Letter from Bravewell's President

As Bravewell looks to the future and to the improvement of the health of our nation, we see our work as two-fold: (1) to accelerate the adoption of integrative medicine within the health care system and (2) to facilitate the creation of a culture of health and wellbeing throughout America.

Both of these strategies depend on transforming the way we think about, understand, value and practice health.

Health is a personal and national resource. It is what allows us to engage with life. Without physical, mental and spiritual wellness, we can’t share in loving relationships with our families and friends, or contribute to our communities, or fully participate in our work, or compete on the global stage.

Rather than being the absence of disease, health is the presence of vitality. And we should cultivate it in everything we do.

Integrative medicine is founded on this very principle. You will find extensive information about integrative approaches to care on this website, from a summary of the Institute of Medicine’s Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public to a report on how integrative strategies can help save millions of health care dollars to inspirational speeches by some of integrative medicine’s best minds and more.

When we started a decade ago, the movement was in its infancy. But increasingly, integrative strategies are being adopted by various sectors of our health care system. To understand how it is emerging, we have engaged in a nationwide mapping project, which we hope to complete by the end of 2010. This investigation will inform us about where and how integrative medicine is being utilized and it will identify the best practices that have evolved. Once published, we will share the information broadly. In a related strategy, we are developing evidence-based toolkits to help individuals and institutions implement integrative approaches to care. These will be available from our website in the coming months.

Because so many of the factors that influence health and wellbeing happen in our homes, communities and places of worship and work, we have also helped birth The Healthy Nation Partnership. This network of public and private organizations is working together to improve the health of all Americans by creating a culture of health and wellbeing throughout United States. Part of the Partnership’s work is to develop toolkits to help different sectors of our society — such as business, education, agriculture and local governments — implement strategies that will promote health and wellness for their constituents. Rather than being about preventive measures such as screenings that predict or find early stages of disease (steps that are most needed and in which many other organizations and government agencies are already engaged) our efforts will draw from integrative medicine and focus on the creation and nourishment of health.

It’s an exciting time. We have the opportunity to create meaningful and beneficial change for ourselves and for all Americans.

Should you wish, we invite you to become involved. Click here to learn how.

Sincerely,

Christy Mack

Co-Founder and President, The Bravewell Collaborative