Well-being: a great place to be!

Working in mental health you certainly don't take mood, mental state and that nebulous notion of well-being for granted.

Depression is a terrible thing and given the thin red line that we all walk in terms of mental health, it's a place no one wants to venture.

There's a lot of emphasis being placed on well-being (happiness!) at present. The usual retinue of number of this and that measures count for little if at the end of the day well-being or the individual's happiness is not improved, or perhaps more accurately 'satisfied'.

Watching Glastonbury it's all about music and well-being amid lots of mud.

Well-being is taken for granted like so many things in life. Take it away and it's noticed - very quickly.

They say that the best lessons are those we learn for ourselves. Being lost and finding your way is another pivotal lesson. At key times and places this journey can be a rite of passage no less.

In order for health promotion to deliver, people need to understand well-being, that is the many ingredients that contribute to that feeling, that sense, that inner magic that lights us up and those around us...

Hodges' model can help people with that journey, especially at a time when a fellow traveller may be needed.

Health and social care services are so often about signposting these days.

Hodges' model can help people signpost for themselves...

Photo: BBC