Healthy and Happy Community Networks—Building Healthy Communities

Introduced in The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion in 1986, health is a product of people's daily experiences, shaped within the environments where they learn, work, engage in recreational activities, and build relationships. Understanding what constitutes healthy and happy relationships is intricate due to the varied personal and cultural backgrounds, as well as the array of relationship types present in multifaceted communities. The foundation of the healthy settings approach can be traced back to the WHO Health for All strategy and the Ottawa Charter. In alignment with this ethos, the Healthy Cities programme serves as a successful embodiment of the Healthy Settings approach. The objective of a Healthy City is to establish a health-supportive environment, enhance the quality of life, fulfill the fundamental sanitation and hygiene requirements, and facilitate health service accessibility. All are embedded in healthy and happy community networks related to health infrastructures and a commitment to improve the environment and a willingness to involve the social, economic, political and academic sectors. Communities are not just about providing walkable streets and barrier-free access, but about forging healthy, sociable, and happier communities. Leaders, residents and primary healthcare providers should be inspired by the Astana Declaration of Primary Health Care. It encourages the policymakers to respond to the needs of people through building networks in the community because health enables people to live the life they want, making the healthy and happy choice the easiest choice. In this chapter, two major social issues in Hong Kong, the ageing population and health inequality, will be examined. Through these examples, we will explore how community networks can effectively address these challenges and aid in building a healthy community.