The most important things you need to know about your health may not be as obvious as you think.
Health = A rewarding job with a living wage
Little control at work, high stress, low pay, or unemployment all contribute to poor health.
Your job makes a difference.
Health = Food on the table and a place to call home
Having access to healthy, safe, and affordable food and housing is essential to being healthy.
Access to food and shelter make a difference.
Health = Having options and opportunities
The thing that contributes most to your health is how much money you have. More money means having more opportunities to be healthy.
Money makes a difference.
Health = A good start in life
Prenatal and childhood experiences set the stage for lifelong health and well-being.
Your childhood makes a difference.
Health = Community belonging
A community that offers support, respect, and opportunities to participate helps us all be healthy.
Feeling included makes a difference.
Action to improve the things that make ALL of us healthy depends on ALL of our support. We encourage you to start a conversation and share what you know.
Supportive & Social Environments
Southern Health-Santé Sud recognizes that creating supportive social and physical environments around people by taking action on the root causes of illness and injury has the greatest potential to support health and wellness and improve ways to well-being, for example:
- communities and environments that make it easy for their members to be active and support mental health and wellness are linked with lower rates of depression and anxiety across all life stages
- environments that support a person’s ability to feel connected, close to and valued by other people are important for promoting well-being, encouraging healthy functioning and preventing mental health problems and illness
- taking notice, reflecting and being aware of surroundings can help to reaffirm life priorities and allows for people to make positive choices, based on their values and motivations
- environments that support continuous learning throughout the life span help people build self-esteem, while also promoting social interactions and inspiring a more active lifestyle
- by giving through community participation, volunteering and carrying out random acts of kindness, people are more likely to rate themselves as happy
Healthy Choices
Health is about making responsible choices but it is also about what choices you have, Getting rest, eating well, being physically active and being smoke free can help us stay healthy and reduce the risk of becoming ill or seriously injured. Creating supportive environments that enable healthy behaviors and make them more attainable and sustainable is also important. Health is both an individual and shared responsibility. We recognize that many of the choices we make are not necessarily "choices" at all but are realities determined by other factors.
Partnering with you
With this in mind we want to partner with you, families, governments, community groups, committees and organizations to encourage:
- health for all (health and racial equity)
- physical activity
- harm reduction and injury prevention
- mental well-being
- tobacco reduction
- oral health
- healthy food choices
- healthy built environments
For strategies and guidelines for eating healthier and living better, contact your local Public Health-Healthy Living office or check out Manitoba’s Healthy Living Guide.
