Travailler ensemble pour prospérer : Bien-être et santé publique (Rapport de l'administratrice en chef de la santé publique du Canada sur l'état de la santé publique au Canada 2025)
Résumé en français à venir. This resource is also available in English.
The CPHO’s 2025 Report on the State of Public Health in Canada explores the interconnections between public health and well-being and explores opportunities for public health to contribute to, and learn from, well-being interventions and frameworks.
Public health and well-being
Well-being and good health are inextricably linked. Good health facilitates well-being. Societal contexts that support well-being also support the advancement of key public health priorities including population health and health equity.
Well-being incorporates multiple facets: social, economic, environmental and health. A focus on well-being in global and national contexts can be used to drive intersectoral action to intervene on the determinants of health and take a whole-of-society approach. As what drives health and well-being is often beyond a health system’s mandate, a wellbeing approach opens the opportunity for public health to address complex societal challenges (e.g., spread of infectious disease, wildfires and other extreme weather events connected to climate change).
Moving from knowledge to action
This report discusses three main topics.
Section One discusses well-being concepts and approaches, including the significant value of First Nations, Inuit and Métis approaches to well-being. The Canadian Index of Wellbeing and Canada's Quality of Life Framework arose out of efforts to move beyond the use of gross domestic product (GDP) to assess how a society is faring.
Section Two discusses three concrete ways in which well-being policy goals and associated measurement frameworks contribute to addressing public health priorities:
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Bring a strengths-based lens, which can align with Indigenous well-being approaches and frameworks,
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Focus attention on future generations and planetary health, approaches not always reflected in public health ways of working; and
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Stimulate intersectoral action through wholistic well-being frameworks that identify multiples domains (and associated sectors) of well-being – e.g., health, employment, education, income.
Section Three discusses four potential roles public health can play to support others leading well-being initiatives:
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Provide knowledge on the structural determinants of health to build understanding and action on underlying drivers of inequity in well-being initiatives;
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Share public health data and evidence, especially disaggregated data that can inform understanding and action to address health inequities.
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Advocate for intersectoral action, recognizing public health’s experience intervening on the determinants of health to advance health equity.
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Support implementation of Indigenous rights, in line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
In its report, Towards Developing WHO’s Agenda on Well-Being, the World Health Organization (WHO) identifies that, “The well-being agenda strives to create social, economic, and environmental conditions that support individual and collective health, quality of life, ability to thrive, the equitable distribution of resources, and planetary sustainability", (WHO, 2021, p. 15). These goals align well with public health priorities and values.
Use this resource to
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Facilitate discussion on how well-being concepts and frameworks can be leveraged to advance public health work
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Identify how public health can contribute to well-being interventions and actions Co-develop and implement intersectoral collaboration efforts to advance well-being, population health and health equity
Alignment with NCCDH work
Season 3 of the NCCDH podcast focuses on well-being and explores two well-being approaches in Nova Scotia and Alberta.
NCCDH has conducted work on the structural and social determinants of health, health equity, redistribution of power, climate change and planetary health, and intersectoral collaboration, all topics relevant to well-being concepts, frameworks and approaches.
Let’s Talk: Determinants of health
Let’s Talk: Redistributing power to advance health equity
Climate Change Resilience Part 2: Public health roles and actions
Intersectoral collaboration to address health equity: A curated list
Assessing the impact and effectiveness of intersectoral action on the social determinants of health
Reference
Public Health Agency of Canada. Chief Public Health Officer of Canada’s Report on the State of Public Health in Canada 2025: Working Together to Thrive: Well-Being and Public Health. Ottawa, ON: Public Health Agency of Canada; 2025.
Balises: Action intersectorielle, Déterminants structurels, Santé planétaire, Agence de la santé publique du Canada