Health may be defined as the absence of disease or illness or the state of having a sound mind and body. Both definitions of health imply present status only. In contrast, wellness is ongoing and is often described as a continuum.
Wellness is harmony among all the components of the individual`s internal and external life, including the physical body, mental processes, attitudes, emotions, and environment. The meaning of environment is broad and considers social and cultural conditions as well as where one lives. Well-being is the state of being happy, and it is part of wellness.
Regardless of where one is in the cause of a lifetime, there is an optimal level of functioning. This is true for the person who must adjust to physical limitations of aging or the effects of a chronic disease. A degree of wellness is always achievable, even in the process of dying. In dying, one can attain a state of spiritual and emotional well-being.
Who is well? There is always a personal aspect in the definition of wellness. For example, let us take two 67-year-old unmarried women in totally different circumstances. One is a retired bookkeeper who has been able to invest her money well and now enjoys a fairly luxurious life-style. She owns a duplex, drives a car, and travels extensively. She has always been in excellent physical health. She has said she would be “sick” if she couldn`t “come and go”.
The other woman has not been employed for ten years. During some of this time, she lived with and cared for her aging mother on the money from tha sale of two family farms. Now she lives in as efficiency apartment in a senior citizens apartment complex. Her only source of income is Social Security. Two years ago she was diagnosed as a diabetic and has learned to give her own insulin. Although she depends on relatives or neighbors when she needs to go out, she is a happy and contented person. She considers herself “lucky” to be as “well off” as she is.
The meaning of wellness must be modified for each individual in the presence of physical problems related to aging, psychosocial stressors such as loss or role changes, and chronic disease or discomfort.
Reference :
Farrell J : Nursing Care of the Older Person, J.B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1990.
