Age equality in mental health: Déjà vu all over again.

Integrated approaches to health, like One Health, address the complex (or ‘wicked’) social, economic, and ecological problems affecting human, animal, and plant health that are embedded in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (). Over the past two decades, as the One Health concept has evolved, the ways human health, animal health and the health of environments (including, but not limited to, plants) are intertwined have become more broadly recognised. Yet, this complex intertwining is difficult to fully grasp. Additionally, given how existing institutions are based around isolated components of One Health, it is also difficult to act on this complexity. Precision about our language can start to help with this problem. In this article, we discuss the authoritative definition of One Health agreed by the One Health High Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP) in 2022 and suggest some areas where it could be more precise, particularly regarding the difference between an environment and an ecosystem. We emphatically acknowledge that the OHHLEP definition was a useful step forward; here, our focus is to try to refine certain nuances. This article evolved out of the first chapter of the SAPEA One Health governance in the European Union report prepared by a SAPEA (Science Advice for Policy by European Academies) consortium, as part of the Scientific Advice Mechanism of The European Commission (). It is worth noting that to ensure alignment with the existing consensus our suggestions were not adopted by the Group of Chief Scientific Advisors to the European Commission. The importance of our contribution is, to a large extent, the nuanced discussion of the consensualised definition, which is what we share here. The term ‘One Health’ was introduced to describe interventions that include closer cooperation between human and animal health, and any other sector that, when compared to single-sector approaches, provides an incremental benefit (i.e., added value through more economically and logistically efficient ways of safeguarding and promoting health) (). While paradigms like “environmental health” and “planetary health” focus on human health and prioritise human interests, One Health is distinguished by its potential to move away from such anthropocentrism (theoretically at least). Therefore, a story of what One Health and what it underlies this article.