Safety

Human life continually involves conditions that can cause injury, exploitation, loss or other forms of harm. Safety concerns how risks are recognized, avoided, reduced and responded to---and how much protection is supplied before the individual has to act. Saf

HUMAN CAPACITY

Safety

Safety depends both on environmental conditions and on capacities for recognizing risk, seeking protection and responding to harm.

red and white lighthouse beside green wall

The domain includes recognizing risk, protecting against harm, reaching safer conditions and seeking help. Yet risk is radically context-dependent. The capacities required in a stable environment are different from those required under violence, disaster, dangerous work or institutional neglect.

That makes safety a clear example of why person and environment cannot be collapsed. A person can possess strong risk-recognition and protective capacities while living in conditions that remain unsafe. Conversely, highly protective environments can reduce the amount of personal safety management that has to be carried by the individual.

Evidence & scientific lineage

World Health Organization. Social determinants of health. Conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work and age, including access to power, money and resources. WHO — Social determinants of health

World Health Organization. International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Contextual framework for functioning and disability, including environmental factors. WHO ICF