Training Module on the Right to Mental Health for Faith-Based Organizations stresses of life, display resilience in the face of extreme life events, work productively, and make a positive contribution to the community. • Mental health is a critical component of an individual’s overall health. It affects an individual’s s thinking, learning, feelings, and actions. It connotes attaining developmental and emotional milestones while being able to healthily cope with challenging situations. Mental health is an integral part of human existence, as one’s mental state can positively or negatively affect an individual. It can affect one’s day-to-day activities, relationship with oneself and others, as well as one’s physical health. • An individual who has gained positive mental health has a positive quality of life, can function well, and work productively at home, in school, at work, and in their communities. Overall, having positive mental health connotes: o A sense of meaning and purpose o Satisfaction beyond material possession o A healthy sense of self-esteem and confidence o Building and maintaining satisfying relationships o Showing empathy and compassion o Setting achievable goals, working productively, and harnessing creativity o Healthy work-life-play balance o Ability to deal with stress, cope with problems, adapt to changes, and rise from adversity o Making healthy choices • Mental health could affect how one thinks, feels, and acts. An individual who experiences negative mental health is unable to cope in stressful situations, or feels overwhelmed by the things happening, might not be able to think clearly, may experience anxiety, sadness, or irritability, behave irrationally, or isolate oneself. This can affect a person’s ability to function and work productively and may cause distress. Activity 1.2 • Divide the group into three, ask the group to discuss among themselves - What constitutes the different aspects of the biopsychosocial-spiritual model of mental health? - How interrelated are these components? And how can one component of the biopsychosocial-spiritual model affect the others? - What is the importance of spirituality in mental health? • Ask one representative from the group to summarize what the group has discussed. 3