What does holistic mean?
I have googled and read and read and googled but I just cant seem to grasp what it actually means. Its driving me nuts. Send help
In: Other
*Context: health and social care.*
**ELI5:** It means understanding that when a person is healthy or ill, it is not just the idea that physically they do/do not have a disease or illness. It is the idea that health and wellbeing for a person means more than simply being physically well, but also how they feel in their mind/heart/soul, how they interact with the world around them, and how the world interacts with them. So when we care for someone we don’t just look after the body and “fix the problem” like a mechanic fixes a broken piece of machinery, but we consider all the other factors around them.
*“The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease.”* -Sir William Osler.
**Non-ELI5:** Holistic care is embedded into the concept of person-centred care, and is the term used to indicate a comprehensive approach to patient care – so “looking at the whole” of the individual. Holistic care means considering the many aspects that make a person and their well-being – physiological, psychological, social, developmental, cultural and spiritual well-being. This approach analyses illness and provides healthcare that acknowledges, and responds to, all factors relevant to the health or illness of an individual.
A straightforward and common example of this is use of the biopsychosocial model, which although attributed to Engel (1977) has been used across many cultures across history. The biopsychosocial model puts forward that illness and health are the result of an interaction between three factors: the biological state of an individual, their psychological state, and social environment and connections they have. Other holistic models of care expand to include concepts of: intellectual health, spiritual health, emotional health, environmental health, financial circumstances, purpose and possibilities, ecological/planetary health.
**Further reading:**
Mills IJ (2017) A person-centred approach to holistic assessment. Primary Dental Journal. 6, 3, 18 – 22
Wade DT & Halligan PW (2017) The biopsychosocial model of illness: a model whose time has come. Clinical Rehabilitation. Doi: 10.1177/0269215517709890
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