Health and wellbeing

Health and well-being have a central role in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) endorsed by the United Nations, emphasizing the integral part they play in building a sustainable future. The third SDG explicitly calls for ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages. This goal encompasses a wide range of health objectives, from reducing maternal and child mortality rates, combatting disease epidemics, to improving mental health and well-being. But beyond SDG 3, health is intrinsically linked with almost all the other goals.

When addressing SDG 1, which aims to end poverty, one cannot neglect the social determinants of health. Economic hardship often translates into poor nutrition, inadequate housing, and limited access to health care, leading to a vicious cycle of poverty and poor health. Similarly, achieving SDG 2, ending hunger, also contributes to better health through adequate nutrition, essential for physical and mental development and the prevention of various diseases.

Conversely, the repercussions of climate change, encapsulated in SDG 13, profoundly impact health. Rising global temperatures can lead to increased spread of infectious diseases, compromised food and water supplies, and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, all posing severe health risks. Conversely, the promotion of good health can also mitigate climate change through the reduction of carbon-intensive lifestyles and adoption of healthier, more sustainable behaviors.

SDG 5, advocating for gender equality, also has substantial health implications. Ensuring women's access to sexual and reproductive health services not only improves their health outcomes, but also contributes to societal and economic development. Furthermore, achieving SDG 4, quality education, is also critical for health promotion. Education fosters health literacy, empowering individuals to make informed health decisions, hence improving overall community health.

Lastly, SDG 17 underlines the importance of partnerships for achieving these goals. Multi-sector collaboration is vital to integrate health considerations into all policies and practices. Stakeholders from various sectors, including health, education, agriculture, finance, and urban planning, need to align their efforts in creating sustainable environments that foster health and well-being.

Hence, the relationship between health, well-being, and the SDGs is reciprocal. Improving health and well-being helps in achieving sustainable development, and vice versa. In this context, health and well-being are not just outcomes but are also powerful enablers of sustainable development. For the world to truly thrive, it must recognize and act upon these interconnections.

Elsevier,

Positive Mental Health, Fighting Stigma and Promoting Resiliency for Children and Adolescents, 2016, Pages 173-184

This chapter addresses Goal 3 by discussing how to transform the culture for mental healthcare access for young people.
Elsevier,

McCreath and Delgoda, Pharmacognosy: Fundamentals, Applications and Strategies, 2016, Pages 677 - 685

This book chapter addresses goals 3, 8, and 12 by suggesting that biosciences could form the basis of a strategy for focusing limited resources in ways that are likely to support economic development
Contributing to SDGs 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), this concept note explores an integrated approach for the international drug control regime.
There have been various ways on how to address the practice of violence in a spousal environment. Linked to SDGs 3 and 5, this chapter presents an approach to violence that is split into three paths, namely physical, psychological and sexual violence. Psychological violence includes stalking, financial abuse and social isolation. However, the authors emphasise that these are just categories of study and analysis and in real life, they coexist within aggression.
Spousal violence carries within itself a set of consequences that go beyond bruises, hematomas or other physical injuries. However, very little attention has been given to the psychological impact of spousal violence due to a generated common idea that violence is only serious when it leaves bruises or exposed fractures. Furthering SDGs 3 and 5, this chapter emphasises the impact that violence represents in terms of mood, anxiety and even post-traumatic stress.
Contributing to SDGs 3 and 5, this chapter discusses how spousal violence interventions must be interdisciplinary, integrated, and coordinated to be effective and avoid secondary victimisation.
Elsevier, Social Science and Medicine, Volume 157, May 01, 2016
Nordic countries are the most gender equal countries in the world, but at the same time they have disproportionally high prevalence rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) against women. High prevalence of IPV against women, and high levels of gender equality would appear contradictory, but these apparently opposite statements appear to be true in Nordic countries, producing what could be called the 'Nordic paradox'. Despite this paradox being one of the most puzzling issues in the field, this is a research question rarely asked, and one that remains unanswered.
Elsevier, Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology, Volume 41, 1 April 2016
Sexual aggression and violence against women (VAM) are not only social problems; they are mental health problems. Women who experience sexual trauma often express disruptions in emotional and cognitive processes, some of which lead to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Animal models of neurogenesis and learning suggest that social yet aggressive interactions between a pubescent female and an adult male can disrupt processes of learning related to maternal care, which in turn reduce survival of new neurons in the female hippocampus.
Elsevier,

Disasters and Public Health, Second Edition, 2016.

This book chapter advances SDGs 3 and 13 by discussing the public health preparedness aspects of preparing for and recovering from severe winter storms.
Elsevier,

Alzheimer's Disease, Life Course Perspectives on Risk Reduction, 2016, Pages 57-73

This chapter addresses goal 3 by examining the prevalence and epidemiology of Alzheimer's Disease.

Pages