Wellbeing is a major personal and community asset. Good mental health and wellbeing contributes to better learning, increased creativity, greater productivity, better quality relationships, improved physical health and longer life expectancy1.
Research also shows that high levels of wellbeing reduces the risk of developing mental illness up to 8 times 2 and improves recovery from mental illness up to 7 times3.
The Wellbeing Strategy
The Wellbeing Strategy is a bold, long-term commitment to promote good mental health for all Victorians wherever we live, work, learn and play. The strategy provides a coordinated approach that brings communities, service providers and government together to strengthen our focus on prevention, promotion and healing.
The strategy focuses on creating the social, physical, economic, and environmental conditions that help people to feel and function well at every stage of life. It’s about working together to meet the wellbeing needs of Victorians:
- we need our basic needs met before we can focus on other aspects of our wellbeing
- we need to feel connected to each other, our communities, culture and the spaces around us
- we need to feel our lives have worth and meaning
- we need to be safe and respected for who we are
- we need the capabilities to navigate the ups and downs of life
A Vision for Victoria
More than 1,000 Victorians shared their insights and aspirations to help shape this strategy. They told us:
- government must prioritise wellbeing and take a coordinated, long-term approach to creating the conditions that support wellbeing
- prevention is better than cure
- community connection, cultural safety, and equity are essential.
In the next ten years, Victoria will achieve the vision for wellbeing through focus on the eight priorities of the Wellbeing Strategy:
- prioritise wellbeing in decision-making across economic and social systems
- promote wellbeing-centred leadership in institutions
- integrate wellbeing in the design and development of physical and natural infrastructure
- increase access and participation in natural and cultural spaces
- learn from community wisdom, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ experience and expertise
- embed respect and inclusion in communities and organisations
- support connected communities
- strengthen people’s agency over their wellbeing.
The first action plan
The first two years of implementation will focus on building strong foundations for Victoria’s wellbeing promotion system. This includes:
- embedding wellbeing in decision making across economic and social systems
- strengthening leadership, resourcing, and capability
- building collaborative relationships
- improving evidence, data, and monitoring
- promoting what already works.
How you can use the strategy
Whether you're a service provider, or work in government, private industry, a not-for-profit or the community sector, you can help promote wellbeing:
- Plan and design: use the strategy to guide your planning, policy and program design, and funding decisions.
- Align and collaborate: identify where your work aligns and explore new opportunities for co-design and shared measurement.
- Engage and promote: share the strategy with your networks and highlight examples of good practice to build a common understanding of the wellbeing priorities.
- Contribute: support data collection, enable community-led approaches, and remove barriers to participation and equity.
- Advocate: help position wellbeing as a priority in policy, in practice, and in everyday conversations.
Stay connected
This is just the beginning. Together, we can build a Victoria where everyone has the opportunity to experience good mental wellbeing.
If you’d like to receive news, information and updates about the strategy and action plan, please submit the Stay in the loop with the Wellbeing Promotion Office
1 Prevention Coalition in Mental Health, Starting upstream: building a strong and sustainable preventative mental health system for Australia, Alliance for the Prevention of Mental Disorders, Black Dog Institute, Everymind, Prevention United, The University of Sydney Matilda Centre, 2022, accessed 24 August 2023.
2 CLM Keyes, SS Dhingra and EJ Simoes, 'Change in level of positive mental health as a predictor of future risk of mental illness', Mental Health Promotion and Protection, 2010, 100(12):2336-71.
3 M Iasiello, J van Agteren, CLM Keyes and EM Cochrane, 'Positive mental health as a predictor of recovery from mental illness', J Affect Disorder, 2019;251:227-30.
Reviewed 14 August 2025