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In England health promotion has an important role to play in delivering the aims of the new health and social care modernisation programme. Two health promotion strategies evident in recent policy documents concern the provision of good quality information and encouraging greater social participation. Providing information about health issues is intended to empower people, promote independence and help them to become, and stay, healthy. Encouraging social participation is intended to reduce social isolation and stress, build social capital, and promote mental health and wellbeing. This paper presents findings from a qualitative sociological study of an Ageing Well project for housebound older people relevant to these policy goals. The findings reveal what older people valued about participating in the project, and how it enhanced their sense of wellbeing. It is argued that, for this group of people, ‘feeling happy’ and maintaining a positive sense of wellbeing were transitory experiences involving a range of strategies to ‘manage’ information. The lessons for health promotion from this study suggest that providing health‐related information may conflict with, rather than complement, efforts to promote mental health by compromising the ways in which people in difficult circumstances construct their sense of wellbeing and strive to feel happy.