Daily Wellness

When picking  a program from a vendor you should ask the following questions –

• How many worksites have done the program?

• What types of worker population was the program offered?

• What educational materials are used?

• Will the program meet the needs of employees?

• What are the techniques used to help change behaviors?

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

• How do you market the program to employees?

• What follow-up do you provide?

• How do you make referrals for medical care or other supportive services employees may need?

• How do you know the program works?

• How do you measure participant satisfaction?

When staffing your wellness program you need to consider whether to hire a wellness staff or contract with wellness experts from outside your organization.

Small and medium size worksites do not ordinarily have a wellness specialist on staff. When your worksite is in this category, you’ll need to contract with providers outside your business.

Large companies have a few options. They can hire a staff solely for the wellness program, they can contract with outside wellness providers, or they are able to use a combination of internal staff and outside providers.

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

Wellness Business Staff

Health specialists become wellness specialists when they’re trained in the full range of wellness activities. Wellness specialists are generalists who come from a broad variety of backgrounds and schooling.

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

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

Ordinarily, wellness professionals at worksites fall into three broad categories, wellness screeners, wellness counselors, and wellness instructors.

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

• Wellness counselors work with workers after the screening to help them develop and carry out a plan to reduce their risks and improve their health.

• Wellness instructors teach courses and minigroups on different health topics.

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

When selecting  staff or selecting  among wellness businesses, ask the following questions –

• Do prospective employees have a range of health backgrounds that will provide appropriate expertise in the topics to be addressed?

• Have prospective staff members functioned well as wellness screeners, wellness counselors, and/or wellness instructors?

• Will this staff include individuals  from the racial and ethnic backgrounds found in your employee population?

• 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?

• Do staff members have a warm, but professional, counseling style when interacting with employees?

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

Some organizations pick to follow a National Health Observances calendar which offers advantages. the materials developed by these various national health organizations are very credible. the materials are typically high quality and available free or at a nominal cost.

The corporation 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 Wellness Resource Planning Guide available for free at this Web site.

A Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal}  is sometimes used paired with a health testing. an 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 illness and quantifies the probable impact for each individual.

An HRA instrument is derived from an understanding of the in a illness. Based on this understanding, useful prediction instruments can be constructed to assess the health risks of an individual. Individuals with a higher number of health risks tend to have more serious medical problems over time.

Drawing attention to their health risks can help clients 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 is vital to obtain direct measures of blood pressure, cholesterol and HDL-cholesterol. the 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 (assessment|appraisal} is much greater when it’s 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 can 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 types of wellness activities utilized by organizations. Continuing research on HRAs is examining the efficacy of this tool.

One of the big benefits of this tool is that it can provide an aggregate group report of a business 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 wellness 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 expert conducting the screening then provides a consultation and helps set objectives with the participant.

The backbone of wellness programming at the worksite is medical testing. It’s the first major activity a business ought to do when first starting a wellness program.

Biometric testing is often used combined with the administration of a Health Risk (Assessment|Appraisal} .

The most effective way to screen is to utilize a health expert 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 acquired 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 improvement programs based on their interests and identified health risks.

Health screening can be done annually and used as a means of monitoring health risks within the worksite.

A medical screening program needs to provide multiple opportunities for participation. the service ought to be provided for all the various shifts of a corporation. the screening program ought to be conducted in highly visible areas so the process could be observed.

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

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 management producing support for further programming.

Goals are broad-based statements about what the program is expected to do. the goal of the wellness program is to enhance the health of the individual and the organization. Goals like mission statements provide direction in a program.   

Goals are specific and provide a means of measurement of the program to determine effectiveness. There are two kinds of goals, process and outcome.    

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

Examples of process goals are –

• Number of participants screened

• Number of participants in and completing health improvement programs

• Satisfaction of program participants

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

• Number of promotional activities

• Number of participants seen in follow-up

Example of outcome goals are –

• Number of participants who improved fitness level

• Number of participants who decreased cholesterol level

• Number of participants who lost weight, body fat

• Number of participants who quit use of tobacco

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

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

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

Wellness committees are important in that they develop a sense of ownership in the program, and facilitate various tasks involved in wellness programming at the workplace.

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

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

The wellness committee is made up of workers from the workplace. It oversees the wellness 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 program is just starting, the committee may meet each week until things get going.

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

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

Planning the programs can include –

• Finding space for activities

• Planning and organizing worksite-wide events like contests

• Analyzing reports prepared by the program staff and making recommendations

Promoting the program can include –

• Recruiting staff members to participate in screening and health improvement programs

• Encouraging workers to participate in follow-up counseling

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

Helping to run the program can include –

• Setting up equipment for various activities

• Assisting to conduct worksite-wide activities

• Monitoring all activities and analyzing  the performance of the specialist staff

• Acting as wellness mentors to fellow staff members

The size of the wellness committee will be dependent on the size of the organization. Choose members by asking day management to nominate or appoint staff members.

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 participate in programs at a reduced cost. Hold appreciation breakfasts/lunches/dinners.

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

Purchase 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 may be used as a guide for committee size –    

• Less than 300 employees   2 to 4

• 300 to 1,000 employees   4 to 6

• 1,000 staff members or more   6 to 12

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

It includes coworker support from family, friends, and coworkers. This support can help one adopt healthy lifestyles. Tools are available to audit a corporation.

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

Some healthful culture signs in a company are –

• Workers communicate openly

• Leaders support diversity and opinion

• Staff Members have fun

• Policies support wellness

• Employees are encouraged to grow

• Employees work together as a team

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

• Flexible work schedules are available

• Corporations consider workers as their most asset

Effective wellness programs attempt to create healthy workplace climates. A healthy workplace 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.

• Effective programs identify ways that company policies and organizational traditions encourage wellness.

• Effective programs work at the group and organizational level to build support for healthful lifestyle options.

• Effective programs set clear target objectives and objectives for the health betterment of the worksite.