[Promoting mental health : implications of an ecological model.]

Prevention is an approach more and more talked about in mental health. However, promotion is an aspect of mental health's prevention not often discussed. In this article, we present an inventory of strategies for promoting mental health and we describe the skills needed to achieve such a promotion. We then propose a few examples in the field of geriatrics to illustrate specifically what we mean by promoting mental health. Finally, we end this article with a critical reflection on the feasibilities of the strategies presented as well as on the importance of deve-lopping concrete actions for the purpose of promotion rather than giving short term prescriptions which will only modify our behavior.