Presentation by Romina Boarini, Director of the WISE Centre at the OECD, during the launch of the report How to Make Societies Thrive? Coordinating Approaches to Promote Well-being and Mental Health, on 17 October 2023

1. How to Make Societies Thrive?
Coordinated approaches to promote mental health and well-being
Romina Boarini, Director
WISE – the OECD Centre on Well-Being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity
17 October 2023
Key Findings
CENTRE ON WELL-BEING, INCLUSION,
SUSTAINABILITY AND EQUAL
OPPORTUNITY (WISE)

2. © OECD |
Why look at mental health?
27%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
Share of people at risk of depression
2021 2020 2014
Source: OECD (2021), COVID-19 and Well-being: Life in the Pandemic, OECD
Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/1e1ecb53-en
In all countries with comparable
baseline data, the share of the
population at risk for depression rose
sharply in 2020
Coalition building across sectors is limited,
intersectoral task forces are given little authority,
lack of M&E, general resource constraints
Mental health plays a central role in
people’s lives
 Rise of mental distress across OECD countries
during COVID-19
 Impact of mental health conditions pre-dates
the pandemic
 Positive mental health as explicit policy target
We see renewed calls for (mental) health in
all policies approaches, but challenges
remain:

3. Applying a well-being lens to population mental health
BETTER DATA FOR PREVENTION & PROMOTION
How can we improve the quality and availability of
comparable data on population-wide mental health
status?
WELL-BEING & MENTAL HEALTH NEXUS
How do life experiences shape mental health? And,
conversely, how does mental health shape
outcomes in life?
INTEGRATED APPROACHES IN PRACTICE
What are lessons learned from innovative mental
health initiatives across OECD countries?

4. The OECD
Well-being
Framework
OECD (2020) How’s Life? 2020:
Measuring Well-being, OECD
Publishing, Paris
https://doi.org/10.1787/23089679
www.oecd.org/howslife

5. People with
mental
distress fare
worse in
every
dimension of
life
Poor life outcomes, measured through the OECD Well-being Framework

6. Examples of win-win policies
involving sectors beyond health
Increase access to social assistance programmes, while
decreasing the cognitive burden of enrolment
Social policy and service provision, financial departments responsible for debt
relief and targeted inflation support measures
Integrate mental health service provision into unemployment
services via Individual Placement and Support (IPS) programmes
Employment promotion, adult and continuing education, health
and care
Promote life-long learning
Education, sports and culture, employment

7. Examples of win-win policies
involving sectors beyond health
Expand social prescribing programmes
Urban planning, health care, social policy, housing, education, sports + culture
Reduce the unpaid work gender gap
Employment + labour, taxation, family + social policy
Highlight mental health costs of climate change and the benefits of
climate action in environmental accounting and CBA
Budgeting, health care, environment, urban planning, transport, housing, social
policy

8. How mental health
initiatives around the
OECD can …
Western Australia, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Norway: Act
Belong Commit (the ABCs of Mental health) Programme
Western Australia: Western Australian Mental Wellbeing Guide
Canada: Mental Health Promotion Innovation Fund &
Positive Mental Health Surveillance Indicator Framework
Finland: National Mental Health Strategy and Programme for
Suicide Prevention 2020-30
New Zealand: Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission
(Te Hiringa Mahara)
Norway: Programme for Public Health Work in Municipalities
Sweden: “It’s about life” Proposal for the new National Policy for
Mental Health and Suicide Prevention
Wales: Public Service Boards & North Wales Public Service Lab and
Insight Partnership
 REALIGN:
Whole of government approach
 REDESIGN:
Well-being determinants for
prevention and promotion
 REFOCUS:
Emphasis on positive mental health
 RECONNECT:
Building broad partnerships

9. Multidimensional frameworks can provide the mandate
for agencies to contribute to common goals
Implementation plans that address intersectoral
collaboration can support delivery
 Sufficient resources – both time and money – are needed
for success and relationship building
 New ways to align: independent oversight agencies;
strategic grantmaking for broader well-being work
at the local level
REALIGN
Whole-of-government approach, across sectors and levels of government

10. Designing and implementing policies that jointly
address mental health and other areas of well-
being – as showcased in policy examples
throughout the previous section
Creating new tools, such as mental health or
well-being impact assessments
REDESIGN
Social, economic, environmental and relational well-being determinants for mental health prevention
and promotion

11.  Publishing data on positive mental
health helps with agenda setting
 Strategies and funding are
increasingly explicit in targeting mental
health promotion
REFOCUS
Emphasis on positive mental health

12. Many strategies have a participatory
element but it needs to continue beyond
the planning stage
Knowledge brokering is essential to
share learnings
 The depth of partnerships matters for
impact
RECONNECT
Building broad partnerships across society

13. The Centre on Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity (WISE):
https://www.oecd.org/wise/
OECD work on mental health:
https://www.oecd.org/wise/well-being-and-mental-health.htm
https://www.oecd.org/els/mental-health.htm
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