Health and care

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Health and care are about the whole and familiar person

For good care, it is important to recognize the relationship between body and mind more than is currently the case. This is what independent strategic care advisor Gerard Adelaar, employee of the scientific institute for the CDA, writes.

Gerard EagleJanuary 24, 2023, 1:00 AM

Psychiatrist Zegert van Eijk argues that health is also resilience (Opinion, January 17). According to him, we should learn to experience good health despite suffering or limitations due to illness. Partly that is true. Health is also our ability to deal with defects, life's questions and diseases. Avoiding the phenomena is partly beyond our control, but dealing with them is within, says timeless wisdom.

But that doesn't mean everything.

The article suggests that illness is an established external attack. That disease may or may not be treated, after which it is up to the person to deal with what the doctors were unable to fix.

So-called separation between body and mind

However, diseases always occur in the interplay of person and environment. For example, there are many diseases due to unhealthy eating and little exercise, and also, for example, due to chemicals and contaminated air. Cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and cancer are examples.

Moreover, our society is stuck in the so-called separation between body and mind. But a healthy body contributes to a healthy mind. Moreover, we often do not see that many diseases are associated with psychological factors. For example, there is a strong correlation between childhood trauma, associated long-term stress and serious disorders such as autoimmune disorders. This is what the Hungarian-Canadian doctor Gabor Maté argues, for example. Such findings say something not only about those with serious trauma, but about everyone. The body and mind are much more one than many realize.

It all requires a different way of dealing with care, in which whole people and their environment are central instead of parts.

Combating disease-causing food

In addition, the government must create the conditions for healthy living and mental well-being. This includes stimulating social cohesion and good housing and a decent distribution of income. We can also think of information about good parenting and combating stress, disease-causing food, dirty air and noise pollution.

Healthcare should be much more shaped like care in the neighborhood, with generalist healthcare providers who know people according to the total human principle. Good quality mental health care also seems to be much more important than many now think. These changes also include a shift in budgets.

Also read:

Health is also a matter of resilience

By not only focusing on illness, but more on resilience and resilience, we can really organize healthcare differently, says psychiatrist Zegert van Eijk.