Archive for May, 2009
Employer Wellness : Nutrition Education
A nutrition education program must include a nutritional needs assessment, education counseling, and referral as necessary.
Educational sessions and materials should include the following information:
• The relationship of nutrition and chronic diseases
• Improving eating patterns
• Relationship of diet and proper weight maintenance
• Exercise
• Stress
• Blood Pressure (BP)
• Cholesterol
• Diabetes and other chronic diseases.
• Nutritionally accurate information [...]
Employer Wellness : Smoking Cessation
It is recommended that smoking cessation programs subscribe to the Code Of Practice for Tobacco Cessation Programs.
Smoking cessation programs must be multi-component with a focus on skills to build positive voluntary behavior change practices. Useful techniques include establishing reasons for stopping, understanding the smoking habit, various techniques for stopping and remaining a non-smoker, overcoming the [...]
Employer Wellness : Exercise Programs
Participatory fitness programs ought to include education on benefits of regular exercise and risks of a sedentary lifestyle, its influence on cardiovascular health and diseases, its relationship with weight management and stress management, and aerobic exercise options. Discussion and practice of safe principles of exercise – warm up, cool down, frequency, intensity, duration, flexibility and [...]
Employer Wellness : Weight Control
Program available is consistent with scientific and health care recommendations for weight loss, reflects a multi-disciplinary approach which offers four components: behavioral, exercise, diet, and maintenance, and is in accordance with the document Guidance For Treatment Of Adult Obesity. It includes:
• Screening to verify that the attendant has no medical or psychological conditions which would [...]
Employer Wellness : Cholesterol Measurement and Education
A program is required to offer appropriate interpretation of blood lipid evaluation results, including a caution that a single measurement neither excludes nor establishes a diagnosis of their blood cholesterol.
Follow national ground rules:
Total Cholesterol
Desirable cholesterol < 200 mg/dl
Borderline cholesterol 200 – 239 mg/dl
Hypercholesterolemia > 240 mg/dl
HDL
Desirable HDL > 35 mg/dl
Low HDL < 35 mg/dl
Refer blood lipid [...]
Employer Wellness : Blood Pressure (BP) Measurement and Education
Appropriate health care or allied health professional trained in measurement of Blood Pressure (BP), referral protocols, and delivering educational messages to attendant delivering Blood Pressure (BP) programs. These programs are necessitated to follow national guidelines.
• National instructions for Blood Pressure protocols:
o Calibration of Blood Pressure (BP) measuring equipment
be done at least each year.
o Two or [...]
Employer Wellness : Employee Health Screening Programs
Health risk assessment programs must be carried out on a one-on-one basis by trained medical professionals. Health risk measures must include the following:
• Blood Pressure (BP) measurements – at least two Blood Pressure (BP) measurements taken during the screening episode, using a mercury sphygmomanometers or regularly calibrated aneroids.
• Blood Pressure treatment status – evaluate whether [...]
Employer Wellness : Effective Programming/General Recommendations
Program directors or providers must have a background in wellness programming and a professional health-related degree or certification. They must have expertise in content areas, planning, promotion, administration, assessment, and ability to grow a program and tailor the program to the workplace.
Program providers ought to have a quality assurance program for evaluating the success of [...]
Employer Wellness : Incentives can be used to expand participation rates, help with completion or attendance at programs, and to help individuals shift or adhere to healthy behaviors. The purpose of the incentive is to encourage employees to adopt beneficial behaviors or maintain an existing beneficial behavior. Everyone who achieves a objective or maintains a behavior should receive something. Many companies also provide rewards and incentives merely for participating in events.
Stay away from being the “best” or doing the “most.” Encouraging staff members to be the best or doing the most promotes excessive behavior, discourages others, and creates elitism. The best designed incentive programs are ones which are based on achieving goals that are attainable by most individuals. Recognition, acknowledgment by top management, or special [...]
Employer Wellness : A major concern in wellness programming is attracting workers to participate and maximizing participation. When introducing a program, a letter briefly explaining the program signed by the president or CEO is a great endorsement.
Utilizing posters, newsletter articles, and handouts are good means of promoting the program. Other promotional methods to consider are e-mail and announcements at employee meetings. Ask Employee Health Promotion Program Committee participants to recruit participants.
Once the program is kicked off you may want to support an incentive for any employee who recruits another employee to [...]