Health is our most precious asset. Good health and wellbeing enable us to live happy, fulfilling lives and free us up to achieve our potential, supporting positive social and economic outcomes for individuals and society. But we don’t all have the same opportunities to live healthy lives. Right now, in our country, some people are dying years earlier than they should. This isn’t inevitable. There is much we can do to reduce these unfair differences by improving the things that underpin our health.
Many aspects of our lives impact our health and how long we live. These include our jobs and homes, our access to education, public transport and safe green spaces with clean air, and whether we experience poverty or discrimination. These things are often referred to as the ‘wider determinants of health’, and they are all essential building blocks of our health.
Building a healthy society is like constructing a building. To succeed, we need all the right blocks in place. The building blocks of health are: the food we eat; the work; the family, friends and communities; the transport; the housing; the money and resources; the education and skills; and the surroundings.
Many aspects of our lives impact our health and how long we live. These include our jobs and homes, our access to education, public transport and safe green spaces with clean air, and whether we experience poverty or discrimination. These things are often referred to as the ‘wider determinants of health’, and they are all essential building blocks of our health.
Building a healthy society is like constructing a building. To succeed, we need all the right blocks in place. The building blocks of health are: the food we eat; the work; the family, friends and communities; the transport; the housing; the money and resources; the education and skills; and the surroundings.
The The Health Foundation from the UK has published a guide that it is a brief introduction to the building blocks of health. It explains how a person’s opportunity for health is influenced by much more than the NHS, and why people in the UK don’t all have the same chance to be healthy. It also sets out how action to strengthen the building blocks of health can lead to improvements in the health of the whole population, for the benefit of individuals, society and the economy.
Photo Jordi Soldevila. Èxode. Geometries de la injustícia
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