Achieving Whole Health

Whole health is physical, behavioral, spiritual, and socioeconomic well-being as defined by individuals, families, and communities. Whole health care is an interprofessional, team-based approach anchored in trusted relationships to promote well-being, prevent disease, and restore health. It aligns with a person's life mission, aspiration, and purpose. It shifts the focus from a reactive disease-oriented medical care system to one that prioritizes disease prevention, health, and well-being. It changes the health care conversation from "What's wrong with you?" to "What matters to you?"

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Samueli Foundation, and the Whole Health Institute commissioned the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to establish a committee to provide guidance on how to fill gaps and create processes to accelerate the transformation to whole health care for veterans, both inside and outside the VA system, and the rest of the U.S. population. The resulting report presents findings and recommendations that provide a roadmap for improving health and well-being for veterans and the nation.

Table of Contents

Front Matter Summary 1 Introduction 2 Defining Whole Health 3 Evidence Supporting Whole Health's Foundational Elements 4 Whole Health in Practice 5 Whole Health Systems' Evidence 6 Scaling and Spreading Whole Health 7 Infrastructure for Scaling and Spreading Whole Health 8 Conclusions and Recommendations Appendix A: Biographic Sketches Appendix B: Disclosure of Unavoidable Conflict of Interest