Session 10: Health and Wellness
Monday, October 28

Major Themes to Be Covered

1. The health of individuals includes their physical, psychological and social development and well-being.

2. Individual health is influenced or determined by genetics, individual health behaviors and medical care, and the family and community context in which one lives. These contextual factors include physical, social, and economic circumstances of families and communities.

3. Similar health status among members of families, communities, and nations are in large part due to shared beliefs and shared physical and social environments.

4. Health-related beliefs and behaviors are acquired in the context of family and social relationships, and the health and well-being of individuals, families and communities are strongly related to the strengths and nature of those relationships.

5. The social structure and culture of the U.S. have specific expectations of families and communities regarding their role in promoting health and well-being of individuals.

6. Considering a life course approach to health development allows us to connect the health of young children to the health of the adults they will become, and also allows communities to create more family centered, community based approaches to how they invest in the development of the health capital of their citizens.

7. Mental health, environmental health and occupational health are all of special and growing concern to families and communities and many communities have begun to launch efforts to address these issues in their community.

8. Many communities are attempting to address the needs of individuals with HIV/AIDS and what this epidemic means to capacity to mount adequate, prevention, treatments and rehabilitation programs.

9. Community wide health promotion and disease prevention initiatives focused on specific behaviors (e.g. smoking, exercise), specific populations (e.g. elders or young children) and specific health problems (e.g. care of mentally ill, children with disabling conditions) have demonstrated a significant impact on community wide health indicators.

10. Strategies to launch community-wide health improvement initiatives and monitoring their impact have spread throughout the United States and are being employed by many communities.

Students Will Learn

1. How communities and families determine the health of individuals, and their overall population.

2. How communities have launched major health improvement initiatives to encourage community-wide health promotion and disease prevention.

3. How community health report cards have been used to put community health issues on the policy agenda and in front of the eyes of policymakers (several examples including asthma and environmental health score cards).

4. Examples of family-centered community health improvement initiatives that have focused on individuals with special health needs in their communities.

Undergraduate Required Readings

Minkler M, Wallerstein N. 1997. Improving health through community organization and community building: A health education perspective. In: M Minkler (Ed.), Community Organizing and Community Building for Health. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Graduate Required Readings

Patrick DL, Wickizr TM. 1995. Community and health (pp. 46-92). In: BC Amik, S Levine, AR Tarloff, DC Walsh (Eds.), Society and Health. New York: Oxford University Press.

Suggested Readings

Schor EL, Menaghan EG. 1995. Family pathways for children's health (pp. 18-45). In: BC Amik, S Levine, AR Tarloff, DC Walsh (Eds.), Society and Health. New York: Oxford University Press.