Spiritual health: the next frontier

Abstract

About a quarter of a century ago, the WHO entertained a discussion on whether the ‘spiritual’ dimension should be included in the definition of health1 in addition to physical, mental, and social well-being. A few years later, the spiritual dimension was included in a major journal dedicated to health promotion (http://www.healthpromotionjournal.com/) and at about the same time, Agenda 21 recognized the right of individuals to ‘healthy physical, mental, and spiritual development’ (Agenda 21, Chapter 6.23). A decade ago, governments of all European nations signed the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development committing themselves to addressing the ‘spiritual’ needs of their populations: individuals, families, and communities, and to orienting their policies towards a ‘political, economic, ethical, and spiritual vision for social development’. (http://www.visionoffice.com/socdev/wssdco-3.htm) More recently, the spiritual dimension of health was highlighted in the Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion.2 Yet, with the exception of end-of-life interventions, this dimension is almost totally absent from discussions of public health and health promotion in Europe, whether it be in the discourse of public health professionals or policy-makers. Two … Correspondence: John-Paul Vader, University of Lausanne Medical Centre, Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, Lausanne, Switzerland, e-mail: John-paul.vader{at}chuv.ch