Wellness First
Why Wellness
First?
Wellness First is "an approach to community wellness that makes use of the wellness resources already available in that community."
Cave & Brandow, 2017
For more about the Wellness First Approach: Brandow, C. L., Brandow, J. S., & Cave, C. (2019). A wellness first approach: A lens for improving mental health and well-being. Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, 21(1), 39–54. https://doi.org/10.1891/1559-4343.21.1.39
I'm interested in a lot of intersecting topics - race and ethnicity, public health, well-being, media effects, communication, and health disparities, to name a few.
While spending years working and exploring these topic areas, I came to the conclusion that community and wellness come first. If we have strong communities, we have strong people. If we have strong communities, we can reduce health disparities, we can combat stereotypes about race and ethnicity, we can strengthen communication and build social capital in our neighborhoods. With stronger communities, many of the public health and social problems that exist could be avoided or reduced.
