Wellness

-compiled by Becky Sterling

Wellness requires that we take action. 

• we gain knowledge.
• we make choices about our lifestyles.
• we promote our own health.
• we take steps to prevent illness.
• we assert our responsibility for self-healing.
• we educate our communities around us.
• we maintain an attitude of possibilities.
• we enhance our supporter’s (Family, Professionals, Friends) awareness that:

Research, increased knowledge, and reports of first hand experience in the field of Mental Health are contributing to an ever-growing number of peers and practitioners who know this statement is true. 

In a medical model, health is often defined as “the absence of disease”. The World Health Organization gives a more complex definition. WHO defines health as "a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity."

The National Wellness Institute defines wellness as an active process of becoming aware of and making choices toward a more successful existence. Wellness is the process in which a person in recovery is empowered to make purposeful choices that lead to a more satisfying and healthy lifestyle. It includes physical, emotional, intellectual, social, environmental, occupational-leisure and spiritual dimensions, and incorporates disease prevention and health promotion approaches. A wellness lifestyle leads to positive outcomes that can be measured in terms of improved health status, greater productivity, enhanced social relationships, and participation in purposeful activity – all of which provide meaningful opportunities for healing, personal growth, and an improved quality of life.

Obtained from:  Wellness and Recovery Transformation Statement prepared by the Division of Mental Health Services, New Jersey. Swarbrick, 1997, 2005) Swarbrick, M. (in press) “A Wellness Approach for Mental Health Practice.”  Swarbrick, M. (1997) “A Wellness Model for Clients.”