Interventions in everyday life to improve mental health and reduce symptoms of psychiatric disorders.

Abstract

The high prevalence rates of mental disorders worldwide and the paucity of services constitute a mental health crisis. The vast majority of people in low-, middle-, and high-income countries do not receive any intervention for their symptoms of mental disorders, despite enormous advances in developing evidence-based psychosocial treatments and medications. The article proposes greater utilization of interventions in everyday life as an addition to the more traditional and commonly used mental-health interventions. The article delineates criteria to help identify what such interventions ought to include to permit accessibility, scalability, and reach to special populations. Physical activity, contact with nature, and yoga are examples to illustrate the class of everyday interventions that have evidence attesting to their impact on mental health and symptoms of psychopathology. The challenge is to integrate such interventions in mental health practices to better promote these at the population level and to monitor the impact. Many components of what is needed are in place but are not coordinated in an effective way to have widespread impact on mental health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).