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By: David Lewis | Published: July 28, 2026 | 
5 Min
Key Takeaways:
- Americans are among the most stressed people in the world, with nearly half reporting significant daily stress, with those in lower socioeconomic brackets hit the hardest.
- Stress and poor upstream drivers of health reinforce each other in a self-perpetuating cycle.
- Whole person care breaks that cycle by coordinating healthcare providers and social services around the complete needs of the individual, rather than treating symptoms in isolation.
- Case management platforms like CaseWorthy make whole person care operationally possible by enabling cross-program data sharing and coordination across health and human services providers.
Stress and Its Aggrevators
When was the last time you felt stressed?
Stress is an important and valuable part of the human experience. It can help us think more clearly, motivate us to complete difficult tasks, and give us the energy to follow through. However, too much stress can quickly become detrimental to our health. In fact, many (if not most) health issues are greatly exacerbated by both short – and long-term stress.
Interestingly, Americans are among the most stressed people in the world, with over half of all US adults reporting feeling stressed “a lot of the day.” According to a number of research surveys, including the Stress in America National Survey and Gallup’s Global Emotions Report, nearly half Americans report significant daily stress, well above international averages that hover around 35%. Data from the American Psychological Association shows that consistent factors include feelings of isolation and loneliness.
This disparity is even greater among Americans in lower socio-economic brackets. Researchers agree that upstream drivers of health—indicators like access to transportation, low income, chronic illness, and other material conditions—directly increase stress. Likewise, increased stress can lead to poorer upstream drivers of health, creating self-reinforcing and self-perpetuating problem.
In order to help individuals and communities overcome this detrimental cycle, organizations need an approach that addresses the whole person.
The top sources of stress are connected to economic and health factors
Per a 2025 article by The American Institute of Stress, US Adults reported the following sources of stress as significant:
Work-Related
76%
Personal Finances
~66%
Cost of Living
~64%
Health Concerns
61%
Just What Is Whole Person Care?
What exactly does it mean to “address the whole person”?
Whole person care is defined as the coordination between healthcare providers and social services in a patient-centered manner.
Whole Person Care is the coordination between healthcare providers and social services, rather than fragmented service providers addressing individual symptoms in isolation. This approach is designed to bridge the gap between complex health and social needs. In so doing, whole person care can provide patients with personalized, integrated care while simultaneously building partnerships with local programs and better utilizing community resources.
Whole person care is critical in situations where social circumstances are impacting traditional health. For example, a health care provider might counsel a diabetes patient to eat a healthier diet. However, the provider might not know that the patient does not have adequate transportation to access a grocery store or the economic stability to purchase fresh food.
Whole person care can address situations like the one above. By facilitating communication between health care providers and health and human service organizations, practitioners can learn how to screen for social needs that might inhibit health care. They can then coordinate with non-profits and community resources, like a food bank or transportation service, to ensure that the patient has the tools to follow prescriptions and regain their health.
Caring for the Whole Person
Whole person care is critical to address individual as well as community stress.
Stress can come from anything and often compounds from a variety of sources. Without whole person care, a health practitioner or social service worker is likely only addressing source of stress. Until the whole is addressed, the inverse relationship of stress and poor social determinants of health will continue to thrive.
While the benefits of whole person care are clear, the implementation can often seem complicated. Indeed, coordinating health and social services is no simple feat. It requires communication, integration, and infrastructure, much of which needs to be built from the ground up. Although it may seem intimidating, research shows that the payoff is more than worthwhile: whole person care is really what it takes to make effective, lasting change among the people you serve.
So how do you get started?
One of the best ways to begin implementing whole person care is through powerful case management. Case management platforms like CaseWorthy streamline coordination between organizations and make whole person care possible. Through sharing data and allowing cross-program tracking, CaseWorthy helps social workers, psychologists, volunteers, health professionals, and other providers ensure that the upstream drivers of health are being met and individuals are receiving all the help they need, either through your program or another community initiative.
While stress has a debilitating effect on health and well-being, it has a cause and this cause can be addressed. Through whole person care, health and human services can better alleviate adverse stress, helping individuals and communities achieve a higher quality of life and improve population health.
About the Author
David Lewis
VP of Industry Leadership
As Vice President of Industry Leadership at CaseWorthy, David partners with communities to leverage the power of technology in addressing complex social and health services needs. Drawing upon extensive experience integrating policy and governance best practices with innovative technological strategies, David focuses on creating solutions that elevate service delivery and produce measurable, lasting outcomes. His commitment centers around supporting and empowering vulnerable populations, ensuring technology acts as a bridge to greater equity, access, and impact across the social and health sectors.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is whole person care?
Whole person care is the coordinated approach between healthcare providers and social service organizations to address a patient’s complete health and social needs together, rather than treating individual symptoms in isolation. The goal is personalized, integrated care that accounts for the full range of factors affecting a person’s well-being.
Why is stress such a significant issue for human services organizations to address?
Stress is both a cause and a consequence of poor upstream drivers of health. Factors like low income, lack of transportation, and chronic illness drive stress levels up, and elevated stress makes those same conditions worse. For human services organizations, this means addressing stress requires looking beyond individual symptoms to the broader circumstances of a person’s life.
How does whole person care differ from traditional healthcare or social services?
Traditional approaches tend to treat health and social needs separately, with providers addressing whatever falls within their specific scope. Whole person care bridges that gap by facilitating communication between healthcare providers and community organizations, so a doctor treating a chronic condition can also connect a patient to a food bank, transportation service, or financial assistance program.
How can technology support whole person care?
Case management platforms enable whole person care by allowing organizations to share data, track individuals across programs, and coordinate services without requiring separate intake processes at every provider. This gives social workers, health professionals, and community organizations a shared view of a person’s needs and ensures that nothing falls through the cracks.
