[getsmart-l] Healthy communities are the key to maintaining personal health

[Janet May]

Thu 17 Apr 2008

Kitchener-Waterloo Record

Healthy communities are the key to maintaining personal health 

by Neil Arya and Troy Glover

Health professionals are coming to appreciate that healthy communities have
as much to do with community as they do about health.

In its 2005 report on urban sprawl and public health, the Ontario College of
Family Physicians recognized the importance of working with urban planners
to promote positive health outcomes.

Evidently that recognition works both ways. In December, a position paper
from the Ontario Professional Planners Institute (OPPI) focused on healthy
and sustainable communities with an emphasis on the importance of urban
design, active transportation, and green infrastructure. It signalled
planner recognition that land-use decisions have profound implications on
health -- on such things as obesity, heart disease and ailments related to
air quality.

By acknowledging that our environment affects our health , we must broaden
our understanding of health. The World Health Organization has come to
define health as not merely the absence of disease but as a state of
complete physical, mental and social well being, and regards the 1986 Ottawa
Charter for Health Promotion as the first major step toward this
understanding. The charter proclaimed that peace, shelter, education, food,
income, a stable ecosystem, sustainable resources, social justice, and
equity were the fundamental conditions and resources for health.

Conspicuously absent from this list is health care -- or, more
appropriately, sickness care -- where we continue to devote vast resources.
The Ontario government alone will spend more than $40 billion on health care
next year.

Dr. Trevor Hancock, Waterloo Region's former associate medical officer of
health, and Dr. Leonard Duhl, the co-founders of the modern day healthy
communities movement, describe a healthy community as one that is
continually creating and improving its physical and social environments and
expanding the community resources that enable people to mutually support
each other in performing all the functions of life and in developing to
their maximum potential.

Accordingly, a healthy community places emphasis on the interplay of
environment, economy, and health. In so doing, it underscores principles of
livability, conviviality, sustainability, equity, prosperity, and viability.
It does not merely look at growth in isolation. It recognizes the value of
ecosystem services.

In short, what we need in our communities is a clean and safe physical
environment with adequate access to food, water, shelter, income, work, and
leisure, while also assuring quality health care services. Simple access to
basic needs is not enough.

Members of a community will also want to participate in the shaping of the
community, and the healthy communities movement recognizes the need to give
everyone a seat at the table where the decisions are made. Participatory
democracy is the cornerstone of any successful healthy communities
initiative. It's crucial that community members actively participate in and
collectively determine the specific measurable indicators for improved
community health.

The appeal of this movement is far-reaching. Globally, more than 7,500
cities and towns are now involved -- including Woolwich Township, which
supports Woolwich Healthy Communities , a not-for-profit initiative aimed at
advancing positive social, economic and environmental outcomes. It involves
community churches, service clubs, neighbourhood associations and cultural
groups, without neglecting marginalized or disadvantaged groups.

In celebration of healthy communities month, Woolwich has organized a green
technology fair and alternative energy tour, a birdwatching hike, a
community clean up day, and a canoe paddle. On Monday, A Taste of Woolwich
highlighted the local foods, local farms movement.

To mark the beginning of a wider regional effort toward building healthy
local communities, the Healthy Communities Research Network and the Waterloo
Region Healthy Communities Coalition have organized the Healthy Communities
Knowledge Exchange Forum today and Friday at the University of Waterloo.

It will bring together a wide spectrum of community stakeholders for some
practical, action-oriented knowledge, featuring sessions on walkable
communities, community design, community connections, community growth, and
healthy food access. The forum is intended to lay the groundwork for a
sustainable effort to promote social change and the creation of healthy
communities locally and regionally.

Hancock will be a keynote speaker.

Participants can register at healthycommunities.uwaterloo.ca/forum.

Neil Arya is a family physician and teaches global health and environmental
health at the University of Waterloo. Troy Glover is director of the Healthy
Communities Research Network, and is an associate professor in recreation
and leisure studies at the University of Waterloo.

http://news.therecord.com/Opinions/article/337994

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