International Universal Health Coverage Day

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an ongoing moment of reckoning for health systems around the world. While the harsh lessons of our global situation are far from new—and while fears and injustices now making headlines reflect the daily reality of millions before the pandemic—the sheer scale of this crisis has sparked new urgency around health systems and universal health coverage. More leaders than ever are paying attention, and more people than ever are rising to demand change. On 12 December, join us to demand action on universal health coverage and call on leaders to invest in health systems for all that leave no one behind. Our lives, livelihoods and futures depend on it.

- United Nations

The stress and suffering we have all experienced during the global COVID pandemic have left us changed, there is no doubt about it. The myriad challenges we face as a society and as individuals may seem insurmountable, but as an optimist and believer in Wholistic Wellbeing, I think that, ultimately, good will emerge from this situation.

As we know, stress erodes our cellular health, microbiome, and mental outlook. Good health is vital and the importance of being proactive and taking preventative measures to maintain good health cannot be overstated. With a basis grounded in holistic medicine, which comes from the Greek word holos, meaning entire or whole, we are called to focus on the whole person: the mind-body-spirit, our wellbeing, our wellness. That’s Wholistic Wellbeing in a nutshell.

This healthcare challenge is personal, of course, but the wider mandate is to bring medical and Wholistic Wellbeing access to all on the planet, not just to those of us living in privilege. At Roundglass, we are passionate about democratizing health through Wholistic Wellbeing, by animating a more transparent and open conversation about mental health, mindfulness, meditation, bereavement, grief, nutrition, sustainability, social and community wellbeing, financial management, and spiritual enlightenment. We want to empower all people to choose wellbeing for themselves regardless of their place in society. For us, health and Wholistic Wellbeing are a birthright, not a luxury.

I cannot say it better than the great minds who gathered at the U.N. to exchange their points of view on this need in 2019 at the UN High-Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage:

To build a safer and healthier future for all, we must strengthen our health systems to ensure they are equitable, resilient, and capable of meeting everyone’s needs. Governments, international organizations, civil society organizations, the private sector, academia, and media are encouraged to use this year’s theme to keep holding leaders, our health systems and ourselves accountable to the promise of health for all. Everyone, everywhere deserves access to quality health services, in times of crisis and calm.

The interconnectedness that helps make us healthy and fit are both within and outside us, as they weave in and around my eight pillars of wellbeing – physical, emotional, financial, professional, social, community, planetary, and spiritual. Paying attention to the greater good is a part of being attuned to the world, at every one of these foundational levels.

I urge you to demand universal healthcare and Wholistic Wellbeing for all.