Whole Person Health

Today the new buzz word seems to be “whole health,” whatever that means. Who you ask will greatly influence the answer you get, but the concept of whole health is not a brand new concept. Abraham Maslow was talking about whole health when he discussed the hierarchy of needs, and what people need to be well and healthy. It wasn't just about a brain or a body.

In the United States there are many different healthcare silos. Regretfully, this may make it easy for different healthcare providers to pass a person around from place to place, person to person. The person may end up chasing good care around and around, never finding a person or place that can or will help.

Currently less than 2% of U.S. healthcare dollars go into promoting health and preventing disease.

Chronic disease accounts for 70% of deaths and 75% of healthcare costs in the U.S.

At the New England School of Whole Health Education a pilot study demonstrated the transformation effect of whole health education. This holistic model of health education and behavioral interaction provides a tool for nurses, physicians, and other staff to redirect the momentum of care toward in-the-moment, relationship-centered whole person care, improving healthcare worker and patient satisfaction and outcomes.

Placing patients at the center of the their health care decision making Treating the patient as a whole person Evidenced-based health education for prevention and disease management

From this study both the Institute of Medicine and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations have identified the above guidelines for the practice of healthcare in all settings.

An Institute of Medicine report states:

Our present efforts [to improve healthcare delivery] resemble a team of engineers trying to break the sound barrier by tinkering with a model T Ford. We need a new vehicle or, perhaps many new vehicles. The only unacceptable alternative is not to change (Leadership by Example: Coordinating Government Roles in Improving Health Care Quality).

Whole person health is when treatment of the whole person happens. It means that any part of health care doesn't happen without consideration of all other parts of the body. If a person is not feeling well, what is happening to cause that? Is a depression somehow related to pain? If this medication is prescribed, what else might be happening that might cause a need for the medication? Is there something else that needs to happen?

Whole health is much more than one person coordinating medications. It is much more than having one doctor referring a person to another doctor to check into something. It is a true integration of care in which signs and symptoms are looked at as a whole. The person receiving the care gets to decide what does and doesn't happen. The patient is supposed to be in the driver's seat, able to make informed choices with information that has been provided in such a way that they can make an educated, informed choice.

Many people who have a mental illness struggle with chronic pain. Whole health means not just looking at a person’s mental state, but what else is happening in the body. In whole healthcare, for people who have mental illness, chronic pain is also considered when care is provided.

According to the above criteria, whole health includes not just education on how to prevent illness and disease, and how to cope with illness and disease. This means that people who are getting whole healthcare should be getting information on things such as how to eat in a healthy way, how to eat in a way that disease can be prevented, smoking and how to stop smoking, how to prevent chronic disease, how to use your family disease history to help you make a healthcare plan that is specific to you, how to exercise in an effective way, etc. What needs to happen for each person to be healthier, with each person making an informed choice about what they want and need to learn in order to help them be more healthy.

The types of things considered might be:

Muscles and bones Cultural diversity Nutrition The immune system Obesity Brains Cardiac health Living with illness Stress (and adrenal function) Digestion

Whole health is also culturally friendly. It means that, for example, if you are a person of color, you are information about medications that may affect you differently, that some diseases are more prevalent, and that other differences may also exist. It means that someone of Native American decent is informed about Native American approaches to dealing with the problem or disease, and integration of holistic Native American healthcare happens, if that is what is desired by the individual.

Many Americans have no idea that one part of the National Institutes of Health is the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which allows for scientific investigation of complementary therapies. As the body of scientific research and available, proven complementary therapies grows, an improvement in health and wellness should follow. This is all part of whole health.