"Mental health" and "mental illness" are opposite sides of the same coin. "Mental health" is a polite way of avoiding using the term "mental illness" and both terms invoke "illness" which reasonable people associate with biology (including genetics). But even the ICD-10 specifically describes mental "disorders" (dis-orders), in the section that deals with them (Section V.) avoiding the use of the term "disease" (which is not "dis-ease" but "illness") for these behavior clusters, even though it uses the term "disease" in the other 13 sections, from I to XIV. This is deeply significant.

The truth is that nobody can define what "healthy mind" is. Even the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds doesn't do it; it focuses on what are, really, the qualities of good people. Personally, I have abandoned the phrase "mental health care" and now use "mental care" which switches our focus from the individual and their subjectively defined and subjectively observed deviation (in the statistical sense) from the "healthy mind" (which is not measurable) to the *system* (of mental care), which is where it belongs: Do we have a good mental care system or a bad one and if bad, how can we change it? 

The phrase falls naturally from the construction "health care": health care divides into physical care and mental care. But "mental health" doesn't go away. We just switch focus in answering questions about it (see attached sections).

We can then talk about the "mental care system." This is very useful. It puts the emphasis in the conversation where it belongs, on the system and not the individual.

Do we have a good mental care system? A bad one? What are the roles of the people in the mental care system? How well do they play those roles? Can we compare the mental care system to other systems which are deployed against those who exhibit behaviors society finds disturbing? It allows us to talk about power.

The answer to that last question is "Yes" and naturally leads to the question: If someone who exhibits behavior society doesn't like is threatened with imprisonment for that behavior by the justice system and gets a public defender if they need one, why shouldn't those who exhibit behavior that society doesn't like and are threatened with imprisonment by the mental care system get a public psychiatrist "for the defense" if they need one?

"Mental care" as a phrase opens many possibilities for widening the dialog.

For example, it lets us bring in to the discussion the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds.

See the attached section for answer to the question raised by a mental care worker (applies equally to academics): "I can't give up the phrase! Everybody uses it!"

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