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,

Aquatic Ecotoxicology: Advancing Tools for Dealing with Emerging Risks, July 13, 2015

This book chapter advances SDGs 3 and 14 by providing an overview of ecotoxicological tools currently used for risk assessment in aquatic media, improving risk assessments, biological tools, and emerging concerns.
Elsevier,

Aquatic Ecotoxicology: Advancing Tools for Dealing with Emerging Risks, Volume , July 13, 2015

This book chapter advances SDGs 3 and 14 by highlighting how assessing environmental risks of chemicals entering the aquatic environment as a consequence of human activities is a complicated task and summarizing relevant strategies for emerging risks.
Contributing to SDGs 3 (Good health and Well-being) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), this concept note explores what a public health approach to global drug policy means in practice.
In this Series paper, we review evidence for interventions to reduce the prevalence and incidence of violence against women and girls. Our reviewed studies cover a broad range of intervention models, and many forms of violence - ie, intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual assault, female genital mutilation, and child marriage. Evidence is highly skewed towards that from studies from high-income countries, with these evaluations mainly focusing on responses to violence.
Elsevier, The Lancet, Volume 385, 18 April 2015
Health systems have a crucial role in a multisector response to violence against women. Some countries have guidelines or protocols articulating this role and health-care workers are trained in some settings, but generally system development and implementation have been slow to progress. Substantial system and behavioural barriers exist, especially in low-income and middle-income countries.
Purpose Transgender youth represent a vulnerable population at risk for negative mental health outcomes including depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicidality. Limited data exist to compare the mental health of transgender adolescents and emerging adults to cisgender youth accessing community-based clinical services; the present study aimed to fill this gap. Methods A retrospective cohort study of electronic health record data from 180 transgender patients aged 12-29 years seen between 2002 and 2011 at a Boston-based community health center was performed.
Purpose The mental health and victimization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth have garnered media attention with the "It Gets Better Project." Despite this popular interest, there is an absence of empirical evidence evaluating a possible developmental trajectory in LGBTQ distress and the factors that might influence distress over time.
This article ties to SDG 3 & 4. This article explores the role of schools in supporting unaccompanied young refugees in critical psychosocial transitions concerning processes of socialisation, integration and rehabilitation upon resettlement.
This article ties to SDG 3 & 4. In this Review, evidence for mental health interventions in schools in accordance with a public mental health approach spanning promotion, prevention, and treatment was provided.
Elsevier,

The Lancet Psychiatry, Volume 1, 1 October 2014

This article ties to SDG 3 &4. In this Review on school-based mental health interventions and services in high-income countries the aim was to contextualise and identify key areas for consideration and development of school-based mental health interventions and services.

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