# Transcript

Mary Black

I would define health as a sense of wellbeing. If we ask people to define their health they do not define it in terms of what they cannot do. They define it in a feeling of wellbeing, a feeling of happiness almost. So that is the definition that I would look toward. But that is quite complex, obviously. It’s mental. It’s physical. It’s social. And indeed it’s spiritual.

So those elements create health and wellbeing. And of course the determinants of health, we now know, very clearly lie outside of individual behaviours. They lie in a multitude of factors. So for me health is a feeling of wellbeing. Irrespective of what my physical health may indicate and the limitations I may have physically, I can still be extremely healthy.

Jonna Monaghan

The definition that we use in Healthy Cities right across Europe for health is the WHO definition of health from as long ago as 1948, which says that health is not just the absence of disease. It’s a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing. Health is the result of people’s wider physical and social living conditions. Yes, your genetics, your lifestyle play a role, but those are shaped by other things.

And one that I really quite like, that comes from, again ... from the World Health Organization, from the Ottawa Charter back in 1986 … that says that health is a resource for daily living, not an end in itself. So the idea that if we’re healthy we can live our lives to the full. We can take opportunities, whereas if we’re not healthy in the sense that we have very low aspirations, we don’t feel able to do things, we can’t do that.

Wendy Moss

Good health for a child, I feel, is about making those healthy choices so that families have the full information to do so. Providing information on healthy eating, activities, that … child–adult interaction so that the attachment is there, so that they have social opportunities by playing with their peers. It’s about enabling that environment for that child to thrive and reach its full potential in whatever shape or form that may take.

Margaret Mallon

Having my health, I can be independent. My children don’t have to worry about me. I’m quite capable of looking after myself, because they have their families to look after. They have their work to go to. So they’re there if I need them. But if I can keep myself healthy as long as possible I can, it’s off their shoulders. They don’t have to worry. And that’s the main thing with me.

Bernadette McGreevy

We do come to the groups, and I do try to come in to do whatever is going on and join in as much as we can. But I do have a knee replacement, and I have another knee that is crumbled. And I have arthritis all through my body. And I do have a little heart trouble and asthma. But I try not to get me down, so I try and get on as best I can.

James Johnson

Good health, for me, enables me to be the most productive, connective, useful version of myself that I can be. I notice if my diet is out of balance or if exercise is out of balance that there is an impact on things like energy levels and concentration … so keeping that ... that balance of a healthy way of living is imperative for me to be the best person that I ... or the best version of myself that I can be.