Health Wellness ProgramHealth and Wellness Programs and Wellness Program Consulting

Wellness screenings are significant programs to identify chronic conditions in their early stages. Once identified, wellness intervention programs can help prevent a disease from progressing. Working with local hospitals and other businesses, you can obtain information on offering evaluation and intervention programs that might better your employees’ health and save your corporation money in absenteeism, treatment for disease complications, and reduced productiveness. Below are some ideas to assist you in getting started.

Based on your Employee Needs & Interest Survey and the demographics of your workplace, consider offering periodic screenings to find specific health risks such as:

• Blood Pressure (BP) Checks to identify employees with pre-hypertension or hypertension (elevated blood pressure),
• Cholesterol Screenings for total, HDL (good cholesterol), LDL (bad cholesterol) and/or Triglycerides
• Blood Sugar Screenings fasting or non-fasting to screen for possible diabetes,
• Body composition, such as body mass index (BMI) or body fat measures
• Bone density for potential risk of osteoporosis,
• Cancer screenings such as, skin examinations, mammograms, or PSA screenings,
• Vision checks for glaucoma, or visual acuity
• Other wellness screenings depending on your worker population and needs

Your local hospital, organization physician practice, or health department may support assistance. However, if you have workers you may want to concentrate on programs that will keep them healthy instead of screening for early identification of chronic conditions. The focus of your wellness program might be healthy lifestyle practices to lower risk and prevent disease.

In addition to the health screenings, consider offering a Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment to all workers. The Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment will help to identify factors that may lead to additional risks, such as smoking history, stress levels, conception of health, family history, job satisfaction, support systems, and mental health. Often the screening results are included on the Health Risk Appraisal / Health Risk Assessment, which supplies a more inclusive snap shot of health risks. The summary results support the valuable information to plan appropriate interventions.

Workplace Wellness Program Interventions

The key to the success of screenings and Health Risk Assessments / Health Risk Appraisals is the interventions or follow-up programs. The data collected during the screenings increases awareness and often motivates staff members to consider making healthier changes. It’s the follow up interventions that provide the critical reinforcement and assistance necessitated for staff members to actually make and maintain those changes. The interventions are able to include individual follow-up and ongoing counseling, individual or group health coaching on the risk factors, behavior change programs, and/or business reinforcement. Examples include:

• Strategies to decrease Blood Pressure
• Managing diabetes
• Taking care of your heart
• Healthier eating
• Weight loss ideas
• Improving physical activity
• Smoking Cessation

Of course, this is for individual information only. Any follow-up interventions planned by the organization would be based on interest expressed by the employee.

Based on the outcome and your Employee Health Promotion Program Committee goals and objectives you are able to plan the best strategies for your employer and staff members. Consider the neighborhood resources available to provide services, such as health associations, hospitals, medical care providers, and/or public health agencies.