Building a culture of health: A new framework and measures for health and health care in America

Abstract

For generations, Americans’ health has been unequally influenced by income, education, ethnicity, and geography. Health care systems have operated largely apart from each other and from community life. The definition of health has been the “absence of illness,” rather than the recognition that all aspects of our lives should support health.Today, a growing number of communities, regions, and states are working to redefine what it means to get and stay healthy by addressing the multiple determinants of health. The requirements of federal health care reform are changing who has access to care, how care is paid for and delivered, and how patients and providers interact. Coordinated efforts to promote wellness and prevent diseases are proliferating among a diverse set of stakeholders. These developments in health and in society present a window of opportunity for real societal transformation—a chance to catalyze a national movement that demands and supports a widely shared, multifaceted vision for a Culture of Health.To address this challenge, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has embarked on a strategic direction to use the tools of a large national philanthropy to catalyze a social movement which we are calling Building a Culture of Health. This article presents the Foundation’s new model for a Culture of Health, the trans-disciplinary research that developed a set of metrics that tie to the model, and the community engagement activities undertaken in the development of both the model and metrics. The model and associated metrics and extensive communication, in addition to partnership, and grant funding strategies, represent a culture change strategy being implemented over 20 years. Addressing underlying inequities in health affirming life conditions and improving social cohesion across diverse groups to take action to improve theses condition lay at the heart of this strategy.