Mental health can be conceived of as having both positive and negative elements. Mental wellness is generally viewed as a positive attribute, so that a person can reach enhanced levels of mental health, even if they do not have any diagnosable mental illness. This definition of mental health highlights emotional wellbeing, the capacity to live a full and creative life and the flexibility to deal with life's inevitable challenges as being important.
A mental disorder or mental illness is a clinically significant psychological pattern that occurs in an individual and is usually associated with distress or disability that is not expected as part of normal development or culture.
The main emphasis in ProMenPol is on mental wellbeing and mental health promotion, rather than on mental illness. However, there is an imbalance in the statistics available on mental wellbeing and mental illness. Many statistics are available on mental illness, though there are difficulties in making transnational comparisons between them, while there are very few available at transnational level in relation to mental wellbeing.
This page points to some of the major statistical sources that are available and also to some projects and reports that have addressed mental health issues at European level that have a statistical basis, especially in the settings of interest to ProMenPol.
There are relatively few sources of comparative indicators of mental wellbeing. Perhaps the best are available from the European Quality of Life Survey, the European Community Household Panel survey (ECHP), and a number of ad hoc Eurobarometer modules. A useful summary of the data from these surveys is available at: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/areas/qualityoflife/eurlife