It’s time to make the profession of health about health

Abstract

Most professional health publications and presentations are not about health, but about how to avoid, prevent, or treat disease or infirmity. Better health cannot be attained by simply avoiding, preventing, or treating problems. Health efforts, therefore, should be directed toward creating physical, mental, and social wellbeing. To guide these efforts, salutogenesis, a theoretical framework about the origins or creation of health, is needed to complement the traditional pathogenesis framework that focuses on the origins and causes of disease. Salutogenic strategies are necessary to help health professionals promote positive health enhancement by making their practices about health.

Stress, Religious Coping and Wellbeing in Acculturating Muslims

“…The field of positive psychology argues for a need to shift from a deficit model of health, where wellbeing is primarily determined by the absence of illness, to an additive model where wellness is the focus in its own right (Becker & Rhynders, 2012). There is a growing recognition that simply working towards the alleviation of negative symptomatology does not achieve wellbeing and that individuals who rate themselves highly on measures of happiness and life satisfaction are not necessarily free from physical illness.…”

The Application of Salutogenesis in Mental Healthcare Settings

“…For health, our design has been pathogenesis, a design for disease. Salutogenesis provides a new design that enables faster progress toward better health by helping health professionals' practices to be about health (Becker & Rhynders, 2013). Jormfeldt (2011) illuminates this through an example of how a focus on diagnosis (pathogenesis) versus a focus on the person (salutogenesis) might be displayed in clinical mental health work.…”

“…However, the traditional perspective or design in healthcare has been and still is pathogenesis. Becker and Rhynders (2013) illustrate this by referring to a presentation by Deming (2000) that uses a marine metaphor and asks, "What determines how fast a ship moves?" The answers include currents, sails, the crew and the weather.…”

The Handbook of Salutogenesis

“…For health, our design has been pathogenesis, a design for disease. Salutogenesis provides a new design that enables faster progress toward better health by helping health professionals' practices to be about health (Becker & Rhynders, 2013).…”