The World Health Organization's evolving definition of health and wellness

Health and Wellness

Definitions of Health

In 1997, the World Health Organization decided that the on hand definition of health needed to be modified to ensure elasticity and better implementation. The definition according to the WHO constitution of 1948 defines health as a "state of complete physical, mental and social well being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." It has been proposed that the prologue should be customized to include spiritual well being and the dynamic concept of health. The new definition defines health as a "dynamic state of complete physical, mental, spiritual and social well being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." (WHO, 1998)

Other definitions also refer to the energetic nature of health. In the Community Health Education and Promotion Manual (Aspen, 1996) health is "a quality of life involving dynamic interaction and independence among the individual's physical well being, his mental and emotional reactions, and the social complex in which he exists." Some of the definitions of health are multifactor. Above are broad-based definitions that often merge health of the individual and health of the community, such as the Turning Point initiative in Onslow County, North Carolina. They state, "Health refers to public health and the health of individual (physical, mental, etc.) but also refers to the health of the community as a whole (economic, social, etc.)." (Turning Point Initiative of NACCHO, 1998

Health Values, Beliefs, Assets and Practices

Health is among the most vital conditions of life and is needed to achieve well-being and happiness. Public Health is dedicated to the pursuit of health with an emphasis on the prevention of disease and injury, and is a central basis for organizing health systems. Public Health distinguishes individuals as the basic focus of its efforts, but seeks to improve the life of each person through systematic community and population-based solutions.

Values are guides for behavior and appropriate action. We therefore adopt these values as essential for the public health profession.

The pursuit of truth. Objective truth is required through a scientific approach, which in public health entails the use of epidemiological and bio statistical methods and knowledge achieve through the biological, behavioral and physical sciences.

Encouraging learning: We view life long learning for all people as primary for the optimization of health.

Benefit to each human being is a fundamental principle of public health action. Emit this benefit requires knowledge and skills, preeminent among which are the ability to communicate and to understand behavior and norms.

Personal responsibility. Individuals should try and societies should support individuals to think responsibility for their own lives. Encouraging personal responsibility does not justify blaming victims for actions beyond their control. Rather, it entails empowering people to take charge of decisions that affect their life and health status. As individuals create choices about the way they live, they should recognize the relationship between their actions and their own health.

Compassion and community responsibility. All persons have times of illness and weakness and need the aid of family, friends, and community. Each person should attempt to help others achieve optimum health status through individual effort or community action programs. These personal and institutional responsibilities are particularly compelling in two areas: protecting the population as a whole in the spheres of their lives over which they have little or no personal control; and protecting vulnerable populations, particularly children, since they have both a limited ability to help themselves and represent society's collective investment in the future. Community action should be implement with respect for human dignity and minimum trespass on liberty and privacy.

Cooperation: it is essential to the attainment of global stewardship and other public health values. It should be based on information, discussion, and collective approval and entails, among other things, an international perspective and commitment, and planning in areas of policy such as population, energy, food, air, water and space.

Professionalism: Public health practitioners and students constitute a community to help each other act rightly by commitment to standards such as personal honesty, collegiality and excellence in teaching, scholarship, community service and practice Cultural consciousness in an integral part of today's multicultural society. It is beneficial for the nursing staff and medical residents to be aware of the characteristic of different cultures.

When health care personnel work with the patient's beliefs, rather than alongside them, the outcomes are usually more victorious, measured not only in patient satisfaction but also in ease for the medical team in managing the patient and family. People in some cultures rely on home remedies to indulgence their illnesses rather than on pharmaceutical drugs. When prescribing drugs to patients of another culture, it is sensible to be aware that patients may resist taking the medication. Such unwillingness may be influenced by religious beliefs and practices. In addition, in some cultures, it is believed that illness (and recovery) is God's will. In certain religion or believes endurance of a certain amount of suffering with dignity and courage that is considered appropriate in some traditions (Cultural Ethnic & Religious Reference Manual).

Cultural Competence

Public health studies constantly reveal improved health outcomes as providers bridge the cultural gaps between themselves and their patients.

Communication and understanding lead to enhanced diagnoses and treatment plans, and the improved patient satisfaction leads to greater conformity with those plans.

Cultural Competence: Allows the provider to obtain more specific and total information to make a suitable diagnosis.

Facilitates: the development of treatment plans that is followed by the patient and carryout by the family.

Reduces delays in seeking care and allows for improved use of health services.

Enhances overall communication and the clinical interaction between patient and provider.

Develops the compatibility between Western and traditional cultural health practices.

Goal and its Achievement

The goal here is to keep this chronic disease in check and to evaluate it periodically through tests. And the belief system at work here is that if it is regarded as a part of one life rather then as a disease then it is easier to cope with it, if on the other hand one imagines a worst possible scenario then instead of living a full and happy life one gets stuck on this illness. So my efforts in the case of diabetes is to make the person aware of the disease but at the same time to remind them of all the sportsman and people who suffer from the disease yet lead a normal life.

Health Beliefs and Professional Life

Culture influences an individual's health beliefs, behaviors, activities and medical treatment conclusion. Because of the important influence of culture upon health and related outcomes, health care professionals should be culturally competent in order to provide best possible health care to patients.

Cultural competency in the context of health care provision consists of:

Awareness and acceptance of cultural divergence

Awareness of one's own cultural values

Recognition that people of different cultures have different ways of communicating, behaving, deducing, and problem-solving

Recognition that cultural beliefs influence patient's health beliefs, help-seeking activities, interactions with health care professionals, health care practices, and health care outcomes, including adherence to prescribed regimens.

An ability and willingness to acclimatize the way one works to fit the patient's cultural or ethnic background in order to provide optimal care for the patient.

Disease refers to the malfunctioning of the physiological and/or psychological processes in an individual. Illness refers to the psychosocial experience and meaning of the perceived disease for the individual.

The majority of physicians' training focuses on diagnosing and treating diseases, the physiological pathologies that affect individuals. However, patients arrive at the physician's office because of their experience and interpretation of ill-feeling bodily symptoms, or illness. Individuals evaluate their health care outcomes based on their illness experience, and thus it is imperative for health care providers to distinguish that patients' experience with illness may vary from their professional interpretation of the disease.