The health of the world is changing

What needs to go and what needs to be strengthened?

Health is a fundamental concept yet we don't really understand it. Health is at the core of life, it is Nature, it is birth, growth and death. Health is ever changing, it is multidimensional encompassing the physical, social, psychological and spiritual parts of our life. It encompasses our environment and the planet in general. Yet, what is it?

And nearly as important, what has alchemy got to do with it, FFS?

Jen and I have been looking at the concept of health in our podcast for the past year. Jen is an occupational therapist, an artist (quite a famous one too…) and a writer. I am a former nurse and healthcare manager, a Druid, a green activist and a councillor (yes, the elected type but I’m still waiting for my first bung…).

We want to dig into what health is, how it changes, how we can change it (the alchemy bit), and what the future holds. We live in VUCA times: volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous; and it is as plain at the noses on our faces that the wheels are coming off. Climate change, biodiversity loss, disintegrating mental health, resource depletion including energy depletion all increasing along with the ever present desire for immortality (have you ever worked in ED and been told that someone’s 102 year old mother who has been crippled with dementia, stroke and heart disease for decades must be treated and made to live another 102 years?). This is the polycrisis and it is driven by a metacrisis of humanity’s failed connection with Nature.

So let’s talk about it. Let’s see what we can change at a personal, societal and environmental level. Let’s start to understand what health is and what healthcare is; what healthcare looks like in a sustainable world. Let’s discuss whether healthcare can be regenerative (healing) not just at a person and societal level but at an environmental and planetary level too.

Are you interesting in healthcare? Your own health? That of others? Yes, I realise that is pretty much everyone, so this substack and podcast is for you!

Come, list and read. Talk and challenge. Engage and enjoy.

We will be podcasting each month and adding essays and thoughts as the mood takes us.

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