Why we need to integrate Wholistic Wellbeing with healthcare
As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown, inequality in society is easily seen through the prism of physical health. Across the globe, from the U.S. to China, cracks in the healthcare system revealed who might be more vulnerable to the disease and what sorts of people would emerge from it — assuming they survived — with dramatic changes to their lives. Some, with top healthcare and quick access, would emerge from a brief hospitalization, having been treated with special drugs not available to all. Some would get to the hospital too late, depend on machines to breathe, and, in the worst cases, collapse and die under the physical strain. Others would survive, only to find that they had developed “long COVID,” a series of debilitating issues linked to the initial disease, and hard to shake, even after many months of rest.
Varying opportunities and circumstances, from income gaps to differences in ability, can impact a person’s access to high-quality nutrition, secure housing, a steady job, childcare, healthcare, community support, and the ability to move around cities and towns with ease and safety. The reasons are many, including institutional racism, lack of education, insufficient government resources, a frail social safety net… We have heard all of this before. The deep ties between health and wellbeing are now clearer than ever. As explained by Better Health,
Wellbeing is not just the absence of disease or illness. It’s a complex combination of a person’s physical, mental, emotional and social health factors.
As the public continues to gain more awareness of these ties, we must continue to accentuate the factors that increase wellbeing by reducing the gaps in healthcare access and reforming the way we treat illness in a fairer, more democratic way.
It’s up to us to fight for more democratic wellbeing in a society that so often misses the mark. As a seeker of wellbeing, I want to join hands with you and start a movement that accelerates this shift and pioneers a new approach to healthcare that treats people more fairly, accounting for circumstantial differences and challenges.
What can we do to begin this movement? Check in on your parents, siblings, children, and friends. Not just in general: be specific. Ask how they are doing and listen with deep empathy. If they are in need, you will surely hear it, even between the lines, and, assuming you, yourself, are strong and capable, your natural human wisdom and open heart will lead you to bring them the help they need.
Find out who defines the policies on healthcare; contact your local representative and see what changes they can implement. Write to the papers and use social media to spread awareness of the issue: your voice is the strongest tool you have.
Join me in the movement to change how we care for ourselves. Wholistic Wellbeing provides a concrete solution: time to apply its tenets in our own lives and empower our communities to seek greater health and happiness. By integrating Wholistic Wellbeing with healthcare, we can officialize this shift towards a fairer, more open, giving and loving world.
