Glossary

Education resources

Education resources are used for acquiring knowledge and skills.

Training resources

Training resources are used to facilitate the learning process, such as through programs, workshops, or activities.

Mental health 

Mental health is the capacity of every individual to feel, think, and act in ways that enhance their ability to enjoy life and deal with challenges. It is a positive sense of emotional and spiritual well-being that respects the importance of culture, equity, social justice, interconnections, and personal dignity (Public Health Agency of Canada, n.d.).

Mental health literacy

Mental health literacy involves understanding how to obtain and maintain positive mental health, understanding mental disorders and their treatments, decreasing stigma related to mental disorders, and enhancing help-seeking efficacy (Kutcher et al., 2016; Whitley et al., 2013; Whitley & Gooderham, 2016).

Mental illness

Mental illnesses are characterized by alterations in thinking, mood, or behaviour associated with significant distress and impaired functioning. They result from complex interactions of biological, psychosocial, economic, and genetic factors. Mental illnesses affect individuals of any age; however, they often appear by adolescence or early adulthood. The many different types of mental illnesses range from single, short-lived episodes to chronic disorders (Public Health Agency of Canada, n.d.).

Resilience

Resilience is the ability to return to a normal emotional state after experiencing a difficult or stressful time (MentalHelp.net, n.d.). The concept of resilience must be considered within a cultural context. Seccombe (2002) argues for understanding resilience as a quality of the environment as much as the individual; cultural traditions and upbringing play an important role in individual resilience.

For example, “Resilience from an indigenous perspective is varied and diverse, just like the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada. Narratives of resilience are rooted in culturally distinctive concepts of the person, the importance of collective history, the richness of Aboriginal languages and traditions, and the importance of individual and collective agency and activism” (Hollinshead, 2019).

Well-being

Well-being is the experience of health, happiness, and prosperity. It includes having good mental health, high life satisfaction, a sense of meaning or purpose, and the ability to manage stress. More generally, well-being is just feeling well (Davis, 2019).

Wellness

Wellness goes beyond physical health to include an individual’s ability to identify and achieve goals, satisfy needs, and change or cope with the demands of their environment. Wellness encompasses many elements, including physical, intellectual, emotional, relational, vocational, cultural, spiritual, financial, and environmental. It is a dynamic concept that represents the conditions that allow humans to flourish (University of Waterloo, n.d.).