Many people use the term Mental Health without explaining if they are referring to Mental Ill Health or Good Mental Health which can be confusing for a reader. It is an important topic as poor psychological health can affect any one of us at any time. 

There is a great stigma attached to the phrase Mental Ill Health and many people wrongly associate people with poor mental health as being dangerous or unstable. In the UK we have come a long way to beating any stigma attached to the term mental ill health but the fear of, and stigmatisation of people still exists and I believe we need to do more.

Is it now time to start using another descriptor, and using the term "Psychological Illness"  or "Psychological Ill Health" which has much less of a stigma attached when discussing this topic?

I also believe we need people to start realising that poor physical health and poor psychological ill health are inextricably entwined, hence the Health and Social Care Act of 2012 states we must have parity in treating all forms of ill health. I believe without addressing "Health" in its fullness we will be no where near removing that stigma. 

Just wondered what peoples views are?

Edited by user 10 November 2021 11:56:47(UTC)  | Reason: clarity

A lot of companies seem to choose "mental well being" and "wellness" with respect to positive health of the mind, again separating this from health of the body.

This too is probably incorrect as the common mental disorders are never really a binary diagnosis (for example having or not having TB) and more of a spectrum where individuals are comfortable at different points - some with OCD will perpetually sort, clean & tidy others merely adjust a crooked picture.

Psychological unfortunately carries negative association in society of "Psycho" along with "shrinks" and "asylums" perpetuated by many a horror film and computer game since Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 classic.

Tim, to be honest I think the terminology is much less important than organisational approaches.

At present the vogue is for sticking plaster solutions - mental health first aiders, Employee Assistance Programs (I deliberately use the American spelling) and such like.

If it was any other work-related risk, we would apply the General Principles of Protection and look at the underlying causes such as poor management, rather than waiting for people's health to be damaged and then acting.

There are a number of reasons why this is far from standard in UK plc - one is the difficulty in sometimes determining whether the damaging stressors comes from work, outside or a mix - however, this does not mean that employers should not be assessing the work-related stress risks and acting to mitigate those, rather than patching people up later.

....and I am far from convinced that OSH practitioners trying to pretend that they are psychologists (except for the very few who are) is helpful.

I think Peter is right; psychological health implies that this is an issue that can only be dealt with by psychologists or other professionals rather than something that we all should be getting  involved with. And as Roundtuit has said it often gets  mixed up with mental wellbeing or mental resilience which sometimes comes across as implying an expectation that you should be able to maintain a happy smiley front at all times., having been given the right training.

The fire and rescue service experience employees with PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

There are some with PTSD who think it should be called Post Traumatic Steress Disease.

That would make it a more medical sounding illness.