What is Health?
Health is the ability for our biological systems to enter stability after experiencing trauma or stress throughout our entire lifetime.
When the body is presented with a stressor such as air pollution or a state of panic it produces a number of chemicals such as adrenaline and cortisol to overcome the situation.
Typically we lead lives that provide us with the resources to overcome the severity of these stress based chemicals.
However in modern cities the number of stressors is high and not everyone has enough resources to restore; maybe there’s no green space nearby, it’s always noisy, or they have constant financial pressures.
When the stressors become chronic in exposure it’s possible for the body’s otherwise naturally occurring systems to dysregulate and cause problems to immune, metabolic and hormonal systems.
Therefore we have to see health as a system based issue through adequate housing, access to health resources, access to nutritious food, affordances to build strong community ties, clean air, access to restorative spaces like parks, etc.
We therefore have to collectively rethink health from a personal dietary phenomena to a habitat and systems point of view.
In doing so a person is able to have the mental and physical attributes to realise a fulfilling and purposeful life.
The Importance of Community
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and further climate change impacts, will continue to challenge governmental systems, therefore a pillar of resilience is a strong community.
“In the beginning it was all done by the communities,” says Méndez Lázaro quotes in a recent study on the recovery of Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria in 2017.
How the Playbook supports Community Health
We have created the Playbook to empower people to come together and build resilience as a community.
Within the Playbook are case studies, areas of agency, and resources to help you start whichever journey is important to you.
Social advocacy has the potential to drive great change.
Whether it be for small changes now or laying the foundations for future generations, societies prosper when people come together.
If you would prefer to not complete the survey you can access the playbook directly here.
Please give us a quick reason why you don’t want to do the survey, we’re doing this for you so if we’ve made the wrong approach you can help us change.