Priorities of positive mental health promotion in the Iranian community: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Positive Mental Health (PMH) enables people to cope with the common stresses of life and adversity to achieve their full potential and humanity. In many communities, promoting PMH via prioritized interventions has been considered as a key component of public health policies to optimize mental well-being. OBJECTIVE: To set the priorities of interventional programs of Iranian PMH promotion according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Priority Public Health Condition (PPHC) analytical framework. METHODS: This qualitative study was implemented in 2017 in Tehran, Iran and had two main phases. In a qualitative needs-assessment phase, needs of the community’s PMH were collected through eight focus group discussions with a general population aged 30 to 60 years-old. In a priority-setting phase, the priorities of PMH were extracted through an expert panel consisting of mental health professionals and policy makers. Data gathering was implemented based on purposeful sampling according to inclusion criteria. Data were analyzed based on directional content analysis using Dedoose software version 7.6.6. RESULTS: Fifty-one people and ten mental health professionals and policymakers participated in this study. The process of data analyzing, categorized PMH needs in 4 main categories, 15 subcategories and 46 codes. The four categories were financial security, social security, healthy lifestyle and promoting psychological factors. In the expert panel, first, the indicators of PMH priority setting were determined and then based on the priority public health condition analytical framework of the World Health Organization, the most important of PMH priority in each level was indicated as “creating job positions” in socioeconomic level, “providing proper working conditions” in differential exposure, “promoting practical life skills training” in the differential vulnerability, “easy and affordable access to mental health services” in differential healthcare outcome. CONCLUSION: Appropriate policymaking and regulation at national level regarding employment, promoting working conditions, and reducing unemployment, promote community PMH as well as expanding accessible and affordable mental health services in the national healthcare system and empowering the community through providing practical life skill courses.