General public definition
- Well-being, which can also be written as wellbeing, is currently not listed as a diagnosis in the DSM-5-TR or ICD-11.
- Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) defines well-being using a broad framework that includes seven interacting domains:31,34
- employment or meaningful purpose
- financial security
- health
- life skills and preparedness
- social integration
- housing and physical environment, and
- cultural and social environment.
Academic definition
- Well-being, or wellbeing, is currently not listed as a diagnosis in either the DSM-5-TR or ICD-11.
- Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) defines well-being using a broad framework that includes seven interacting domains:31,34
- employment or meaningful purpose
- financial security
- health
- life skills and preparedness
- social integration
- housing and physical environment, and
- cultural and social environment.
- Elements of each domain in the VAC framework can vary from poor to good, based on subjective and objective measurements.34,35
- Health is one domain of well-being that interacts with the other domains in a bidirectionally; for example, having a good job supports good mental health, while having good mental health supports finding and keeping a good job.
- The subjective and objective variability from poor to good in each domain underscores the complexity of well-being and the importance of understanding health as part of a system that depends upon, and influences, the other domains of well-being, as opposed to existing in isolation.
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