The NBWHP does not use the term "infirmity" which is used in the WHO definition to classify elderly and disabled individuals as definitionally un-healthy. Also, the NBWHP's definition adds spiritual and emotional wellness to the definition of health which centers the roles of spirituality and the need to tend to emotional wellbeing for Black women. NBWHP's definition also emphasizes action by using the term "the active promotion of" wellness and adds a time aspect by using the phrase "this and future generations."

Differences Between NBWHP's Definition of Health and the WHO

In 1948 the World Health Organization's (WHO) definition of health was that the WHO, "defines health positively, as complete physical, mental and social well-being, not merely negatively as the absence of disease or infirmity."

University of Wisconsin - Madison

The National Black Women's Health Project defined health as "not merely the absence of illness, but the active promotion of physical, spiritual, mental and emotional wellness of this and future generations."

How the National Black Women's Health Project Defines Health

Schalk, Sami. Black Disability Politics, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478027003

Black Disability Politics

NBWHP's Definition of Health and the WHO

The NBWHP has never offered an explicit definition of wellness and well-being. However the pamphlet Black Women Helping Ourselves notes that self-help groups allow Black women to define wellness for themselves and have those definitions shaped by the larger social forces in their lives

Learn Before

Related

Learn After