What is health?
- melissakonat
- Oct 9, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 3, 2023
For this weeks learning, I'm sharing a few resources that discuss health and support a more expansive view which considers factors such as an aging population and marginalized groups. It was a challenge to find exclusive definitions of health which didn’t include social determinants and the associated inequities.
Here is a short clip from the Public Health Agency of Canada highlighting the health of Canadians and the role of social determinants of health. The information is simple, clear, and concise, and I like that the illustrations convey inequities within specific marginalized groups.
Here is a brief editorial on the definition of health which was written following a “global conversation” to discuss the widely criticized and outdated WHO definition which strives for “absolute and unachievable” health outcomes. I have also linked the original blog post which offers some interesting perspectives, insights and arguments.
Link to blog post:
The final resource is a journal article titled ‘Being well and wellbeing: better understanding of patient priorities in primary care’. This New Zealand study describes the downfall of the biomedical model and offers a biopsychosocial focus of healthcare. The patient-centered approach seeks to understand the patient as a whole-person which informs treatment goals in the context of wellness and wellbeing. As someone who practices holistic, strengths-based approaches, I was enlightened to read the authors’ findings and suggestions for improving the patient-physician relationship in the context of better health outcomes.
The resources can also be found in this link to my Zotero library tab “Defining Health and Social Determinants of Health”.
Comments