Climate Catastrophe Affecting Human Health; Medical Professional Offers Unconventional Remedy
In her new book, Kinship Medicine, Dr. Wendy Johnson, a physician and public health advocate based in New Mexico, argues for a relational model of health that recognises our bodies as ecosystems embedded in other ecosystems.
Johnson's book starts by making the case for the importance of these connections, and then explores how we might begin to heal disordered systems. The call to rebuild care systems rooted in kinship feels especially urgent as climate-linked health impacts surge globally.
Dr. Johnson's background includes working in the Ohio legislature, becoming the statewide organiser for the 20th anniversary of Earth Day, and a winding path to medical school. Before promoting a relational form of medicine, she lived and worked in various places, including diverse clinical and community settings, gaining practical experience across different environments to inform her approach. Specific detailed biographical information is not provided in the search results.
Johnson's work emphasizes the intertwined nature of mental and physical health, and the importance of recognising our bodies as ecosystems made up of trillions of microbes. This model would require overhauling the current health care system to allow for more time to understand patients' lives, histories, environments, and relationships.
The proposed system would rely on teams of health coaches, behavioural health specialists, nutritionists, community organisers, working together. Embracing kinship medicine at scale could lead to major shifts, including increased face-to-face connections, reduced isolation, and potential changes in political systems.
Promising models like community medicine and lifestyle medicine are moving in this direction. The community health movement, started by Jack Geiger and Count Gibson, envisioned clinics as spaces addressing not just health care needs, but also broader community needs. In the Mississippi Delta, the first community health centers helped residents build sanitation systems, improve housing, and run farms.
Non-human relationships, such as plants, animals, and land, play a central role in kinship medicine. Collaboration in projects, especially in nature, can build relationships and bridge political divides. Examples of this include community gardens, hikes in nature, and revitalising native plant knowledge.
Johnson's frustration with the U.S. health care system, particularly its focus on individual behaviour change and neglect of systems and environments, motivated the writing of her book. The pandemic has deepened disconnection, particularly for young people, and there is a need to rebuild the skills of being together. Johnson's book suggests that ecological collapse and the breakdown of public health are symptoms of a deeper disconnection from community and nature.
The book concludes by exploring how we might begin to heal disordered systems by rebuilding communities and ecosystems. It's a call to action for a more holistic, relational approach to health and wellbeing, rooted in our connections to each other and the world around us.
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