Health

Health is the state in which you are able to function well physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually in order to express the full range of your unique potentialities within the environment in which you are living.

Health is primarily a measure of each person’s ability to do and become what he wants to become. It is a process of expanding consciousness that synthesizes disease and non-disease and is recognized by patterns of person-environment interaction. Health is more than the absence of any disease. It is referred to, by many leaders in the health care field, as a state of being located on a graduated scale or continuous spectrum ranging from obvious dire illness through the absence of discernible disease, to a state of optimal functioning in every aspect of one’s life.

As humans, we are dynamic beings whose state of health can change from day to day or even hour to hour. After factoring in the environmental hazards that we have little or no control of, how we care for ourselves as a whole will determine the quality of health we enjoy. High level wellness such as holistic health is our best bet: it is the process in which an individual is actively engaged in moving toward fulfillment of his or her potential; a system of preventive care that takes into account the whole individual, one’s own responsibility for one’s well-being, and the total influences – social, psychological, environmental – that affect health, including nutrition, exercise, and mental relaxation.

Caring for our health should include a combination of factors: eating healthy, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep as well as practicing good hygiene. It should also include regular medical and dental checkups.

Health Care Systems

Health care systems are put in place to help facilitate organized plans of health care, and it is important to take full advantage of them. Their three (3) main functions are: 1) providing personal health care services to individuals and families through hospitals, clinics, neighborhood centers, physicians’ offices and also in clients’ homes; 2) providing public health services needed to maintain a healthy environment; for example, control of water and food supplies, regulation of drugs, and safety regulations intended to protect the general population; and 3) providing teaching and research activities related to the prevention and treatment of diseases. There are various levels of health care, some of them are:

Primary or Preventive Care

This is where early detection, prevention of disease and the maintenance of health is emphasized. This level of care also encompasses the routine care of individuals with common health problems and chronic illnesses that can be managed in the home or through periodic visits to an outpatient facility.

Secondary or Acute Care

This level of care is concerned with emergency treatment and critical care involving intense and elaborate measures for the diagnoses and treatment of a specified range of illness or pathology. Entry into the system at this level is either by direct admission to a health care facility or by referral.

Tertiary or Specialized Care

This level of care includes highly technical services for the treatment of individuals and families with complex or complicated health needs. Providers of tertiary care are health professionals who are specialists in a particular clinical area and are competent to work in such specialty agencies as psychiatric hospitals and clinics, chronic disease centers, and the highly specialized unit of general hospitals; for example, a coronary care unit. Entry into the system at this level is gained by referral either from the primary or secondary level.

Individualized Health Care

Respite Care

This is health care provided by an agency or institution for long-term care patients on a short-term basis to give the primary caretaker(s) at home a period of relief.

Restorative Care

Restorative care comprises routine follow-up care and rehabilitation in such facilities as nursing homes, halfway houses, inpatient facilities for alcohol and drug abusers, and in the homes of patients served by home health care units of hospitals.

Continuing Care

This type of care is provided on an ongoing basis to support those persons who are physically handicapped, elderly and suffering from a chronic and incapacitating illness, mentally retarded, emotionally disturbed, or otherwise unable to cope unassisted, with daily living. These services are available in personal care homes, inpatient care facilities, nursing homes, and geriatric day care centers.

Whatever category of health care needs you are in, help is available. All you have to do is reach out and be on your way to better more improved health. Taking care of your health is your responsibility. Be proactive, and take care.

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