It’s All About the Ecosystem

Synopsis: The odds of people experiencing positive health and quality of life are
greatly increased when multiple factors within their ecosystem support positive
health. However, far too many health types focus on “downstream” variables
such as knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions. If you desire to help others
achieve positive health and improve their quality of life, you must become very
adept at designing interventions that positively influence multiple factors in the
ecosystem and are sustainable. How do you do that?

Learning Objectives: After reading and learning from this resource guide, you
should be able to:

1. Describe the term “ecology” and how it impacts our health status.
2. List and describe some eco-system type determinants of health.
3. Describe the five Social Determinants of Health (SDOH).
4. Explain why our programs should focus on the SDOH.