I: THE PRIMARY GOAL OF IHSs: THE PROMOTION OF HEALTH
THE MEANING OF HEALTH
It is our position that the primary objective and outcome of Ontario’s integrated health
systems should be the promotion of health. This requires a common understanding of
what is meant by health. At the root of health promotion theory and practice is the belief that health is “a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities” (WHO, 1986). Far more than the absence of disease or illness, health is the maximal attainment of physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being. This broad,holistic understanding of what it means to be healthy radically challenges our health sector’s dominant, narrow definition of health. A health promotion perspective demands that we surface and test our assumptions of what it means to be healthy, how health is measured or assessed, the factors that determine health, and, most importantly, how we can most effectively employ our personal and public resources to enhance health at the individual, community and population level.