Ecosystems and human well-being

■ Human well-being has several key components: the basic material needs for a good life, freedom and choice, health, good social relations, and personal security. Well-being exists on a continuum with poverty, which has been defined as"pronounced deprivation in well-being."
■ How well-being and ill-being, or poverty, are expressed and experienced is context- and situation-dependent, reflecting local social and personal factors such as geography, ecology, age, gender,and culture.These concepts are complex and value-laden.
■ Ecosystems are essential for human well-being through their provisioning, regulating, cultural, and supporting services. Evidence in recent decades of escalating human impacts. on ecological systems worldwide raises concerns about the consequences of ecosystem changes for human well-being.
■ Human well-being can be enhanced through sustainable human interaction with ecosystems with the support of appropriate instruments, institutions, organizations, and technology. creation of these through participation and transparency may contribute to people's freedoms and choices and to increased economic, social,and ecological security.
■ Some believe that the problems from the depletion and degradation of ecological capital can be largely overcome by the substitution of physical and human capital. Others believe that there are more significant limits to such substitutions.The scope for substitutions varies by socioeconomic status.
■ We identify direct and indirect pathways between ecosystem change and human well-being,whether it be positive or negative.lndirect effects are characterized by more complex webs of causation, involving social, economic, and political threads. Threshold points exist beyond which rapid changes to human well-being can occur.
■ Indigent poorly resourced, and otherwise disadvantaged communities are generally the most vulnerable to adverse ecosystem change. Spirals, both positive and negative, can occur for any population, but the poor are more vulnerable.      
■ Functioning institutions are vital to enable equitable access to ecosystem services. lnstitutions sometimes fail or remain undeveloped because of powerful individuals or groups. Bodies that mediate the distribution of goods and services may also be appropriated for the benefit of powerful minorities.
■ For poor people, the greatest gains in well-being will occur through more equitable and secure access to ecosystem services. In the long run, the rich can contribute greatly to human well-being by reducing their substantial impacts on ecosystems and by facilitating greater access to ecosystem services by the poor.
■ We argue ecological security warrants recognition as a sixth freedom of equal weight with participative freedom, economic   facilities, social opportunities, transparency guarantees, and protective security.

The subjective well-being of people caring for a family member with a severe disability at home: a review

This review concerns the life quality of people caring for a relative with a severe disability within their family. It involves the balance between the advantages such care brings to the care recipient and the costs borne by the family. A brief history indicates that the forces that encourage family care are minimally concerned with family welfare. Moreover, an analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data indicates that primary caregivers are at considerable risk of high stress, clinical depression, and abnormally low subjective quality of life. It is concluded that increased public expenditure directed to the care of people with severe disability is urgently required.

The impact of sexual esteem, body esteem, and sexual satisfaction on psychological well-being in people with physical disability

The current study investigated the association between sexuality and psychological well-being in people with physical disabilities. A total of 1,196 participants completed the study. There were 748 participants who had a physical disability and 448 participants who were able-bodied. The results demonstrated that sexual esteem, body esteem, and sexual satisfaction were strong predictors of self-esteem and depression among people with physical disability, and that this relationship was stronger among people with physical disability than able-bodied participants. It was also found that body esteem was more closely associated with self-esteem in disabled women, while sexual esteem was more closely associated with self-esteem in disabled men. The results of the study suggest that researchers and clinicians who are concerned with the psychological health of people with physical disability should consider strategies to improve the body esteem and sexual well-being of people with physical disabilities.

Governing the Stressed Self: teacher "health and well-being" and "effective schools"

In diverse arenas there is much discussion about the dangerousness of contemporary lifestyles, including the stressful nature of work. These stresses associated with contemporary lifestyles and work are dangerous in so far as they are conceived as placing at risk the emotional, physical and psychic health and well-being of large populations. In this paper we engage with debates about the stressful nature of teachers' work, and the ways in which teacher health and well-being are constructed as being central to the task of delivering more effective schools. In this article we are not so much concerned with the nature of teacher stress as an indication of individual physical, emotional or psychic health and well-being, as with understanding how it is that at this particular historical juncture the self can be so widely conceived in terms of stress. Moreover, what processes make it possible at this moment to link the success or otherwise of a massive institutional process of state-regulated schooling to the health and well-being of teachers and the management of this health and well-being by school managers? We argue that in a policy context that devolves various responsibilities to self-managing schools, the government of the stressed self emerges as an ethical concern for teachers and those who manage them (Foucault, The Use of Pleasure , New York, Pantheon, 1985). Our purpose is to problematise these processes so that responsibilities for delivering on the promise of effective schools might be differently framed and debated.

Multiple sclerosis and economic well being: role of health, age, and duration of illness

This study used quantitative and qualitative techniques to examine the role of health, age, and duration of illness among people with multiple sclerosis (MS) in their economic well-being. Participants were 113 adults (31 males and 82 females) with MS who lived in urban and rural regions of Australia. The results demonstrated that health and age had a significant impact on both the economic well-being and psychological adjustment of people who contract this disorder. Different health variables predicted different aspects of economic well-being. Fatigue was the major health variable that predicted costs of MS and economic pressure, with age also predicting economic pressure, whereas income levels were predicted by cognitive confusion and mobility problems. Duration of illness, gender, and urban/rural location were not significant predictors of the economic variables. These results demonstrate the importance of obtaining multiple measures of economic well-being, as well as a broad range of health-related measures, in determining the impact of MS on the economic well-being of people with this disorder.

Well-being and menopause: an investigation of purpose in life, self-acceptance and social role in premenopausal, perimenopausal and postmenopausal women

Objectives: Many studies have investigated anxiety and depression during the menopausal transition. However, there is little understanding of positive aspects of well-being among menopausal women. This paper reports on two studies which investigated how menopausal stage and age accounted for how women felt about their purpose in life, self-acceptance and social role. Method: In Study One, 304 women from a community sample completed structured questionnaires which included questions relating to demographic background and two subscales of the Psychological Well-being Inventory: purpose in life and self-acceptance. In Study Two, 203 participants from Study One returned a follow-up structured questionnaire related to purpose in life and social role. Results: Study One found that the effects of age group and menopausal group could not be separated: All women felt they would be more positive about these well-being measures in the future than they had been in the past and at present. Study Two found that women who were perimenopausal and postmenopausal did not feel as positive about their role/s in life as premenopausal women, regardless of their age. Conclusions: The results suggest that the menopause may indicate to women that their role/purpose in life is changing. It is important that any understanding of the menopause incorporate psychosocial aspects of women''s lives. Further longitudinal studies are needed to explore well-being factors and the menopause.

Multisensory environments for leisure: promoting well-being in nursing home residents with dementia

Multisensory environments such as Snoezelen^® rooms are becoming increasingly popular in health care facilities for older individuals. There is limited reliable evidence of the benefits of such innovations, and the effect they have on residents, caregivers, and visitors in these facilities. This two-stage project examined how effective two types of multisensory environments were in improving the well-being of older individuals with dementia. The two multisensory environments were a Snoezelen room and a landscaped garden. These environments were compared to the experience of the normal living environment. The observed response of 24 residents with dementia in a nursing home was measured during time spent in the Snoezelen room, in the garden, and in the living room. In the second part of the project, face-to-face interviews were conducted with six caregivers and six visitors to obtain their responses to the multisensory environments. These interviews identified the components of the environments most used and enjoyed by residents and the ways in which they could be improved to maximize well-being.

HRQOL and subjective well-being: noncomplementary forms of outcome measurement

This review considers some of the broad principles that concern quality of life assessment. These are discussed in relation to health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and the measurement of subjective well-being. It is argued that there are serious logical and methodological issues concerning HRQOL measurement, to the extent that the instruments may not be regarded as valid measures of life quality as this term is generally understood. It is recommended that HRQOL measurement be abandoned in favor of three separate forms of measurement as medical symptoms, subjective well-being and specific dimensions of psychological ill-being.

The effects of economic disadvantage on psychological well-being and quality of life among people with multiple sclerosis

This study investigated the impact of economic disadvantage among people with multiple sclerosis (MS) on their psychological well-being and quality of life. Participants were 113 people with MS (31 males, 82 females). Information was obtained on income, lost income, costs of MS, economic pressure, coping, psychological well-being and quality of life. Economic pressure, and not actual MS-related costs predicted psychological well-being. Costs, economic pressure and coping predicted quality of life. These results demonstrate that pressure due to changed economic circumstances, as well as coping with these pressures is important in the quality of life of people with MS.

Human health, well-being and global ecological scenarios

This article categorizes four kinds of adverse effects to human health caused by ecosystem change: direct, mediated, modulated, and systems failure. The effects are categorized on their scale, complexity, and lag-time. Some but not all of these can be classified as resulting from reduced ecosystem services. The articles also explores the impacts that different socioeconomic–ecologic scenarios are likely to have on human health and how changes to human health may, in turn, influence the unfolding of four different plausible future scenarios. We provide examples to show that our categorization is a useful taxonomy for understanding the complex relationships between ecosystems and human well-being and for predicting how future ecosystem changes may affect human health.

Linking future ecosystem services and future human well-being

Ecosystem services are necessary, yet not sufficient for human well-being (however defined). Insufficient access to the ecosystem provisioning service of food is a particularly important factor in the loss of human well-being, but all ecosystem services contribute in some way to well-being. Although perhaps long obvious to ecologists, the links between ecosystems and aspects of human well-being, including health, have been less well understood among the social science community. This situation may now be starting to change, thanks in part to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA). Causality between ecosystem services and well-being is bidirectional; it is increasingly clear that functioning societies can protect or enhance ecosystem services, and accordingly, that societies with impaired well-being (best documented in the case of chronic diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS) can also experience a related decline in ecosystem services.

The future state of human well-being and of ecosystem services is more than the co-evolution of these two fundamental elements. Human well-being also depends, critically, upon the human institutions that govern relationships between human individuals and groups, and also between humans and ecosystem services.

The scenarios working group of the MA found that human well-being is highest in the Global Orchestration scenario, which assumes the fastest evolution of beneficial institutions, and is lowest in the Order from Strength scenario. Human well-being was found to be intermediate in the other two scenarios (Adapting Mosaic and Techno-Garden) even though these scenarios share a much greater recognition of the importance of ecosystem services to human well-being.