What’s a Wellness Program?

According to the American Journal of Wellness, “Wellness is the science and art of helping individuals  change their lifestyle to move toward a state of optimal health.

Optimal health is defined as a balance of physical, emotional, social, spiritual, and intellectual health. Lifestyle change can be facilitated through a combination of efforts to enhance awareness, change behavior, and create environments that support good health practices.

Of the three, supportive environments will probably have the greatest impact in producing lasting change.”

Wellness Program –  Action Steps

The process of building a Wellness Program involves –

• Identifying the current health status of your employees

• Determiningthe appropriate programs and interventions to offer

• Promoting and beginning the programs

• Building in motivational incentives

• Measuring the impact

• Revising programs based on evaluation outcomes

It may even include developing policies and procedures that support staff member participation in wellness activities at your worksite (such as flextime).

Steps to Starting a Wellness Program

• Conduct an organizational assessment

• Obtain management support

• Establish a wellness committee

• Obtain employee input

• Develop goals and goals

• Design and implement program activities

• Choose incentives

• Evaluate outcomes

One of the ways the government plans to improve the nation’s health is through comprehensive Wellness Programs.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, these programs might help employees live healthier lifestyles by creating supportive work environments and offering awareness, education and behavior change programs.

Indeed, one of the goals of Healthy People  2010, a set of health goals for the nation to achieve by the year 2010, is to elevate the proportion of staff members that participate in a extensive Wellness Program at their worksite to 75 percent.