Читать книгу First Aid for the Artist's Soul - Christina Barandun - Страница 18
What is health?
ОглавлениеWhen we talk about health protection or health management, the question crops up: What actually is health?
Most of us perceive health as an absence of sickness. In its constitution of 1948, the World Health Organisation defined the term health more comprehensively: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”8
The previous focus on purely physical aspects has been widened to include mental and social well-being. At the end of the First International Conference on Health Promotion held by the WHO in 1986, this expansion was fleshed out in the so-called Ottawa Charter. Seven basic conditions for health were defined:
Stable self-esteem.
A positive relationship with one’s own body.
Fulfilling friendships and social relationships.
A safe and healthy environment.
Meaningful work, as well as healthy and safe working conditions.
Knowledge about health and access to health care.
A present time that is worth living in, and the hope of a future worth living.
All these go far beyond physical well-being, and emphasise the significance of mental and social circumstances on an individual’s health.
The crucial change is the one in attitude: The focus is no longer on the prevention of disease, but on the maintenance of well-being.9