During 2008 and 2009, the District Department of Health conducted a reflection on the social determinants of health and indicators realize positive and negative results that have hitherto characterized the mental health level of the Capital District; this reflection revealed that it was necessary to promote mental health as a transformer shaft social realities of the population at the district level. Thus, programs, projects and policies on mental health should be understood, from that moment, as articulating elements of equitable and inclusive relationships, to improve conditions of emotional well-being, in order to influence better living conditions for populations; all framed in approaches to social determinants of health, differential approach and population approach. Therefore, this article aims to address the concepts of these three approaches to provide clarity about the same in the case of mental health.