Written by During this global pandemic, it has been brought into focus very strikingly that whilst we’re all weathering the same storm, we’re not all in the same the boat.
In November 2019, I wrote an article for the Western Mail calling for a National Wellness System to sit alongside the NHS in Wales. A reconceptualisation of health and wellness; seeing it as a system, not just a service.
I argued that traditional thinking and approaches have been based predominantly upon rational and logical planning, and explicit knowledge. That wellness is not rigid, it’s holistic. Factors are interdependent, influencing and impacting constantly. These interactions are not linear, they are part of a system.
How can we have an active pursuit of activities, choices and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health without addressing poverty, discrimination, social cohesion, housing, without enabling ideas and knowledge to be mobilised?
Transforming one aspect without due consideration to the whole is not going to optimise our wellbeing. We need to understand and value the whole system, its interactions, its relationships. And importantly, invest in it as such.
These arguments were true then and are more obvious now. It’s time to be bold, for Wales to once again lead the way. We need a National Wellness System.
Here’s the original article:
In Wales, we are proud to be the birthplace of the National Health Service. The concept originated from Tredegar’s Medical Aid Society, where, in return for contributions from its members’ wages, the society provided healthcare that was free at the point of use.
Aneurin Bevan famously said he wanted to “Tredegarise” the rest of the UK, and for more than 70 years the NHS remains one of the finest examples of a healthcare system that is committed to providing universal, high-quality healthcare, free at the point of delivery.
It is time for Wales to once again lead the way and become the birthplace of a National Wellness System.
This is not to replace the NHS, far from it. There is still a critical and important role for high-quality free medical care. It’s about seeing this as part of a system, a wellness system.
Wellness is a modern term with ancient roots. The Global Wellness Institute defines wellness as the active pursuit of activities, choices and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health.
In Wales, we have the world-leading Wellbeing of Future Generations Act, where there is a legal obligation for public bodies to improve the social, economic, environmental, and cultural wellbeing of Wales. One, albeit interconnected aspect of this is for us to have a healthier Wales. Our conception of a healthier Wales closely mirrors “wellness” – “a society in which people’s physical and mental wellbeing is maximised and in which choices and behaviours that benefit future health are understood”.
As part of the Future Generations Commissioner’s flagship programme, Art of the Possible, we have been shifting the narrative of what a healthy society means – one that sees how health is shaped by social, cultural, political, economic and environmental factors, and acts on these to improve health for current and future generations.
It is multi-dimensional, interconnected, asset-based, an active process, something that is in a constant state of being. This does require us to think and act differently.
To help make this a reality and enable a community of citizens and doers with expertise to challenge ‘business as usual’, we have co-produced a suite of resources, Journeys to Wellbeing – practical actions and guidance for public bodies and others to help them on this journey.
These are supported, where possible, with examples of practice. They illustrate that this stuff can be done and provide reference points and contacts to learn more.
So, along with a compassionate nation, an active nation, and place-making and designing-in community health and wellbeing, a key aspect for a healthier Wales is seamless, preventative organisations and services.
This supports the Welsh Government’s plan for health and social care, in which it says: “to make our services work as a single system, we need everyone to work together and pull in the same direction”.
There is no doubt that this aspiration is a good one.
Through financial support, like the Welsh Government’s Transformation Fund, which is scaling-up successful models of health and social care, and practical guidance in the form of the Journeys to Wellbeing, we are on the right path.
I do wonder, however, whether the pace and scale of this transformation is enough, whether we’re bold enough, whether we’re missing a trick in reconceptualising health and wellness, seeing it as a system, not just a service.
Traditional thinking and approaches have been based predominantly upon rational and logical planning, and explicit knowledge. Wellness is not rigid, it’s holistic.
Factors are interdependent, influencing and impacting constantly. These interactions are not linear, they are part of a system.
How can we have an active pursuit of activities, choices and lifestyles that lead to a state of holistic health without addressing poverty, social cohesion and housing, without enabling ideas and knowledge to be mobilised?
Transforming one aspect without due consideration to the whole is not going to optimise our wellbeing.
We need to understand and value the whole system, its interactions, its relationships. And importantly, invest in it as such.
It’s time to be bold for Wales to once again lead the way. We need a National Wellness System.
Western Mail Health Supplement, 18th November 2019