Community Wellness Vocabulary
Community: A group of people who are linked by social ties or geography.
Influence: A power to affect persons or events.
Heredity: The passing of traits from parent to offspring.
Wellness: The condition of good physical and mental health, especially when maintained by proper diet, exercise, habits and healthy social relationships.
Peers: Persons of equal social standing, rank, age, etc.
Culture: The behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic, or age group.
Values: Important principles or beliefs that influence our choices.
“Gut reaction”: A personal, intuitive feeling or response.
Communicable diseases: Infectious diseases that can be transmitted from one person to another.
Sexual activity: Participating in sexual behavior including oral, vaginal, and anal intercourse.
Sexually transmitted infections: A whole group of infections and viruses that are spread through intimate contact.
Sexual abstinence: The decision to refrain from sexual behavior.
Contraception: Methods used to prevent pregnancy.
Addiction: Physical and/or psychological need for a substance.
Abuse: Intentional inappropriate use of drugs, repeatedly and willfully using a drug in a way other than prescribed or socially acceptable.
Prescription drugs: drugs you can only get with a prescription from a doctor.
Over-the-counter drugs: drugs you can buy at a store without a prescription.
Eradicate: to eliminate or destroy.
Advocate: a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea.