Someone to Count On
Applying Wellness to All Aspects of Life
LEARNING OBJECTIVE:
Understand the importance of a wellness program
Determine the effectiveness of a wellness program
Distinguish different components of a wellness program
Design a wellness program
INTRODUCTION:
Staff Wellness programs aim to improve health outcomes for their employees through physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, social, and/or occupational components. Healthypeople.gov and IDEA support the training of staff to address recruitment and retention and what is one way to do this but to develop a Wellness Program. Typically programs begin with a screener survey to identify employee health risk factors and concerns. Wellness programs support healthy behaviors and decrease the likelihood of ‘lifestyle diseases’ such as diabetes, heart disease, or mental health concerns due to inactivity, poor nutrition, or work burnout, affecting employees. Wellness programs are not only important to keep employees healthy and happy, but can encourage participants to incorporate healthy behaviors in their intervention. Wellness programs could look like an employee fitness/wellness challenge, a farmers market in the parking lot at lunch, or a discount to local yoga studios.
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Benefits of Staff Wellness
Lower healthcare costs for healthier, more active employees
Increase productivity
Can reduce the costs of sick leave, health plan, worker’s compensation, and disability insurance
Physically active employees are healthier- lower risk of chronic disease and can increase weight loss efforts
Can inspire behavior changes in employees such as more fruit and vegetable intake, increased physical activity, lower fat intake, reduction in body weight, cholesterol, and blood pressure (Black, 2017)
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RESOURCES:
American University Summary (Nino)
Covid and Health Program Services
Strategies for encouraging staff wellness in trauma-informed organizations