Healthy Living

Promoting and supporting healthy behaviors of individuals and families where they live, learn, work, play and commute – in homes, schools, workplaces, and communities – is essential for overall health and well-being. The choices we make for healthy living are shaped by the choices we have available to us.

Many factors influence health such as family history, gender, culture, education, employment, income, early childhood experiences, the environment, personal health practices and coping skills, and our social support networks. It takes the collective effort and sustained action of many different partners, working together to address these factors, in order to achieve optimal health and well-being for everyone. Partners promote health through many different actions to help make the healthy choice the easy choice.

Actions include:

  • building healthy public policy – developing policies that support health (e.g. tobacco free policies in schools and public places);
  • creating supportive environments – creating environments that support health where we live, learn, work, play and commute (e.g. healthy food choices in recreation facilities);
  • strengthening community action – working with communities to take action and promote and support health (e.g. community groups and municipalities promoting health messages); and,
  • developing personal skills – informing, educating and teaching skills to help people stay well (e.g. food skills, skills to help quit smoking).

In Newfoundland and Labrador, health promotion and wellness efforts are guided by Achieving Health and Wellness: Provincial Wellness Plan for Newfoundland and Labrador (2006).

The Provincial Wellness Plan addresses a set of wellness priorities:

The Provincial Government invests in and supports other healthy living initiatives including: