A leading Perth paediatrician is using World Health Day with its theme ‘Our Planet, Our Health’ to call for an increased focus on mental health and our interaction with the environment, during a time of “unprecedented stress, anxiety and uncertainty”.
Susan Prescott, a Professor of Paediatrics at The University of Western Australia, Immunologist at Perth Children’s Hospital and founding director of the ORIGINS Project at the Telethon Kids Institute, is also founding director of inViVO Planetary Health, a global initiative of the Worldwide Universities Network.
“We’re a diverse community of scientists from around the globe who believe that to restore human health, we have to restore the health of our society and our relationship with each other and the natural environment,” Professor Prescott said.
“World Health Day provides us with an opportunity to look at some of the urgent action towards more integrated vision of health that recognises both personal and collective actions are needed in tandem.
“I firmly believe that activities which promote more connected consciousness through community initiatives, creativity and the arts, connection to nature, spirituality, and wisdom from diverse cultures, are vital in building more mutualistic world views.
“These are all often underestimated as enormous assets for both physical and mental health — of individuals and whole societies. We must strive to be ‘wiser ancestors’ for the generation to come. For the sake of our children, we need to expand the focus from merely technical solutions to give greater emphasis to our deeper human potential.”
An artist and an author whose inspiration to work in the health field came from her grandmother, one of the few women to study medicine in the 1930s, Professor Prescott believes the pathway for global change must begin locally.
“All of the challenges we face as a planet and as human beings are interconnected and interdependent and it’s only by working within our own local communities that we can make effective and long-lasting change,” she said.
As part of World Health Day, the Planetary Health Alliance at Harvard, is inviting health professional individuals, institutions and groups across the world to consider making a planetary health pledge based on a paper published in The Lancet, co-authored by Professor Prescott.
“The Planetary Health Pledge is designed to stimulate discussion on how people can incorporate planetary health principles of connectivity, unity, and interdependence into their personal and professional actions,” she said.
“It’s hoped that this pledge can serve as a statement that brings greater kindness and reciprocity to efforts to improve health and wellbeing across the continuum of people, places, and planet.”
