The role of self-help strategies as prevention for mental health problems

Abstract

Mental health disorders are seen as a continuum in terms of severity, rather than as existence of distinct syndromes.These symptoms of mental health problems that fall short of diagnostic criteria are prevalent, causing significant societal functional impairment. These symptoms, termed “sub-threshold”, lead to substantial social and economic burden across the entire population. It has been demonstrated that these symptoms may be managed with self-help strategies. However, it has been unclear which self-help strategies are likely to be helpful and feasible for people who suffer from such sub-threshold symptoms. In this paper, after defining preventive intervention for mental health disability, the following topics for self-help strategies are reviewed from the limited number of studies: 1) target population, 2) the role of self-help strategies in the prevention of mental health problems, 3) contents of self-help strategies (usefulness and feasibility, interventions with the purpose of prevention and management), and 4) mental health promotion associated with self-help strategies (theoretical background, dissemination and awareness-raising).Finally, after identifying a list of effective self-help strategies, the utilization of self-help strategies for the prevention of mental health disability and a wide range of applications are discussed.