Whole Health: Frequently Asked Questions

Both approaches emphasize caring for people as integrated beings rather than as a collection of diseases, but they differ in scope and application. Whole Person Health, as used by NIH, focuses on the biological, psychological, and behavioral systems within an individual—it is primarily a research framework for understanding health across body systems. Whole Health is a systems framework that extends beyond the individual to include families, communities, and environments. It integrates medical care, behavioral health, public health, and social support around what matters most to each person. In short, Whole Person Health is about how the body and mind work together; Whole Health is about how health, social, and community systems work together to create the conditions for well-being. Policymakers can use Whole Health to guide financing, workforce, and infrastructure reforms that translate Whole Person Health science into everyday practice.

Integrative Health combines evidence-based conventional and complementary approaches such as mindfulness, acupuncture, yoga, and nutrition to support healing of the whole person. Whole Health extends further. It includes prevention, self-care, and personal agency, and moves beyond the clinic to connect medical care with social, behavioral, and community dimensions of health. Whole Health uses integrative approaches when evidence supports them, but it is ultimately a systems model that aligns health, social, and community supports around what matters most to people. For policymakers, it provides a structure for integrating clinical and community services within financing and workforce strategies.

They share a common foundation but differ in scope and audience. The VA Whole Health System, developed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, is an operational model—a way of delivering care that helps veterans identify what matters most, supports self-care and skill building, and provides team-based clinical treatment. The National Academies’ Whole Health framework builds on the VA’s experience and expands it to the national level. It is a policy and systems framework that applies Whole Health principles across all populations—not only veterans—and connects health care with public health, behavioral health, and community systems. In short, the VA model shows how Whole Health works in practice, while the National Academies framework shows how it can guide national policy and system alignment.