HEALTH IN 3D

The importance of health and well-being cannot be overstated: Whether physical, mental or social, well-being underpins our ability and capacity to live, love, form bonds, find fulfilment and be contributing humans to society.

The Faculty of Health investigates these three dimensions of well-being – physical, mental and social – through the work of our three academic units: Kinesiology and Health Sciences, Recreation and Leisure Studies and Public Health Sciences. Each unit approaches our vision of a healthier world with different frameworks in mind, encompassing well-being in these three dimensions, as well as at three levels of care: the individual, community and population levels.

With this approach, we examine health from a broad perspective, including illness prevention. As the World Health Organization points out in its constitution, health is not merely the absence of disease and infirmity, but a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being.

We have also begun to explore how Indigenous ways of knowing can improve the study and teaching of health-related fields through the guidance of an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper, and we have committed to ensuring that people of all races, ethnicities, genders and sexual orientations feel welcome when studying or working in our spaces.

In Health in 3D, we explore how some Faculty of Health researchers create impact on the three dimensions of physical, mental and social well-being in areas such as health technology, aging, brain and body, mental health, environment and communities. Our students and alumni also have made an impact in these areas, and we are proud to highlight some of their work as well.

Best,

Lili Liu Dean, Faculty of Health University of Waterloo