Session C - Demystifying Health

Contribute to the Valuing Nature Demystifying Health publication

This session, led by the European Centre for Environment and Human Health, initiated the development of a ‘Demystifying Health’ paper. The paper will be the next in the Valuing Nature Programme’s ‘Demystifying…’ series and follows the Demystifying Economic Valuation published in 2016. During the highly interactive session questions such as ‘what is health?’, ‘how do conceptions of health differ?’, and ‘what are the implications of different ways of thinking about health were explored’. Attendees worked together to explore these key questions and expert speakers gave their perspective on the differences between health prevention, health promotion and therapeutic intervention, and the relationships between wellbeing and health.

Summary Points

  • There probably isn’t a single definition of ‘health’ that could be agreed upon. This is not necessarily a problem.   
  • There is an important moral and ethical dimension to the ways in which we define ‘health’, and the determinants of health, which has implications for how we then think about promoting health through natural environments.
  • It will be particularly important to define the audience for the demystifying document.