Public Health and Ecological Approaches: The Example of eHealth for Adolescent Mental Health Support

In this chapter, the authors aim to focus on ecological, public health promotion activities and approaches and to introduce readers to promoting adolescent mental health in daily life, using Information Technology or E-Health mediums. First, the authors describe the most common mental health problems reported among adolescents. Second, the authors take a more detailed look at the promotion of mental health in this age group and highlight matters such as: (1) relevant recently policy documents, (2) the case for evidence-based, psychosocial early interventions, and (3) the key argument that serious mental health problems in adult life might be off set, prevented and/or their impact minimised by enacting mental health promotion activities for adolescents. Thirdly, the authors explore how E-Health promotion has the potential to be seen as an alternative to conventional programmes in mental health care and is seen as having significant potential given how the data tend to show how frequently and commonly 16- to 24-year-olds use the internet. The chapter concludes by discussing a variety of venues and ‘platforms’, schools for instance, where there is already an emerging body of evidence that highlights the efficacy of such programmes and interventions.