Mental Health

Being healthy means having a sense of physical, social and mental well-being. The latest forecasts of the World Health Organization (WHO) have underscored the significance of mental and emotional health, among other factors. According to these forecasts, mental and emotional illnesses are expected to join the ranks of cardiovascular disease and cancer as the world’s most common diseases. This trend is reflected in the situation in Austria: Experts estimate that about one-fourth of all Austrians seek professional assistance at least once in their life to help cope with psychological problems.

These examples show how vital it is to promote and maintain mental health. People who are attentive to maintaining their physical and emotional health are better armed to fight psychological diseases and the physical diseases arising from them. Health promotion and disease prevention can help to maintain what Sigmund Freud once called the essential factors for psychological well-being, namely a person’s ability to work, to enjoy and to love.
The core question for us from this discussion is this: What resources should a person have in order to enjoy and embrace life and what problem-solving and conflict-resolving abilities does he or she have to have to care for and maintain his or her own mental and emotional health?

Fonds Gesundes Österreich wants to provide answers to these questions and to promote the psychological health of as many people as possible. To this end, it initiates and promotes pertinent models as well as practical and research projects. Moreover, it does its part to lift the taboo on mental and emotional problems with its information and education activities.