Linking Health and Wellbeing in Public Discourse and Policy: The Case of the UK

Abstract

Wellbeing has emerged as a defining feature of health policy in recent years. In the UK, a 2014 briefing paper from the Department of Health stated that there is a two-way relationship between health and wellbeing because health has an impact on wellbeing and wellbeing also impacts on health. Good health is a predictor for, or determinant of, a high level of wellbeing, and also an outcome. There is therefore a clear relationship between health and wellbeing. Recent national publications and policy approaches in the UK have incorporated wellbeing within almost all policy prescriptions. This article will consider the complexities of formulating and implementing joint health and wellbeing policies in the UK. It will begin by considering the origins of the health-wellbeing linkage. It will then look at health and wellbeing policy articulation and prescriptions using government policy papers and documents. Finally, it will consider the inherent difficulties of the joint framework approach.