Health, the good and the bad, is an experience that unites us all, which is why the World Health Organization (WHO) unites the world on April 7th each year to mark World Health Day. Various events are held to observe the global health awareness day.
Why is World Health Day 2023 important?
Word Health Day 2023 celebrates 75 years since the founding of the WHO, whose purpose is to protect the world’s population, enabling everyone, everywhere to achieve the highest level of wellness.
Each World Health Day has a theme to highlight an important global health topic. World Health Day 2023’s theme is “Health for all”.
COVID-19 and other health emergencies, overlapping humanitarian and climate crises, economic limitations, and war, have made every nation’s journey to “Health for All” more urgent. This, along with the fact that 30% of the global population cannot access essential health services, are just some of the key messages and action points WHO have identified.
What’s more, at the time of writing, in England (and to a lesser extent in other Western countries) the decades long improvement in life expectancy has stalled in the last few years and has actually declined for women, particularly the most deprived. Relative child poverty (measured after housing costs are deducted) has continued to rise, and in 2019–20 was four percentage points higher than in 2011–12 (a rise of 700,000 children). That has improved with temporary benefits support during the pandemic. Poverty is one of the things that impacts the world’s public health the most, along with women’s education, poverty, community solidarity, inequity and the quality of public services.
April 7th will be an opportunity to reflect on previous public health successes that have improved quality of life, and a chance to spark action to overcome present and future health challenges.
What events are happening on World Health Day?
WHO conveniently shares a campaign toolkit for anyone looking to organise an event, online or offline, big or small.
Ideas include:
- Engaging schools, universities and youth networks by leading walks and marathons.
- Inspiring debates to open a dialogue about the health needs of your community.
- Holding art, poetry, music or drama competitions to raise awareness of health challenges.
- Encouraging staff or groups to share stories of their involvement in health-related activities on social media using #HealthForAll and #WHO75 to motivate others.
- Collaborating with health champions and public figures to advocate for access to quality health services and express what “Health for all” means for your community.
How to celebrate World Health Day 2023
If you’re not looking to organise an event, the above will hopefully give you a flavour of what you can get involved in. For instance, for very young children, libraries may offer dedicated free story time sessions. For adults, events like lectures given by professionals, such as Dr Christine Delon, Senior Data Analyst at Cancer Research UK will take place. Over in Australia, people are invited to participate in a free World Health Day Community Bushwalk – perhaps there’s something similar happening near you?
What events can you hold in the workplace on World Health Day?
- Forget MasterChef, embrace “Healthy Chefs” by asking staff to bring in healthy lunches and recipes to swap. Remote workers could share photos and recipes of their healthy dishes on channels like Microsoft Teams or Slack.
- Offer less typical fruit and veg in the office – think more papaya, pomegranate and jicama rather than bananas and apples – as eating more than 30 different plant-based foods a week can do wonders for your gut health.
- Why not challenge staff to eat 30+ different plant-based foods in World Health Day week using our checklist for inspiration?
- Slow down…maybe you could call for colleagues to eat away from their desks and screens? Doing so could do their digestion a lot of favours.
- Make breaks active by welcoming a fitness instructor into the office to hold a yoga, Zumba, dance or HIIT workout suitable for all levels that can be streamed to remote employees too. If that’s not appropriate, perhaps encourage staff to walk or cycle to work or have walking meetings.
- And…breathe…organising a class run by someone trained in breathing techniques, such as Buteyko, Wim Hof or Soma could encourage staff to breathe slowly and nasally, which can benefit those experiencing stress.
- Get staff acquainted with their key measurements – for instance, bringing in a blood pressure monitor and allowing them to take readings or showing them how to work out their waist to hip ratio – a better indicator of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and other health problems than BMI.
- Arrange some first-aid training for staff – hopefully they won’t need it but knowing it could be lifesaving – St John’s Ambulance and the British Red Cross offer first-aid courses. A bill for businesses to provide mental first aid training was proposed in parliament in early 2023, so investing in staff training in this area would be beneficial too.
- Hold an open, no judgement discussion on less talked about health issues, for example, menopause, men’s mental health or anxiety.
- Fundraise for charities like Mental Health UK, Diabetes UK or international organisations like Doctors Without Borders as every bit your team can donate through dress down days, office quizzes etc. will make more difference than you realise.
Reviewed by:
Anna Keeble MA BA Head of Content and Wellbeing Expert
Dr Brian Fisher MBBch MBE MSc FRSA – Clinical Director
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- British Red Cross (n.d.) First aid at work courses, training and more. British Red Cross.
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- Medecins Sans Frontieres (n.d.) Pharmaceutical company ViiV must provide transparency on HIV prevention drug. Medecins Sans Frontieres.
- Mental Health UK (2023) Take care of your wellbeing this spring. Mental Health UK.
- Merton Libraries (2023) Thursday Storytime for World Health Day at Raynes Park Library. Eventbrite.
- Raleigh V (2022) What is happening to life expectancy in England? The King’s Fund.
- Saull P (2023) Mental health first aid law proposed in parliament. BBC News.
- St John Ambulance (2023) Find a First Aid Course near you. St John Ambulance.
- St John Ambulance (2023) Mental Health First Aid training courses. St John Ambulance.
- World Health Organization (2023) 75 years of improving public health. World Health Organization.
- World Health Organization (2023) Key messages. World Health Organization.
- World Health Organization (2023) Campaign toolkit. World Health Organization.
