Today's theme is community

Happy National Public Health Week

Ohana is the traditional Hawaiian word for family.

It also describes close friends and communities. Embracing ohana means developing a sense of familial care and devotion to all members of the human family.

This image of ohana depicts a multicolor family with natural hues of earth, water and sky comprised of swirling patterns that reflect wind, water, and waves.

Embracing ohana is a core element of health, wellness, and equity.

”Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.”

Bronfenbrenner originally conceived the ecosocial model as a framework for human development that includes the individual, influenced by five increasingly more extensive environments: micro, meso, exo, macro, and chrono.

Bronfenbrenner’s theory describes an ecosocial model of how interactions between individuals and their environment form the basis for human development and health.

An ecosocial model emphasizes the multiple levels (e.g., individuals, families, communities and societies), and complexity of human situations (e.g., culture, beliefs) that determine health. The "meso" context depicts the role of the community in producing health.

Communities are an important determinant of health before, during and after a disaster strikes. Community engagement is a process of working collaboratively with people affiliated by geographic proximity to address issues affecting the well-being of those people.

Public health is uniquely positioned at the community level to serve as the convener and the catalyst for addressing the health determinants.

Emergency health recognizes the importance of public health 3.0 in which public health leaders serve as chief health strategists, partnering across multiple sectors in the community and leveraging resources to address the entire range of determinants for health, wellness and equity. #emergencyhealth #apha2023