The Scottish Green Paper: beyond a healthy mind in a healthy body

The Green Paper Working together for a healthier Scotland is a landmark in the drive to improve health, with a vital emphasis on reducing inequalities. It paves the way for a considered approach to building a health promoting society, with a critical reappraisal of the traditional pre-eminence of disease and behavioural topics. Its three action levels - life circumstances, lifestyle topics and health topics - provide a framework for putting an end to unhelpful quarrels over approaches to health promotion and for doing what is best done at each of the three levels. Against the background of the Green Paper, this paper seeks to facilitate a common understanding among all concerned as a basis for the necessary united effort to promote health, calls for a wider recognition of the full scope of health - including well-being, and identifies implications and opportunities in the areas of research and evidence-based action.