and well-being.
- Training for public health staff to enhance knowledge of mental health promotion and guide the introduction of mental health tools for families.
- Additional screening for new parents in the family’s first home visiting program involves screening of mental health and well-being measures.
- A plan is needed to improve families’ access to mental health services, resources, and support and to strengthen collaboration between public health and mental health systems.
- The role of the Mental Health Promotion Facilitator is to support the implementation of the Towards Flourishing strategy.
- A Cultural Lens – developed collaboratively with community leaders, experts and stakeholders to ensure cultural relevance and reflect the world view of all families in Manitoba with a specific mandate to incorporate the perspectives of Manitoba’s Aboriginal, Francophone, immigrant, and newcomer families.
For more information on Towards Flourishing please contact your local Public Health office or email [email protected].