Preface The mental health assessment tool is meant for community based peer educators, health educators, counselors, psychologist and organizations that provide mental health services and or referrals for sexual and gender minorities. For the purposes of this assessment tool, mental health is not the extreme of disease, but rather the state of well-being in which the individual realizes his or her own potential to cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully and can contribute to his or her community, as defined by World Health Organization (WHO). While many factors contribute to whether someone is healthy or not, affect the health of individuals and communities; individual circumstances and environmental factors have a role to play in the general health. Some determinants of health include: a) Physical environment b) Social and economic factors c) Personal and individual behaviour and characteristics Since individual circumstances surrounding a person life has an impact on their health, it would be unfitting to credit or blame someone entirely for their bad or good health. We know that income, education, genetics, family relations and friend have significant impact on our health it is critical that we take all this into account when addressing mental health for our community. We hope that this toolkit provides a strong basis for community groups, policy makers and other stakeholders to begin to program and prioritize mental health in our programs and interventions. While this document is not conclusive on the broad topic of mental health, we have piloted it and are confident it will be useful in setting up the necessary foundation and or build up on existing programs in your organization.

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