What is Wellbeing? Explore the basics…
Across the western world over the past couple of decades the definition of well-being has been described in lots of different ways:
“Simply put, it’s about ‘how we’re doing’ as individuals, communities and as a nation, and how sustainable that is for the future. It is sometimes referred to as social welfare or social value.”
“Well-being is a positive state experienced by individuals and societies. Similar to health, it is a resource for daily life and is determined by social, economic and environmental conditions. Well-being encompasses quality of life and the ability of people and societies to contribute to the world with a sense of meaning and purpose. Focusing on well-being supports the tracking of the fair distribution of resources, overall thriving and sustainability. A society’s well-being can be determined by the extent to which it is resilient, builds capacity for action, and is prepared to transcend challenges (World Health Organisation, Glossary of Terms).
Wellbeing is often described as a subjective experience, meaning that it is perceived and evaluated by the individual. It can be influenced by internal factors such as personality, values, and goals, as well as external factors such as social relationships, environment, and culture (What Works Wellbeing, 2019).
The Wellbeing 15: How We Use It and Why It Matters
The Wellbeing 15 brings together the key factors that evidence shows have the greatest impact on health and wellbeing in South Tees. We use this framework to help everyone who supports our local communities — whether through work or volunteering — feel confident in their role and connected to others doing similar work.
• Help members see where they fit
If you support any of these 15 areas, the network is for you. The Wellbeing 15 helps members recognise their role in improving population wellbeing, whatever their background or setting.
• Personalise the information you receive
When someone signs up, they can choose which topics they’re most interested in — for example healthy lifestyles or men’s health. They’ll receive updates on the topics they select, and won’t be contacted about the ones they don’t.
• Connect people who can help each other
Collaboration calls and opportunities are grouped by topic, so the right messages reach the people who can act on them — and don’t reach those who don’t need them.
• Provide a clear visual map of common causes of stress and poor mental health
The Wellbeing 15 highlights where difficulties often begin, making it easier to spot where people may need support early on.
• Support whole‑person conversations
The framework encourages a compassionate approach that focuses on what has happened to someone, rather than what is wrong with them. This helps guide better wellbeing conversations and more person‑centred assessments.
We’d Love Your Feedback
If you’ve used the Wellbeing 15 in your work or it’s helped your understanding, we’d love to hear from you. Your insight helps us keep the framework useful, relevant, and community‑focused.
E-mail us at info@teeswellbeingnetwork.org anytime.
Read on…The medicalisation of human distress…
The Problem of Medicalisation of Human Distress and giving hope in a Wellbeing Approach
During the last 3 decades, the range of diagnoses for mental health conditions has massively increased, and with general lowering of thresholds for diagnosis, mental health has become an issue of over medicalisation, over diagnosis and increasing levels of mental health drug prescriptions as the main solution. It isnt working and mental health measures are getting worse.
In short, we need to do much more to normalise ‘Human distress’ and take more person centred, trauma informed approaches that start by not asking someone ‘What is wrong with you?’ but rather, ‘What has happened to you?’, addressing the factors that affect our wellbeing. Importantly, many external factors are outside the influence of the individual and this is especially important to note, that societal, not just individual issues, are often more significant to someone’s mental health experience in life.
Access our conference resources on the topic:
We held a conference in April 2024 in partnership with Teesside University called ‘Wellbeing Alternatives to the medicalisation of human distress’ where we heard from speakers and held workshops and a marketplace event. You will shortly be able to CLICK HERE to access resources from the day and CLICK HERE to see the recordings of the speakers.
Person centred and trauma informed working
Things in life can be going well in some areas and not so well in others. For some of us, there are so many difficulties in many areas of our life, that, unsurprisingly, they amount to lots of pressure and can cause much distress and even mental health problems if not addressed. These pressures can vary between us, as well as the skills and resources we have to overcome those issues. Recognising the nature of this varying needs is where person-centred comes in, with our experiences of trauma also being essential to include mindfully in our support offers.
What We Aim to do, with Our Growing Membership
Our membership is made up of people who work or volunteer to improve wellbeing in any of the 15 factors across South Tees. We all need to lead people who work or volunteer, and those in our communities we support through pathways of self-led or supported help to relieve the pressures and barriers we can all face in life.
Person centred approaches means the answer to the question of ‘what has happened to you’ will be different for everyone. What support you need is also different, and even in what order you need that support and at what pace.
The advantage of using a well-being approach alongside the medical model of mental health is it broadens out the understanding of what can affect people's mental well-being.
Our future development proposals include the following:
· Start the system changing development of a Wellbeing Pathway. CLICK HERE to see a dedicated page on our website about this proposal.
· Continue to work with Trauma Informed (T.I.) practice leads and the T.I. champions network to nudge changes in the system to become more in line with key TI frameworks. We also advocate for England to catch up with Scotland and Wales in the development of a National TI framework.
· Networking, discussion and surveying with our members to continue to understand how we can support collaboration, system change, awareness and action to provide better wellbeing for all.
Measuring Wellbeing
Wellbeing can be measured in many different ways. The progress in someones growth journey by using different measures at different times or using for example the office of National Statistics ONS well-being 4. These 4 questions for adults (first 3 for young people) can establish how someone sees the quality of their life at a particular time and can be used later to establish improvements in that person's position.
The Office for National Statistics use four questions to measure wellbeing:
Next I would like to ask you four questions about your feelings on aspects of your life. There are no right or wrong answers.
For each of these questions I’d like you to give an answer on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is “not at all” and 10 is “completely”.
Source: Office for National Statistics: Surveys using our four personal wellbeing questions
We would like to suggest that members consider using these 4 simple questions in assessments and evaluations. By collecting this information, we start to develop a good understanding of the individual wellbeing of residents of South Tees. We would identify areas where wellbeing isn’t so great and we would be able to measure changes in wellbeing over time. Obviously our aim is to see good improvements in all these measures over the next few years!
Resources
What Works Wellbeing have developed their own toolkit for wellbeing. We highly recommend using this for measuring wellbeing.
Other useful sites
· Access free PDF copy of ‘Wellbeing, Science and policy’ by Richard Layard/Jan-Emmanuel De Neve
· Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford
· Dr James Davies lecture on ‘the underlying reason why our mental health systems are failing’ and his book/s on the issue – Sedated – Dr James Davies
· Greater Good Science Centre, Berkeley University of California
· Positive Psychology Centre, University of Pennsylvania.
· Action for Happiness international campaign
· Shame and Vulnerability in Wellbeing – see Brene Browns original TED talk on vulnerability, her follow up ted talk, and her website. She also has done a Netflix special (subscription required). See also the page on our event ‘Wellbeing Alternatives to the medicalisation of human distress’ where we heard from Amber Farrier (a Brene brown dare to lead trainer).
· Trauma Informed Practice – A framework – or origin of approach model at SAMSHA (USA)