[A framework to support action in population mental health]. / Un cadre de référence pour soutenir l'action en santé mentale des populations.

In Quebec, like elsewhere in the world, we are witnessing a growing concern for the population's mental health and for the importance of concentrating efforts on prevention and promotion. In this context, public health actors are invited to adopt a leadership role in advancing mental health promotion and mental disorder prevention goals, and establish the required partnerships with actors from the health and social services and from other sectors who are indispensable to the population mental health agenda. In Canada, public heath actors are not yet sufficiently supported in this role. They express the need to access structuring frameworks which can clarify their action in mental health. This article first presents the momentum for change at the policy level within the field of mental health. A framework to support population mental health action is then presented. The framework identifies the various dimensions underlying the promotion of population mental health as well as the reduction of mental health inequalities. The article finally illustrates how the application of a populational (the application of a populational responsibility perspective) responsibility perspective, as it is defined in the context of Quebec, facilitates the implementation of the various elements of this framework. In the end, public health actors are better equipped to situate their practice in favour of the population's mental health.

A realist-constructionist perspective on participatory research in health promotion.

Clarifying the contours of research in health promotion (HP) is an ongoing challenge. Research in this action-oriented field has traditionally been developed based on values such as participation and empowerment. Consequently, many forms of participatory research have emerged throughout the years, and participatory research has positioned itself as a core competency of HP and public health. This paper argues that participation as a normative stance guiding methodology, or as value, is a fragile posture upon which to position research practices. The argument is based on a realist-constructionist perspective of science and specifically uses Law and Latour's notion of inscription device and Callon's actor-network theory to suggest that participation is an epistemological necessity and that participatory research practices may be considered as inscription devices. These theoretical notions help clarify the consequences of participation on knowledge production. Finally, the article refers to Stengers's work to propose an ecology of research practices that defines obligations and exigencies for HP with respect to knowledge production and that are more consistent with the field's values of social justice and equity.

Participatory research in public health: creating innovative alliances for health.

This article discusses alliances within local socio-sanitary space, one in which community sector and health sector actors, public health researchers and funding bodies meet. The discussion is based on the study of a research space made up of representatives of actors found at the local level. Both the minutes of the discussions of 12 meetings of the research team, and the collaborative outputs produced throughout the research initiative provide the empirical data for a qualitative analysis. The findings reveal a research space concomitantly constituted by aspects of "non-cooperative games" and of networks based on innovation-fostering knowledge exchanges, which can be viewed, from the perspective of a reflexive epistemology, as a tool for implementing innovative alliances in local, health-promoting socio-sanitary space.