A Conceptual Framework of Wellbeing in Some Western Nations (A Review Article)

The aim of this study is to examine and highlight the narrow definition of wellbeing that still exists in some contemporary Western societies. This definition is in keeping with the biomedical model that views the exposure to specific pathogens as the cause of diseases in organisms. Such an approach began during the 130ce to 200ce in A ncient Rome, and despite the efforts of the WHO in 1946 to expand the concept, health in Caribbean societies and in particular Jamaica is still substantially seen as the ‘absence of diseases’ or dysfunctions in the body, which is what is used to indicate wellbeing. Health and wellbeing are an operational definition of wellbeing that can be used in the images of wellbeing and patient care. This paper presents and examines a conceptual framework on health (or wellbeing) from a biopsychosocial perspective, as well as including an environmental perspective as this is in keeping with an expanded conceptualization of health as forwarded by the WHO in its constitution. Within the discourse, arguments will be presented on both subjective and objective measurements of wellbeing.