Category — Health and Wellness

When choosing  a wellness program from a vendor you ought to ask the following questions -

o  Exactly how many workplaces have done the wellness program?

o  What kinds of worker population was the wellness program offered?

o  What educational materials are used?

o  Will the wellness program meet the needs of employees?

o  What are the techniques used to help change behaviors?

o  Does the wellness program help individuals  move through stages of readiness to make health behavior changes?

o  Exactly how do you market the health promotion program to employees?

o  What follow-up do you provide?

o  Just how do you make referrals for medical care or other supportive services staff may need?

o  Exactly how do you know the health promotion program works?

o  Just how do you measure participant satisfaction?

When staffing your health promotion program you need to consider whether to hire a wellness staff or contract with wellness specialists from outside your business.

Small and medium size workplaces do not generally have a wellness professional on staff. If your workplace is in this category, you’ll need to contract with providers outside your business.

Large companies have a few choices. They can hire a staff solely for the health promotion program, they can contract with outside wellness providers, or they can use a combination of internal staff and outside providers.

When choosing  a provider some key questions in the areas of staff, wellness program structure, process, and effectiveness need to be addressed. Each of these key questions is discussed in the following sections.

Wellness Company Staff

Health experts become wellness experts when they are trained in the full range of wellness activities. Health Promotion experts are generalists who come from a wide variety of backgrounds and schooling.

They could be nurses, dietitians, health educators, counselors, exercise physiologists, or have other backgrounds. But further to their primary training, they know something about all wellness topics, including tobacco use, stress, exercise, and nutrition.

They also know how to engage and support individuals  in making and sustaining health improvements and have good individuals  skills.

Generally, wellness specialists at workplaces fall into three broad categories, wellness screeners, wellness counselors, and wellness instructors.

o  Wellness screeners introduce staff members to the wellness program, take health measurements, collect health-related information, provide initial counseling, and help staff members define for themselves what they need and want in a wellness program.

o  Wellness counselors work with staff members after the screening to help them create and carry out a plan to reduce their risks and improve their health.

o  Health Promotion instructors teach courses and minigroups on different health topics.

A wellness program in a small corporation could be staffed by a single staff individuals who fills all three roles. Bigger workplaces will use different people  to fill these roles.

When choosing  staff or choosing  among wellness companies, ask the following questions -

o  Do prospective workers have a range of health backgrounds that will provide appropriate professionalise in the topics to be addressed?

o  Have prospective personnel functioned well as wellness screeners, wellness counselors, and/or wellness instructors?

o  Will this staff include people  from the ethnic and racial backgrounds found in your worker population?

o  Is each staff member comfortable with the range of backgrounds found in your staff member population, and able to communicate effectively with the various social and educational levels of your employees?

o  Do staff have a warm, but specialist, counseling style when interacting with employees?

An annual plan for the major wellness programs and activities is a useful management tool. This is an excellent wellness committee task. Often an activity and wellness theme per month is offered to staff.

A lot of corporations pick to follow a National Health Observances calendar which offers advantages.  The materials created by these various national health corporations are very credible.  The materials are generally high quality and available free or at a nominal cost.

The business benefits from additional publicity that occurs in various media throughout the community related to the national observance. for planning suggestions you might want to utilize the HOPE Publications Health Promotion Resource Planning Guide available for free at this Web site.

A Health Risk Assessment (HRA)  is sometimes used combined with a health screening.  An Health Risk Assessment (HRA) is a computerized assessment tool which looks at an individual’s family history, health status, and lifestyle.

An HRA seeks to identify precursors associated with premature death or serious disease and quantifies the probable impact for each individual.

An Health Risk Assessment (HRA) instrument is derived from an understanding of the during a disease. Based on this understanding, useful prediction instruments could be constructed to assess the health risks of an individual. Person with a higher number of health risks tend to have more serious health problems over time.

Drawing attention to their health risks can help customers reduce risk factors which lead to the onset of unnecessary illness and subsequent premature death.

The questionnaire covers lifestyle habits (like smoking, seat belt use, and exercise) and physical measures (like cholesterol, blood pressure levels, height, and weight).

For accuracy, it’s crucial to obtain direct measures of blood pressure, cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol.  The Health Risk Assessment (HRA) also provides recommendations and indicates what risks are modifiable. Kinds of measures to assess health risks are discussed under Screening Programs.

The impact of a health risk appraisal is much greater when it is given in-person, with immediate feedback to the patron. This also provides an opportunity to invite the patron’s participation in continuing health counseling and to gain their written consent to do pro-active outreach to them.

A health age may be computed based on the individual answers to the questionnaire and physiologic factors.  The health age may indicate the individual to be younger or older than their chronological age.

HRA programs are one the most prolific kinds of wellness activities utilized by companies. Continuing research on HRAs is examining the efficacy of this tool.

Among the big benefits of this tool is that it can provide an aggregate group report of a organization and could be utilized as an analysis tool.

Detailed information is available from the Society of Prospective Medicine (www.spm.org/desc.html) who publishes a handbook on HRAs.

The most common screening performed in health promotion programs is heart health assessment.

The screening can include a written heart health test, blood pressure (BP) measurement, cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol test, glucose (blood sugar), weight, educational materials specific to diet, nutrition, exercise, cholesterol, use of tobacco, and weight.

The health professional conducting the screening then provides a consultation and assists set objectives with the participant.

The backbone of wellness programming at the worksite is health screening. It’s the first major activity a corporation should do when first starting a wellness program.

Biometric testing is often used in conjunction with the administration of a Health Risk Assessment (HRA) .

The most effective way to screen is to utilize a health specialist trained in wellness screening techniques and counseling to privately and individually assess participants.

This wellness professional takes a brief health history and measures blood pressure (BP) and cholesterol. With computerized cholesterol desktop analyzers, results are obtained in about four minutes.

Immediate feedback, consultation, and educational materials are provided. for those identified at-risk, follow-up appointments could be scheduled at this time.  The whole process takes about twenty minutes per individual.

The screening also provides an immediate opportunity to register participants in various health promotion programs based on their interests and identified health risks.

Biometric testing could be done on an annual basis and used as a means of monitoring health risks within the worksite.

A health testing program needs to provide multiple opportunities for participation.  The service must be provided for all the various shifts of a organization.  The screening program must be conducted in highly visible areas so the process may be observed.

Reluctant staff often like to be able to see what the wellness program is about before they participate. When wellness screeners are not busy, they ought to perform outreach going to areas where staff gather and attempt to recruit staff.

When well-planned and promoted, health testing can attract participation rates of 60 percent to 100 percent. These high participation rates have a positive impact on senior management producing support for further wellness programming.

Objectives are broad-based statements about what the health promotion program is expected to do.  The goal of the health promotion program is to enhance the health of the individual and the corporation. Objectives like mission statements provide direction in a health promotion program.

Objectives are specific and provide a means of measurement of the wellness program to determine effectiveness. There are two types of objectives, process and outcome.

Process goals state the activities that need to occur to achieve a desired outcome.

Examples of process goals are -

o  Number of participants screened

o  Number of participants in and completing health promotion programs

o  Satisfaction of wellness program participants

o  Number of participants who were medically referred and saw their physician

o  Number of promotional activities

o  Number of participants seen in follow-up

Example of outcome objectives are -

o  Number of participants who improved fitness level

o  Number of participants who decreased cholesterol level

o  Number of participants who lost weight, body fat

o  Number of participants who quit tobacco use

o  Number of participants with high blood pressure (BP) who lowered their blood pressure (BP)

o  Number of participants whose initial level of alcohol consumption put them at-risk who are no longer at-risk

o  Number of participants with risk factors who saw their physician and are being treated for high blood pressure (BP) or cholesterol years later

Wellness committees are important in that they create a sense of ownership in the health promotion program, and facilitate various tasks involved in health promotion programming at the worksite.

The committee should be composed of a cross-section of staff members representing various occupations, levels, and subgroups with the business.

A common mistake is filling the committee with the most health/fitness-conscious individuals  in the organization. Don’t rely solely on volunteers to fill a committee. Make sure that your committee members have enough power in the organization to run an effective wellness program.

The wellness committee is made up of workforce from the workplace. It oversees the health promotion program and helps carry it out.

The committee should meet about once a month to review the previous month’s activities and plan future ones. When the health promotion program is just starting, the committee may meet each week until things get going.

Committee members do not carry out medical procedures, counsel patrons, or handle confidential health information. Wellness specialists perform these tasks.

In general, the committee’s duties fall into three areas –  planning, promoting, and helping to run health promotion programs.

Developing the health promotion programs can include -

o  Finding space for activities

o  Developing and organizing workplace-wide events such as contests

o  Reviewing reports prepared by the wellness program staff and making recommendations

Promoting the health promotion program can include -

o  Recruiting personnel to take part in screening and wellness programs

o  Encouraging personnel to participate in follow-up counseling

o  Organizing promotional strategies using newsletters, signs, bulletin boards, computers, and other media available within the workplace

Helping to run the wellness program can include -

o  Setting up equipment for various activities

o  Assisting to conduct worksite-wide activities

o  Monitoring all activities and investigating  the performance of the specialist staff

o  Acting as wellness mentors to fellow workforce

The size of the wellness committee are going to be dependent on the size of the corporation. Select members by asking day management to nominate or appoint workers.

Make an announcement through flyers, memos, and meetings to recruit potential members. Explain the purpose of the committee, duties and responsibilities, and the time commitment.

Recognize your wellness committee volunteers. Allow them to take part in wellness programs at a reduced cost. Hold appreciation breakfasts/lunches/dinners.

Print names of committee members on organization communications about the wellness program.

Buy special T-shirts, caps, and buttons for them. Write letters to supervisors saying that you appreciate the member’s service. Develop awards certificates for members.

The following could be used as a guide for committee size -

o  Less than 300 employees   2 to 4

o  300 to 1,000 employees   4 to 6

o  1,000 employees or more   6 to 12

Effective health promotion programs recognize the importance of building a supportive cultural environment.  The worksite culture includes shared values/heartfelt beliefs about what’s important. It includes social standards of expected and accepted behavior called “cultural norms.”

It includes peer support from family, friends, and peers. This support can help one adopt healthful lifestyles. Tools are available to audit a organization.

The long-term success of any health promotion program is dependent on the corporate culture.

Some healthful culture signs in a organization are -

o  Staff Members communicate openly

o  Leaders support diversity and opinion

o  Workers have fun

o  Policies support wellness

o  Employees are encouraged to grow

o  Workers work together as a team

o  Employees’ skills and talents are matched to their jobs.

o  Flexible work schedules are available

o  Corporations consider workforce as their most valuable asset

Effective health promotion programs try to create healthy worksite climates. A healthy worksite climate is one which encourages teamwork, cooperation, and empowerment of the individual.

People  have a sense of community, a shared vision, and a positive outlook. Policies promote and support wellness efforts within the workplace.

o  Effective wellness programs identify ways that organization policies and organizational traditions encourage wellness.

o  Effective health promotion programs work at the group and organizational level to build support for healthful lifestyle choices.

o  Effective health promotion programs set clear target goals and goals for the health improvement of the worksite.