Public health and compassion: Exploring the interface

Abstract

Many parts of society are experiencing declining compassion, while there is increasing evidence from the health sector on the benefits of compassion.  Public health approaches are a practical and effective means of taking population-level action on issues that challenge health and wellbeing, such as communicable and non-communicable disease, substance misuse, gambling, and violence. A public health approach to compassion therefore merits exploration, although existing literature speaks little to this issue. Drawing on public health approaches to issues affecting health and wellbeing, we propose a three-pronged conceptual approach to public health and compassion, noting the need to understand compassion and its determinants through application of epidemiological methods, implement targeted and universal interventions, and scale successful interventions while leveraging related public health initiatives. This approach, which builds on guiding principles of social justice, equity, solidarity and participation, provides a starting point for understanding public health approaches to compassion.