Overview:

Our long-term health has become a major national and personal focus. In the last ten years, we have seen the convergence of several social movements that recognize that people’s actions are situated in a larger ecosystem of causes and effects. Especially pronounced are movements to provide holistically healthy environments and habits for children, and to create more supportive, less costly systems for end-of-life care. Sophisticated feedback technologies encourage the healthy to stay well, as part of a low key but pervasive system for preventive health. A substantial portion of the population is becoming convinced that they can no longer live however they please, and rely on health care to “fix” them when health problems arise. People, companies, communities, and our nation as a whole have a responsibility to work together to change behaviors and structures that nurture health resilience.

People:

Creating good health for oneself, one’s family, and one’s community is an act of citizenship.

Organizations:

Organizational understandings of their health impacts, understood in the broader sense of ecological health, are sharper than ever. While more and more companies are untangling themselves from health benefits, they are moving toward promoting health inside and outside their walls.

Systems:

Employers, public health agencies, health care, and informal social groups’ investments of time, money, and efforts in sustainability and health converge with a new ecological health paradigm. While the slow changes in daily habits have yet to realize a full systemic transformation, a healthier future is in the works.