The Libra Centre Library for Growth.
Health is more than the absence of sickness.
It is my contention that the best methods for reducing the cost of the NHS are currently outside the NHS, it is for this reason that I would like to see a more integrated approach to health care.
If we take an holistic approach in that a human being is more than a physical body, then it should be realised that poor health is more than physical symptoms and further that physical symptoms may be merely the end result of untreated psychological mal adaptations and I am not only talking about mental illness but more mental stagnation.
If it can be appreciated that a human being has physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual needs. A failure to achieve any of these needs in a positive life enhancing way will have a negative impact on the person and will result, eventually in the person being in need of the services of the NHS and thus increasing NHS costs.
While I realise that the physical aspects of preventative health care, such as exercise, diet and smoking are very well understood and I applaud the work being done in these areas, I feel there is much room for widening the scope of prevention to include the psychological, emotional and spiritual needs of all people from whatever cultural, educational and financial background.
Indeed, time and money spent on projects designed to empower and inject a sense of self and purpose will result in, not only savings for the NHS but a reduction in Welfare payments and an increase in economic growth, so needed at this time, and an overall sense of well-being for the entire nation.
So I propose an integrated approach for nothing can happen in isolation, a decision made in one department will always have an effect in other departments, for instance the current decision of the conservative led coalition to terrorise already vulnerable people into non-existent jobs will eventually have a negative affect on the NHS, the current policy of undermining peoples confidence with threats of cuts with no government commitment to growth will have a direct result not only on financial health but on the psychological health and progress to physical health of a great many people.
I would want to see ways of not only providing for the psychological, emotional and spiritual needs of the nation but that they are address alongside any physical intervention. If a man suffers a disease of the body, very often, probably more often than is generally though it is a result of a psychological, emotional and spiritual need being ill met. It is a waste of money and a grave disservice to only treat the physical with out addressing the core issues as this will only result in the readmission of the patient.