Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-pvkqz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-11T13:55:07.131Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 49 - Wellness and Whole-Person Care

from Part V - Wellness through Optimization of Work, Love, and Play

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2020

By
Tom A. Hutchinson  and
Hutchinson Nora
Edited by
Waguih William IsHak
Waguih William IsHak
Affiliation:
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)
Get access

Summary

Whole-person care is medical or other care that includes separating the person from the problem, taking measures to cure or prevent the problem or disease, and facilitating and supporting healing [1]. This is the approach to wellness taken in this chapter. There are three ways to imagine whole-person care interventions that might affect wellness.

The first is the reductionist approach that divides a whole person into their many component parts, identifies the location of the problem that is interfering with wellness, and takes appropriate measures to alleviate or fix the problem. There is a lot to be said for this approach. If I have a toothache that is interfering with my sense of wellness, I want that problem identified and fixed. I would want a physician or other healthcare professional caring for me to be able to deliver this kind of care or to refer me to someone who could deliver this care.

Information

Type
Chapter
Information
The Handbook of Wellness Medicine , pp. 573 - 581
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Hutchinson, TA, Hutchinson, N, Arnaert, A. Whole person care: encompassing the two faces of medicine. CMAJ 2009; 180(8): 845–846.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hutchinson, TA. Prevention and the whole person. In: Whole Person Care. Transforming Healthcare. Cham, Springer; 2017; 115–122.Google Scholar
Drazen, RY. The Choice is Yours. DVD. Drazen Productions; 2001.Google Scholar
Ryan, RM, Huta, V. Wellness as healthy functioning or wellness as happiness: the importance of eudaimonic thinking (response to the Kashdan et al. and Waterman discussion). J Positive Psych 2009;4(3): 202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steptoe, A, Deaton, A, Stone, AA. Subjective wellbeing, health, and ageing. Lancet 2015; 385(9968): 640–648.Google Scholar
Satir, V, Banmen, J, Gerber, J, Gomori, M. The transformation process. In: The Satir Model. Family Therapy and Beyond. Palo Alto, CA, Science and Behavior Books; 1991; 147–174.Google Scholar
Satir, V, Banmen, J, Gerber, J, Gomori, M. The survival stances. In: The Satir Model: Family Therapy and Beyond. Palo Alto, CA, Science and Behavior Books; 1991; 31–64.Google Scholar
Satir, V, Banmen, J, Gerber, J, Gomori, M. Congruence. In: The Satir Model: Family Therapy and Beyond. Palo Alto, CA, Science and Behavior Books; 1991; 65–84.Google Scholar
Kabat-Zinn, J. Introduction: stress, pain, and illness – facing the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain, and illness. In: Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness. New York, Delta; 1990; 1–14.Google Scholar
DeHaan, CR, Ryan, RM. Symptoms of wellness, happiness and eudaimonia from a self-determination perspective. In: Sheldon, KM, Lucus, RE, eds., Stability of Happiness: Theories and Evidence on Whether Happiness Can Change. Amsterdam, Elsevier; 2014; 37–55.Google Scholar
Hutchinson, TA The focus of medical care. In: Whole Person Care: Transforming Healthcare. Cham, Springer; 2017; 29–36.Google Scholar
Cohen, SR, Mount, BM. Quality of life in terminal illness: defining and measuring subjective well-being in the dying. J Palliat Care 1992; 8: 40–45.Google Scholar
Mount, B, Kearney, M. Healing and palliative care: charting our way forward. Palliat Med 2003; 17: 657–658.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gill, CJ. Facts about disability and “quality of life.” Independent Living Institute. 1999. www.independentliving.org/gill99.html (accessed April 4, 2019).Google Scholar
Kagawa-Singer, M. Redefining health: living with cancer. Soc Sci Med 1993; 37: 295–304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Yeats, JB. Letters to His Son W. B. Yeats and Others 1869–1922. New York, E. P. Dutton & Company, Inc.; 1946; 121.Google Scholar
Cassell, EJ. The Nature of Suffering and the Goals of Medicine. New York, Oxford University Press; 2004.Google Scholar
Dyrbye, LN, Thomas, MR, Shanafelt, TD. Systematic review of depression, anxiety, and other indicators of psychological distress among U.S. and Canadian medical students. Acad Med 2006; 81(4): 354–373.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×