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Have you ever felt so poorly that you couldn’t concentrate or go to school?
Our bodies and minds need to be working well for us to do amazing things.
But all over the world people are in fact quite sick. Sadly people are much more likely to get very sick in some countries than in others. This can depend on whether the country has access to enough clean food and water, whether there are enough hospitals and whether people have enough money to pay to see a doctor.
So what can we do to help?
We need to make good health accessible to everyone no matter where they come from or how much money they have.
This could include making sure that money isn’t a barrier to leading a healthy lifestyle and accessing a doctor or hosting awareness campaigns so that people know how to look after themselves to stay healthy and avoid having to see a doctor.
There are lots of ways that anyone, including you, can make a difference in achieving good health for all. For example, you could: donate your hair to make wigs for children experiencing hair loss or make a poster to offer guidance on how people can wash their hands effectively.
Everyone can take action to make real change. What will you do?
There are lots of charities that need your help to ensure good health for all.
For example, Barnardos keep children safe, The Against Malaria Foundation protect people from malaria and Brake look after people who have been affected by road accidents.
See how you can support them in their amazing work.
What would you say if someone sent you into a cricket match with a broken bat or asked you to play in a concert with a piano that isn’t in tune? You could probably make do if you had to but things might not go very well at all!
In the same way, every human being’s body needs to be working well for them to work, live and be happy. When you aren’t healthy and you try to get stuff done, it really does feel as frustrating as playing with a broken cricket bat or an out-of-tune piano. Humans need to be healthy, not sick! So what does good health mean?
The World Health Organization (WHO – watch a video on what the WHO does) has an important job to do: they have to try and get everyone in the world to be as healthy as possible. To do this job, they’ve come up with a definition for what it means to be healthy.
WHO says that health is: ‘A state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’.
In other words, when you are healthy, your body, mind and social interactions are all doing well. The world would be a wonderful place if everyone was healthy. Unfortunately, many people out there are, in fact, quite sick.
When germs make people sick, they are called infectious diseases. There are so many infectious diseases in the world but there are a few that cause the most trouble. These are tuberculosis (TB), malaria, measles, flu, Covid-19 and diarrhoeal diseases.
People are more likely to catch infectious diseases if they don’t have access to clean water to drink and wash with. Infectious diseases also spread more in areas where people live very close together.
Sometimes people don’t have germs but their bodies don’t quite work like they’re supposed to. About 70% of all deaths in the world are caused by diseases that aren’t caused by germs, like heart disease, cancer, lung disease and diabetes.
Many of these diseases are caused by people’s lifestyles. People who smoke, drink a lot of alcohol, eat a poor diet, don’t exercise and don’t sleep enough are more likely to be affected. However, there are a handful of diseases that have nothing to do with people’s lifestyles. Some people might even be born with a disease or disability.
Some people don’t have diseases or injuries but the way they think, their feelings and their general mood is just not the way they should be. When this happens, these people are struggling with their mental health. There are lots of different mental health problems that both children and adults go through. These problems can make people feel unhappy, lonely, anxious, or angry. Mental health problems affect around one in six people. That means that on a full red London bus, there may be at least 10 people struggling with mental health. Watch the first video below to learn more.
There are lots of different things that can affect someone’s mental health. For example, some children experience a lot of sadness and fear because of bullying. Feeling like this all the time isn’t good for their mental health. They could start suffering from depression and anxiety. Watch the second video above to learn more.
People get injured while doing many different kinds of things. Sometimes injuries are temporary – like falling off your bike and scraping your knee. Other times, injuries are permanent – like being paralysed in a car accident.
Some things make accidents more likely to happen and more serious. Looking at car accidents, for example, these include driving too fast, driving after having drunk too much alcohol or texting and driving. Cyclists may also increase their chances of being involved in an accident if they don’t wear bike lights or don’t signal when they are turning a corner.
There are four big reasons stopping us from achieving Good Health and Well-Being for everyone. As you read the reasons below, think about how they might affect different people. You may start to notice that people from poorer countries or households are more likely to suffer from bad health than those from wealthier ones. This is called health inequality.
People do not know enough about how to look after themselves to stay in good health.
For example, people need to take care of themselves and:
practise good hygiene
The list goes on – there are so many things people can do to keep themselves healthy but often they just don’t know any better.
People cannot afford healthy lifestyles and find themselves in bad health due to poverty-related reasons such as not being able to access food, water, or even a doctor! Or, living in an area where air pollution is dangerously high.
People living in poverty cannot always afford healthy food. Unfortunately, it is sometimes more expensive to eat healthy and nutritious food than to eat unhealthy and processed food. For example, a packet of instant noodles costs about £0.60, whereas a portion of homemade lasagne with some vegetables costs about £2.00 per serving. Not only does making fresh meals cost more but it often takes more time, so people who work long hours struggle to find the time to cook. You can learn more about hunger here.
People living in poverty, especially those in developing countries, often don’t have clean water. They have no choice: they have to drink and wash with dirty water. Dirty water carries bacteria that cause diarrhoeal diseases, making people sick. You learn more about water here.
Many people, particularly in developing countries, do not live near doctors and hospitals. Scroll down to see a map of how many doctors each country has per 1,000 people. You will notice a really big spread. Cuba leads the way with more than 8 doctors per 1,000 people, compared to other countries, particularly African countries, which have less than 1 doctor per 1,000 people.
On top of this, some cures and treatments are very expensive. Whether people can pay for these treatments will depend on whether their country has a universal healthcare system or whether they have enough money for private medical insurance to pay for it themselves.
People living in poverty often live in places that have lots of air pollution. This is because the areas that are the most polluted tend to be the least expensive to live in. Often, factories that cause heavy pollution are placed in poor countries. Their products are exported for rich countries to enjoy, without them needing to deal with the pollution.
Not all health problems have cures. Scientists and researchers are still working hard, searching for treatments for many of the world’s worst diseases.
Medical research takes a lot of time and costs a lot of money because expensive equipment, chemicals and the scientists’ salaries need to be paid. Developing a new medicine costs about £1 billion.
This map shows the number of doctors per 1,000 people in each country. The key at the bottom can help you interpret the map. The countries in pale yellow and green have less than 1 doctor for 1,000 people. The countries in dark blue have more than 8 doctors per 1,000 people.
Scientists, doctors and nurses have already made great leaps in discovering ways to prevent and treat all kinds of illnesses and they continue to make good progress. To ensure that these treatments are available to everyone, the four big problems from earlier need to be addressed.
There are lots of different ways that people can be informed about how to look after themselves. For example, schools could include lessons on this in PSHE (Public, Social, Health and Economic) education. Or, posters could be displayed in schools, shops, buses, trains, doctors’ waiting rooms and anywhere else where people might read them. Here are some examples of ways that people can be taught to look after themselves better:
Most people in the world know that smoking, alcohol, bad food and inactivity can contribute to making them sick. But few people recognise how important sleep is and how it can affect physical and mental health. Adults who get less than 6 hours of sleep a night are 4 times more likely to suffer from lack of concentration and 48% more likely to die of heart disease. There are lots of reasons why people might not get enough sleep. Some of these reasons can be fixed with a simple behaviour change but few people know about them. This is where educational campaigns can help. Educational campaigns could share ideas such as: getting up and going to sleep at the same time each day, turning off electronics an hour before bed and avoiding big meals and caffeine right before bed.
These offer advice to pedestrians and cyclists to keep them safe on the roads. Pedestrians could be taught to use the motto ‘Stop’, ‘Look’, ‘Listen’, ‘Think’ and reminded that they must not be on their phone whilst walking. Cyclists could be reminded to wear a helmet and use lights (white at the front and red at the back). They should also follow the road signs and stop at traffic lights and pedestrian crossings. It is also important that they signal clearly when turning and make eye contact with other road users.
There are lots of different ways to support people to lead healthy lifestyles, no matter how rich or poor they are.
Governments can subsidise fruit and vegetables so that it is less expensive to eat healthily, making it possible for everyone to eat healthily.
Governments can set laws to make it illegal to conduct polluting activities. This can then lead to improvements in the air quality over time, which can help make people healthier.
Medical care needs to be made accessible to everyone no matter where they live, or how much money they have.
To make sure that everyone lives close to a hospital, more hospitals need to be built and more doctors need to be trained. These can be built using tax-payer money, foreign aid, or money raised by charities.
As to cost, some charities offer medical aid to those who don’t have any to help ensure that everyone benefits from healthcare when they need it. Another way to make sure that everyone can get healthcare is to vote for a government that wants a universal healthcare system. The UK has a National Health System (NHS). The NHS uses tax-payer money to fund a healthcare system that is completely free to all members of the public.
Many charities raise money to fund medical research, which can bring humanity one step closer to finding cures to horrible diseases – for example, for cancer research, which costs a lot of money. In 2020, the UK charity ‘Cancer Research’ spent £388 million!
Now that you understand a bit more about Good Health and Well-Being, it’s time to make a difference. If you want to do something practical to help, the power is in your hands. Take a look at some ways you can take action right now.
If you have any other ideas of SuperKind things people can do to help achieve good health and well-being, we would love to hear from you here.
Here are some amazing young people who cared about improving health for all and took action to make change happen. These change makers were all passionate about the same cause but used their unique skills to make change happen in different ways.
Everyone can help make a difference. Consider what your unique superpower might be. Are you someone with a strong voice who likes to spread awareness by talking to everyone you meet? Or do you prefer a behind the scenes approach – making sure that donations are collected to take to those in need?
Like all the important causes in our world, there is a huge amount to learn about health and well-being and how to achieve it. If you want to find out more, here are some excellent further resources:
