Positive Mental Well-Being
Also known as: WHO-5 framework · DepCare well-being
Framework that measures mental health by the presence of positive states rather than by the absence of symptoms. Developed at the WHO Regional Office for Europe (DepCare Project, 1998) and consolidated by Per Bech, it asks how much of a recent period was spent feeling cheerful, calm, energetic, rested and interested in daily life, and treats that proportion as the measurement itself. Two properties follow from that design. The window is short and explicit, so the reading is a current state that moves with circumstances rather than a trait. And because the scale never mentions a symptom, a low reading is not a symptom count: it is an absence of positive states, which is read as an indication that a fuller assessment may be worth doing, never as a diagnosis.
- Source:
- World Health Organization (2024). The World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5). Geneva: World Health Organization. WHO/UCN/MSD/MHE/2024.1. Topp, C. W., Ostergaard, S. D., Sondergaard, S., & Bech, P. (2015). The WHO-5 Well-Being Index: a systematic review of the literature. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 84(3), 167-176.
Constructs
Mental Well-Being
Positive mental well-being as the proportion of a recent period spent in five positive states: cheerful and in good spirits, calm and relaxed, active and vigorous, waking rested, and finding daily life filled with things that interest you (WHO, 2024; DepCare Project, 1998). It is defined by presence, not by the absence of symptoms, which is why a low reading is an absence of positive states rather than a symptom count. A current state that moves with circumstances, read against a published cutoff and never as a diagnosis.
Instruments
- The World Health Organization-Five Well-Being Index(WHO-5)World Health Organization; Bech, P. (original development)2024