Principles of public health

Public health is an art and science that has been successfully applied to physical health. It is a practice for which the principles are now well known. Public mental health is a new application to which many of the principles are directly transferable. However, the nature of mental health challenges some of these principles and means that they need to be applied with a degree of caution. New principles need to be developed to allow for consideration of complexity and the need for system change, as well as of positive states of health and enabling personal development.