Health and Wellness

“a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

Conceptualizations of Health

  • An individual or group is able to cope and change with the environment, satisfying their needs

  • It’s a resource for everyday living, not the object of living

  • Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources as well as physical capacities (WHO, 1984)

  • Definition of health in the 21st century

    • positive

    • comprehensive

    • attentive to mental health dimension

    • inclusive of quality of life and spirituality

  • Disease is an objective state of ill health

    • The pathological processes of disease can be detected by medical science

  • Illness

    • A subjective experience of loss of health

    • Illness and health exist on a continuum, it is a journey

Historical Approaches to Health in Canada

  • Labonte (1993): a multidimensional conceptualization of health

  • When the definition of health started to get questioned (Health was previously defined as “absence of illness”)

  • Medical approach

    • Emphasizes that medical intervention restores health

    • Health problems are defined primarily as physiological risk factors

  • Behavioural approach (Early 1970s)

    • Aims to decrease Personal choice risk factors to health such as; smoking, substance abuse, lack of exercise, diet

  • Socio-environmental approach

    • Environmental factors: Poverty, pollution, poor water quality,

Achieving Health for All

The Ottawa Charter:

  • identified the prerequisites for health as peace, shelter, education, food, income, a stable ecosystem, sustainable resources, social justice, and equity

  • The Ottawa Charter outlined five major strategies to promote health: building healthy public policy, creating supportive environments, strengthening community action, developing personal skills, and reorienting health services

Risk Factors:

  • Psychosocial risk factors are complex psychological experiences that result from social circumstances

  • Socioenvironmental risk conditions are social and environmental living conditions that include poverty, low educational or occupational status, dangerous or stressful work

    • Recognizing that environment can influence how a patient may act

Determinants of Health:

  • Income and income distribution

    • Income problems during pandemic

  • Education

    • Students learn about health in school since a young age

  • Unemployment and job security

  • employment and working conditions

  • early childhood development

  • Food insecurity

    • Not having enough money for good food, malnourished

  • Housing

  • Social exclusion

  • Social safety network

  • Health services

    • Remote areas (orangeville) has limited services

  • Aboriginal status

  • Gender

  • Race

    • Being a minority, getting overlooked in healthcare facility

  • Disability

Equality VS Equity

  • Equality

    • Giving everyone the same resources even though the same resources do not help everyone equally

  • Equity

    • Giving everyone different resources that fit best to the individual needs therefore, achieving equality through equity

Strategies to Influence Health Determinants

  • Health Promotion

    • Directed towards increasing the level of well-being and self actualization

  • Disease Prevention

    • Action to avoid or forestall illness/disease

  • Levels of disease prevention (WILL BE TESTED)

    • Primary

      • Protection against disease before signs and symptoms occur

        • EX. Going to the family doctor, going to get a vaccine

    • Secondary

      • Activities that promote early detection of disease

        • EX. Going to get blood work when you don’t feel well

    • Tertiary

      • Activities initiated in the convalescence stage to prevent progression

        • EX. Preventing and illness from getting worse, Chemotherapy