A global framework for integrating public health into well-being: why a public well-being system is needed

Abstract

There is a growing focus on public health initiatives that prioritise well-being. The main question of our study is whether this, in its current form, can really represent a new response to the challenges of previous strategies, or whether there is a greater chance that it will essentially reproduce the problems associated with the paradoxical situation of public health.Based on a review, analysis and evaluation of the literature on well-being in public health, we outlined the foundations of a new meta-theory of well-being and a possibility for its social application. In our view, well-being is seen as a social representation of a combination of positive and negative freedom of choice concerning the quality of everyday life, used in a positioning process involving both individual and collective aspects. Health is a particular aspect of the social representation and positioning of well-being, which encompasses aspects of the physical, psychological, social and spiritual functioning of individuals.The well-being meta-theory also opens up the possibility for more effective solutions to the social challenges related to well-being and salutogenetic health. It underscores the importance of the need for a dedicated social subsystem where the goals and organizational culture of the organizations involved are focused on well-being and health promotion. In our study, we consider this to be the Public Well-being System (PWS).Our conclusion is that the development and operation of a new set of institutions -the Public Wellbeing System (PWS) -based on the co-production of services that meet the needs and demands of society, and dedicated to the promotion of well-being, may provide an opportunity to overcome the public health paradox.